The ancients often said that "a woman's lack of talent is a virtue", but in fact this sentence is only half quoted, and ordinary people are actually wrong in their understanding.
The original saying of this sentence is "If a man is virtuous, he is talented; if a woman is virtuous, she is virtuous."
It is said that "a man's virtue is his talent", which emphasizes that "morality comes before talent" and "morality is more important than talent". This is China's consistent traditional thinking.
If we use the terminology of later generations, it is: if a person is virtuous, the greater his ability, the greater the benefit to society; if a person is unvirtuous, the greater his ability, the greater the harm to society.
The bigger.
This is actually easy to understand. What is difficult to understand is the second half of the sentence. What does "a woman's lack of talent is a virtue"? Does it really mean that the less talented a woman is, the better it is?
There is a saying that "a good wife in the family will cause less trouble to the husband". Can this kind of "good wife" mentioned in the old saying be achieved by a simple reproductive tool? Obviously not. Therefore, the ancients also had "talent" requirements for women.
.
The sentence "a woman's lack of talent is a virtue" is actually the same as the previous sentence. It just emphasizes the priority and emphasizes that "virtue comes before talent". It means to persuade women to take virtue as the priority, rather than to demean women.
, saying that women cannot be talented.
This whole misunderstanding is caused by the misinterpretation of the word "wu" in the word "wucai". In fact, the word "wu" is a verb, which means "originally there is nothing", which is equivalent to "undressing"
The last "Yi" in "Yi" means "you may have talent, but in your heart you think you are nothing".
Just as the ancients believed that modesty is a virtue for men, it is also virtue for women to have no talent - they are talented but do not deliberately show off, this is virtue.
Besides, it’s not that women in ancient times didn’t read. In fact, how many of the real ladies were illiterate? Not at all. The ancients even made up the idea that Su Shi had a younger sister. They also said that Su Xiaomei was eight times as talented as even the great writer Su Shi.
Give her three points, but I have never heard of anyone criticizing the character "Su Xiaomei". As for a talented woman like Li Qingzhao who is really talented, let alone that.
Anyone who often reads Ming and Qing legends and novels knows that in those books there are often plots in which the ladies of the official family have special teachers to teach them how to read. Some of the ladies are even very good at reading and can even learn eight-legged essays at their fingertips. It is a pity that
Without the imperial examination for women, there would be nowhere to display their talents.
This is why Gao Pragmatic emphasizes the "way out".
The "Princess Yongning Charity Fund" has been aimed at poor people since its inception. After all, charity cannot be limited to noble families, right?
For example, Zhu Yingzhen has a younger sister at home, does she need help from charity funds? Gao Pragmatic also has younger sisters, do they need help from charity funds? Don't be kidding.
But since charity is aimed at poor people, the charity must be able to truly help them.
For example, adopting orphans is something Gao's pragmatic mother Zhang likes to do, but almost without exception, the orphans she adopts become maids of the Gao family - don't think that being a maid is "a slave or a maid".
Well, in fact, this really helps people, because they might have starved to death, but now they are the maids of the Gao family. Not to mention wearing gold and silver, at least they can have enough food and clothing, and they can also get married and have children. Human relations
Perfect.
So that’s not helping?
But Princess Yongning had a sudden idea this time and wanted to build a school for girls. Gao Pragmatic had to remind her: It can be taught, but what is the use of teaching it? No matter how well you teach them, their cultural level will not be the same.
Just like me, Gao Pragmatic, she could have passed the imperial examination even if she was released... But so what? She should have starved to death, because she couldn't take the imperial examination.
The reason why ladies study is because their husbands in the future will almost always be scholars, so they also need to have some knowledge. At the very least, they must not be unable to understand everything their husbands say, but they must be able to communicate well.
Take Lu You and Tang Wan, for example. Many people know their love story, so there is no need to go into details here. I just say that after Lu You wrote "The Hairpin-Headed Phoenix: Red Crispy Hands", his ex-wife Tang Wan saw it and wrote a song "The Hairpin".
"Tou Feng·The world is weak". Isn't this harmonious song a great one?
What's more, the first thing the ancients studied was to cultivate virtue. As the saying goes, "The way to a university is to understand virtue." It is believed that a woman who has studied can be more helpful to her husband.
But the premise here is that everyone is a lady. Since she is a lady, according to the principle of being well-matched, her husband's family's conditions will not be bad, so she herself has no worries about food and clothing, and she does not need to study for the sake of "accomplishing literature and martial arts, and having the same goods as the emperor's family"
"go.
To put it simply, they study to be worthy of a better husband, rather than to sell their talents for money.
But the situation is different for the poor girls who need assistance from the Princess Fund. If you teach them to read, they will not be able to marry into a noble family. And if they just marry an ordinary man, for example, a mason, then what she has read will
Books don't have much meaning, so it's better to learn some female celebrities, etc. At least you can do something for the family and subsidize the family income.
As for being a concubine in the family of a noble official... As we all know, there are quite a few famous prostitutes who are good and become concubines, but few of them can truly integrate into the family harmoniously. The reason is that these famous prostitutes are usually both talented and beautiful, and they are easily favored.
In this case, the main wife will most likely not be happy, and once the main wife is unhappy, the family will be in trouble.
The plot of a concubine competing for favor with his wife usually only appears in romance novels, but in fact it is basically impossible. Because a concubine is only a kind of property in the law, and the wife is the owner, and the owner certainly has the right to dispose of her property.
Youdao is to marry a virtuous wife and take concubines and have sex. If you are a concubine, it really doesn't matter whether you are talented or not. Even if you are talented, you will be more feared by the royal wife. And Princess Yongning must not be to provide high quality to the rich and powerful.
My concubine just went to run a school.
Gao pragmatically explained these truths to Princess Yongning one by one. After hearing this, the princess was stunned. It took a long time to come back to her senses and murmured in a low spirit: "I didn't expect that there are still such troubles."
The look in her eyes dimmed and she sighed: "I haven't seen with my own eyes what happened to those refugee women, but there are also many maids in the palace who had to find a way to enter the palace because their families couldn't support them. I once heard that
They have talked about some of the tragic situations back then, and they really want to help a group of poor girls like them. Gao Cheng, I know you have become Wushuang, can you...can you think of a way to get the best of both worlds?"
Gao Pragmatic wanted to roll his eyes, but this move was too disrespectful in front of the emperor. That was because the emperor was his classmate when he was young, but he still had to be a little more dignified in front of the princess.
So he had no choice but to look like he was thinking, and pretended to mutter: "Well... I need to think about it."
Princess Yongning's eyes lit up and her smile blossomed. Just as she said the word "good", she suddenly heard a "gurgling" sound from Gao Pingshi's stomach.
Both of them were stunned.
Gao Pragmatic reacted quickly and said with a smile: "Your Highness is laughing, I came in a hurry..."
After hearing this, Princess Yongning smiled unconsciously and said with a smile: "This is my negligence. Please forgive me, Prime Minister Gao." Then she ordered the eunuch and maid at the door: "Go and prepare a lunch for Prime Minister Gao. There is no need to change it."
If the place is ready, bring it to Chengxi Palace." Then he told the maids the dishes to be delivered.
Chengxi Hall is the west side hall of Changchun Palace. It is generally used for meetings and is obviously not a place for eating. Therefore, Princess Yongning was taken aback when she said this pragmatically and hesitated: "This place...isn't very suitable?"
According to the rules, there is a place to eat, and even if the princess has a guest for dinner, she usually will not accompany her in person, let alone a foreign court official? The so-called order of hierarchy and distinction between men and women, now Princess Yongning obviously does not
If you deliberately avoid it, it would be inappropriate for Gao Qinggang to dine here.
But Princess Yongning turned her eyes away from him and said, "Can't you eat while I'm here?"
"Uh... Your Highness is serious. How could I be like this?" Gao Pingshi scratched his head a little. The temper of the eldest princess was much more unpredictable than that of her brother. She was sad at one moment, hesitant at another, and a little bit irritating at the next. It was really
A woman's heart is a needle in the sea.
Forget it, I can't afford to offend you for this weird temper, just eat here. Anyway, you volunteered to accompany me, and no one will have to chop off my head because of this.
The food in the palace is actually quite average for Gao Pragmatic. It's not that the imperial chef's skills are not good, but because the palace is quite special and the food needs to be available at any time. This leads to the fact that most of the time the food is cooked and served.
A large pot of warm water holds sealed food to keep it warm, which has an impact on the taste.
Of course, Gao Pragmatic ate a lot of this kind of food, so he treated it as if he went to a steamed vegetable restaurant to eat steamed vegetables in future generations, and he didn't bother to care about it. The key point is that the maids and eunuchs in the Changchun Palace were no better than those around Zhu Yijun, and they didn't know Gao Pragmatic's appetite.
, based on the principle of eating as much as possible, I gave him an extra portion of four dishes and one soup.
"Four dishes and one soup" is a characteristic of the Ming Dynasty. It comes from Zhu Yuanzhang's regulations. Unless the banquet is held in accordance with relevant etiquette, even the emperor's daily meals have this configuration. Similarly, the cabinet ministers who work in the palace, including those from the Hanlin Academy
For the newly transferred Mr. So-and-so until he became the first minister of the dynasty, the meal standard was four dishes and one soup, and the standard must not be exceeded.
But Zhu Yuanzhang also has one thing that is both dense and sparse, that is, there is no prescribed weight.
So in front of Gao Jingshi, there was now a plate of spicy rabbit shreds, a braised river carp, a roasted leg of lamb, a plate of freshly fried seasonal vegetables, and the famous Ming Dynasty jade white jade soup.
The "spiciness" of this spicy rabbit shreds does not come from chili peppers - this kind of American product did not exist in Ming Dynasty at this time. When Gao Jingshi ate this dish for the first time, he was a little surprised when he heard the word "spicy", so Chen Ju asked
Later I learned that the method is to "cut into shreds, simmer in chicken soup, add rice wine, soy sauce, green onions, ginger juice, ground Sichuan peppercorns, and soybean flour to make the soup."
That is to say, slaughter the rabbit, peel and clean it, remove the bones and shred it, simmer it with chicken soup over low heat, add rice wine, soy sauce, green onions, ginger juice, and ground Sichuan peppercorns to taste. When the soup is almost gone, thicken it with mung bean starch.
So, the concept of "spicy" comes from ginger juice and ground Sichuan peppercorns.
What was strange to Gao Jingshi at this moment was that these four dishes and one soup were not "ordered" by himself, but ordered by Princess Yongning. However, these dishes were all his favorites, and none of them were particularly greasy.
He couldn't help but murmur in his heart, although the eldest princess may have had some thoughts about him due to her first love affair, but she was actually still young at the time, and she should not be able to pay attention to her dietary preferences...
…
But he didn't have a chance to think too much. Princess Yongning saw that he was hesitant to move the chopsticks and asked with some surprise: "But the choice of dishes was not good?"
Gao pragmatic shook his head quickly and said: "No, no, no, it's a good choice. It's all my choice. It's just that I happened to think of the question that His Highness just asked and had some ideas."
Princess Yongning's face lit up, and she was about to ask more questions, but her words changed: "Now that I have thought of it, there is no need to worry. Prime Minister Gao Gao had better finish the meal first before talking."
Since it was hard to refuse such hospitality, Gao Pragmatic had no choice but to do as he pleased and began to eat in silence.
Princess Yongning seemed to be very interested in him eating, and she sat obediently watching him without even blinking.
Gao Qingshi was obese in his previous life, and later he was motivated to lose weight and achieved success. One of the things he did was to eat slowly and chew everything slowly, which can greatly reduce the possibility of overeating.
But now that he was being stared at by a princess, he felt really uncomfortable, so he had no choice but to speed up and ate three times five times two as a marching meal.
When the maids brought the clean water handkerchief and Gao Pragmatic used it politely, Princess Yongning pursed her lips and said with a smile: "It seems that the high school minister really came here hungry."
Gao Pragmatic subconsciously looked at the table and realized that he had indeed eaten too much. Due to the delayed feeling of fullness, he began to feel full. He couldn't help but smile bitterly, but he didn't know what to say.
Fortunately, Princess Yongning was not displeased and even seemed quite happy. She smiled brightly at him and said, "If you have any clever ideas, Prime Minister Gao, please tell me. I am all ears."
Gao pragmatic cleared his throat, became serious, and said: "If His Highness must let these girls study, I would like to give them a more focused study."
Princess Yongning asked: "How to focus?"
Gao pragmatically said: "Focus on how to be a good wife and mother."
"Ah?" Princess Yongning said in astonishment: "Did you learn this...?"
Gao Pragmatic asked: "Does Your Highness think that good wives and loving mothers are all born?"
Princess Yongning did not answer immediately. She thought for a while before asking: "But, that's not what I meant originally."
"Your Highness must hope that they can stand on their own in the world after studying in school." Gao Pragmatic shook his head and said: "Actually, I support this idea itself, but I have to say that we cannot do this now."
"Why?"
Gao pragmatically said: "Unless His Highness intends to let them live their whole lives as Green Lantern Ancient Buddhas."
Princess Yongning was stunned and frowned: "Why do you say this?"
Gao pragmatic sighed: "I will make a hypothesis: there is a woman who has entered your highness's school and studied thousands of volumes of scriptures. She is very talented, but she can't do anything except reading. She can't be a female celebrity.
She doesn’t know how to manage money, let alone arrange household chores. She only knows how to read... Your Highness, if she gets married to a carpenter, what can she do to help her husband?
If His Highness says that she does not need to get married, how can she support herself? Although studying is good, at most it will mean being a teacher for the women of wealthy families, and they may not be happy with it - after all, there are many candidates who have failed, and there are even more students. These people
After all, my knowledge can be tested, but there is no place to test this woman's knowledge."
Princess Yongning thought for a long time and sighed softly: "But if I just go to the school to learn some female celebrities, then why should I build this school? If their mothers are still here, can't they all teach them?"
Gao Pragmatic smiled and said: "That's why I said there should be emphasis. Female celebrities and so on are just the basics. There are also various 'disciplines' such as etiquette, family finance and so on. You can even add some more tendentious subjects, such as silk reeling."
wait."
Princess Yongning asked: "I can understand etiquette and financial management, but it seems that if you learn silk reeling in the north, it will be of little use, right?"
Gao pragmatically said: "I am just giving an example, because I am vigorously promoting the tussah silk industry in Liaodong, and in many related processes, female workers are far better than male workers. I even spent a lot of energy on this."
Train them. It can be seen that some jobs that are more suitable for female workers can actually be taught in His Highness's school - as long as His Highness really opened this school for those poor women."
Princess Yongning thought for a while and suddenly said: "I think this is similar to your craftsman school, but my school only accepts women, right?"
Gao pragmatic nodded and said: "Your Highness Ming Jian Wanli, it is indeed very similar. However, although this type of school does not sound elegant enough, it is practical enough. If there is such a school, the women who study in the school will definitely be able to find a good husband and have a smooth life.
Live your life.”
Princess Yongning fell into thinking after hearing this, but Gao Pragmatic sighed in her heart: This kind of thing like a women's school is an unprecedented practice. If you don't learn how to run a school like our Jinghua Craftsman School, I'm afraid you will be impeached as soon as the school starts.
You are a princess, and you don’t need to be afraid if you have an emperor brother who loves your younger brothers and sisters.
But I am not afraid of returning. If I really teach the Four Books and Five Classics, I am afraid that not only will I be criticized by the scholars, but the girls who will be taught will not have a way to make a living. In that case, I am doing bad things with good intentions.
It is truly for their own good to build a women's school similar to a craftsman's school, with a name like "Lady's School", to train virtuous wives and mothers with both ability and political integrity.
After a long while, Princess Yongning seemed to have thought about it and suddenly asked: "Just now, Prime Minister Gao Gao said that Liaodong is vigorously promoting tussah silk, so there is a great demand for female workers in this field?"
Gao pragmatic nodded and said: "I said so."
Princess Yongning hesitated for a moment and said: "How about my school be built in Liaodong? I heard that Liaodong has had its own disasters in recent years, and last year there was a hurricane... I think there are many people in Liaodong who need help, and I also
We can make some efforts to accept them into the school, so that they can find a good family after completing their studies."
Gao Pragmatic was stunned: "Your Highness wants to open the school in Liaodong?"
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