Chapter 667: Debate
The teary-eyed expression made Qin Yuan can’t help but beckon, "Come here, come to me."
Xiao Dong obediently sat next to Qin Yuan.
Faced with his aggrieved little face, Qin Heng helplessly scratched his head, while Gu Baoshu hurriedly waved her hands, "How could it be. Xiao Dong, listen to my explanation..."
"Alright, go ahead with your explanation."
Looking at Xiao Dong, Gu Baoshu stammered, "...I..."
Xiao Dong pouted, glanced at Qin Yuan, then whimpered with a crying voice, "You still won’t admit it, just now you said you wanted to do something with Brother Qin Heng?"
Both of you didn’t call me!
When you need me, you call me brother; when you don’t, you don’t even mention me."
These words sounded like a deep-boudoir grievance berating a heartless man.
Qin Yuan bit her lower lip, holding back the laughter rising to her lips.
Xiao Dong paused for a moment, then said, "Look at how Brother Si Yuan never treats me this way, he seriously keeps the medicine powder I made on him. Hmph!"
Praising one while stepping on another.
In other words, you did not treat me right.
Gu Baoshu sighed helplessly, "Alright, alright, I’ll take you."
Only then did Xiao Dong lift his face, his dark eyes full of laughter, "Sister Baozhu, you said it."
Gu Baoshu immediately became bold, "I said it, don’t worry, the words I, Gu Baoshu, say, not even ten thousand horses can chase them down."
"Puh," Qin Siyuan finally couldn’t hold back his laughter.
Gu Baoshu looked puzzled, "What is Brother Si Yuan laughing at? Although Xiao Dong is a bit childish, we give way to him..."
Qin Siyuan hurriedly interrupted her words, "I’m laughing at those horses."
"Hahaha."
The room immediately echoed with cheerful laughter.
At this moment, Shen Changle came in, his round face full of smiles, and said to Qin Yuan, "Madam, Mr. Songshan has arrived, and is outside discussing strategies with the scholars. What do you think..."
Qin Yuan nodded, stood up, and said to the others, "Since Mr. Songshan has arrived, you should each go about your business, I should also go out and take a look."
...
Outside Ranxiang Inn, more and more people gathered, and the notes in the box could no longer fit.
Mr. Songshan stood at the exit of the garden, discussing strategies with several scholars, surrounded by a circle of scholars in the attire of a scholar, all appearing to listen intently.
The Grand Ancestor Emperor of this dynasty had issued an imperial decree prohibiting scholars from recklessly discussing political affairs.
He declared that all military and civilian welfare and grievances could be discussed by officials, virtuous individuals in retirement, aspiring heroes, honest farmers, and skilled merchants, but not by scholars.
All because the Grand Ancestor Emperor, having learned from the decline of the previous dynasty, believed scholars lacked enough knowledge, and that their reckless discussion of state affairs would foster court speculation and show disrespect toward the academic administration officers, corrupting the scholarly atmosphere.
Mr. Songshan, being a virtuous individual in retirement, naturally had no scruples, while the scholars could only listen quietly, daring not to join in vocally.
The scholars and Mr. Songshan were discussing the matter of the Five Cities Military Department cleaning the household and merchant registers for the Empress Dowager’s birthday, during which many people residing in the Capital City were discovered.
One of the questioners said, "The Empress Dowager’s birthday should be a time for national celebration. The people who have been peacefully residing in the Capital City for many years, without committing any crimes, why cannot they stay in the Capital City to celebrate the Empress Dowager’s birthday together? Tonight the city gates will be wide open, and visitors from all directions can enter and exit freely, watch the lantern festival, and observe the grand parade. Yet they are being sent back to their original places of residence, isn’t that going too far by the officials?"
Many examinees had come to the Capital City for the spring examination, and they all felt that the Empress Dowager’s birthday was too extravagant in stirring up so many people.
Nowadays, it’s no longer like the early days of the Grand Ancestor’s founding, and many people have left their hometowns to seek livelihoods in the state mansions, no longer cooped up in the countryside farming and weaving. In the Capital City, only about ten to twenty percent are native inhabitants, while the imperial guards and military families make up about twenty to thirty percent, and the rest are people who came to the Capital City from elsewhere, including approximately fifteen to sixteen percent originally from Huaiji.
Many present, although not openly agreeing, also secretly concurred.
They were just waiting for the highly esteemed Mr. Songshan to speak.
Answering this question was easy.
But answering it well to satisfy the crowd, without provoking the court, was indeed very challenging.
Qin Yuan, hearing up to this point, couldn’t help but nod slightly and glance at the examinee who asked the question.
This person had a slender build, wearing a dark Daoist robe, with a Yangming Scarf on his head, twirling three strands of his beard under his chin, looking at Mr. Songshan with a slightly challenging gaze.
A few companions beside him had expressions of complacency on their faces.
One had to admit that the person posing the question had some skill, appearing as a trivial matter, yet it was a very capable test of Mr. Songshan’s ability, and answering carelessly could cause annoyance among court officials and be seized upon by opportunists.
However, Mr. Songshan should be able to handle it.
As expected, Mr. Songshan asked in return without answering directly, "May I ask how many classes of people there were when our dynasty was founded?"
The so-called four classes referred to scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants, among which scholars were noble and merchants were lowly.
The Grand Ancestor Emperor believed that the reason the previous dynasty fell was because the four classes grew into six classes, adding monks and soldiers on top of the fundamental four classes of the nation. Thus, he was determined that to maintain the enduring foundation of Daxing, it was necessary to have subjects settled in the order of the four classes, with each keeping to their respective duties.
At the beginning of the founding, even physicians had to stay near the place recorded in the Yellow Register and could not travel far, and all the family’s details were documented in the Yellow Register, with no easy changes.
Military households and artisan households were hereditary, and descendants of the lowly class were lowly for generations, not allowed into officialdom, nor to change status.
Throughout the establishment of Daxing, those transferring from the military households to scholars could be counted on one hand, let alone artisan households, musical households, and subalterns.
Idle vagrants, who did not farm or weave, were reported to the government and relocated to remote areas for farming.
But nowadays, due to dense population and narrow land in Jiangyou, most of those registered in the Yellow Register no longer reside in the registered households, and large families and local gentry in rural areas have annexed land, causing those who couldn’t sustain themselves to migrate to the state mansions and counties for livelihoods.
The Capital City was the foremost place, and in recent years had seen an influx of a large number of displaced people, even with monks and Daoists lingering long in the city for obtaining official ordination certificates, when they couldn’t stay in the temples and Taoist monasteries, they lived in private residences.
This was a well-known fact.
But the examinees couldn’t answer this publicly, so they reluctantly said, "I don’t know, I think the officials should know."
Mr. Songshan stretched his long neck and extended a finger from his sleeve, gently waving it, "I am not talented, but happened to hear that someone calculated it, saying there are now twenty-four classes in the Capital City."
Twenty-four classes?
The crowd drew a sharp breath.
"...This...this is a bit too much..." the examinee retorted, "Although Mr. Songshan is highly talented in poetry, he may not necessarily understand the matters of the people... The Grand Ancestor initially set the civil register to enable everyone to live in peace and contentment. Back then, the four classes of scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants were the foundation of the nation, with scholars at the top and merchants at the bottom. When the four classes were stable, the nation was stable, and when the four classes were in chaos, the nation was in chaos. After so many years, how could there be as many as twenty-four classes, does Mr. Songshan think that the world is going to fall into chaos?"