Chapter 165: A New Chapter Begins (Zhao Xue Focuses on Her Career)
Chu Siheng became emperor, and Lu Zhaoxue became empress.
After that, the fate of women in the Great Zhou Dynasty began anew.
Lu Zhaoxue did not want to see women confined to the inner courtyards of their homes, spending their entire lives revolving around their husbands and children, wasting half their lives in scheming and dependence within the inner quarters. Therefore, she overruled public opinion and took the lead in advocating the establishment of girls' schools.
She stated frankly that women can also be insightful, can enter the court to govern, and can establish themselves! Chu Siheng greatly appreciated and supported her actions.
Lu Zhaoxue first broke the deadlock in the palace by setting up special examinations for all the palace maids in the Laundry Bureau and the Imperial Kitchen. The exams covered classics, arithmetic, and practical skills. Anyone who passed was removed from the list and promoted to a female official!
From then on, the palace maids who passed the exam were no longer lowly servants at the mercy of others. They could manage the affairs of a palace, receive salaries from the court, and stand upright in the palace.
Once the news of the palace examinations spread, it quickly reached the entire capital.
This unprecedented move initially only sparked discussion throughout the court and observation among the common people. People had been steeped in the old idea that "a woman's virtue lies in her lack of talent" for many years, and most felt that the empress was just acting on a whim. Some stubborn aristocratic families even privately mocked her, saying that this move disrupted the established order.
Therefore, those who volunteered were mostly orphaned girls from poor families, or girls whose families were really struggling and wanted to find a way to survive. Their numbers were few, but each of them had a light burning in their eyes that refused to accept their fate.
The first year's girls' school examination arrived as scheduled. Lu Zhaoxue personally presided over the examination. In the examination hall, the girls, who usually rarely even touched a pen and ink, wrote each stroke with extra seriousness.
On the day the results were announced, although there were few names on the honor roll, each one truly deserved their place.
The top-ranked woman was directly selected to serve as an editor in the Hanlin Academy, becoming the first woman in the Great Zhou Dynasty to enter the court as an official.
Those who ranked second or third in the imperial examinations either entered the Imperial Palace Bureau or were rewarded with fertile land and shops.
Even those who ranked at the bottom of the list received silver and rice from the imperial court.
When those poor orphaned girls, dressed in official robes, presented imperial edicts and expressed their gratitude in the court, when some people actually returned home with their reward money, and when some people earned a stable livelihood through what they had learned in school, those who had previously been observing were finally moved.
Those families with daughters, who were previously worried that their daughters would marry early and suffer mistreatment from their husbands' families, now saw that studying and learning could bring them gold and silver and lead to officialdom. Even if they did not aspire to become officials or ministers, they believed that acquiring knowledge would reduce their future suffering from humiliation. As a result, they all changed their minds and rushed to send their daughters to girls' schools.
In the past, the streets and alleys where people urged their daughters to find husbands were now filled with people sending their daughters to school, and the sound of reading aloud finally reached the inner chambers of their boudoirs.
Every year thereafter, girls' schools in the Great Zhou Dynasty sprang up like mushrooms after rain in various prefectures. Lu Zhaoxue used her own money and petitioned Chu Siheng to allocate funds from the national treasury to help. Schools in various places offered free lessons, and girls from poor families did not need to worry about tuition fees. They only needed to bring a desire to learn to enroll.
Lu Zhaoxue knew that women had different aptitudes and that not everyone was good at classical texts and literature, so she decided to teach them according to their individual talents.
Those who are naturally intelligent and fond of poetry and literature are taught classics, history, philosophy, literature, and practical matters of the court, paving the way for them to enter the court as officials.
If they were not good with writing, they would find another way: invite famous doctors to their homes to teach them medicine, how to identify medicines, administer acupuncture, and save lives.
Lu Zhaoxue also invited skilled embroiderers to teach the women how to embroider landscapes and magnificent scenes. Florists also taught them how to cultivate flowers, and skillful palace women passed on the secret recipes for rouge and face powder to other women.
From medical knowledge to needlework, from flower arranging to makeup, everything was taught without reservation, ensuring that every woman who enrolled could learn a skill to support herself and not have to depend on others.
Some of the girls from the school became female doctors who practiced medicine and helped the poor, traveling through the countryside and streets to treat them and relieve them of the suffering of having nowhere to seek medical help.
Some became imperial embroiderers, and their embroidered works were offered to the palace, attracting wealthy ladies to compete for them.
Some opened rouge shops, and their self-created cosmetics became popular in the capital, making them highly praised female shopkeepers.
Even more outstanding individuals took the imperial examinations all the way to the capital, where they answered questions fluently in the palace examination and were personally appointed as officials by Chu Siheng. They were able to participate in court affairs alongside men, displaying an upright posture that was no less impressive than that of men!
Women who were once confined to their homes gradually found their own livelihoods and gained confidence. Women dressed in plain clothes and holding books could be seen everywhere on the streets and alleys.
Meanwhile, there were also female doctors carrying medicine boxes and walking hurriedly. Their eyes and brows no longer showed the timidity and confusion of the past, but rather a more determined and radiant look. When they mentioned Empress Lu Zhaoxue, they were all filled with gratitude!
The heartfelt respect they held for her gradually coalesced into a powerful force, making Lu Zhaoxue's prestige grow day by day. Even ordinary people would say of the Empress, "Her grace and virtue are immeasurable!"
Chu Siheng had always doted on and respected Lu Zhaoxue. Seeing that this move was beneficial to the country and the people, he fully supported it. He even issued an imperial edict to abolish the outdated custom of widows remaining chaste, stating that "when a husband dies, one should follow his own will; chastity lies in the heart, not in the body."
Widowed women are free to remarry or establish their own households, and no one can interfere with them.
Not only that, he also ordered local governments to set up "Women's Affairs Offices" so that widowed and destitute women could go there for help and the government would assign them tasks according to their skills.
Those skilled in medicine entered government-run clinics, and those adept at needlework entered government-run embroidery workshops. Even those with no particular skills could work in government-run grain shops and schools, earning a stable living without having to endure the scorn of others or the suffering of hunger and cold.
The imperial edict caused an uproar throughout the land, and countless widows who had been bound by the chastity archway for half their lives were finally able to break free of their shackles.
Some found good partners and started new families, while others relied on their own hands to support their families. The once lifeless and desolate courtyards gradually became more lively and vibrant.
From then on, the moral standards of women in the Great Zhou Dynasty rose steadily. Women no longer placed their hopes for life on the favor of men, nor did they pursue power within the inner quarters as their lifelong goal.
Women everywhere say that "self-love and self-reliance bring freedom," and striving for knowledge, skills, and career has become the most fashionable trend among women.
In the stillness of the night, Lu Zhaoxue often stood under the eaves of Chengqian Palace, gazing at the myriad lights outside the palace, and felt a profound sense of clarity in her heart.
Lu Zhaoxue knew all too well how cruel this cannibalistic ancient society was for women.
In the past, women were confined to their small homes for their entire lives. Men were their heaven, the source of their power within the household, and the "arbitrators" who determined their honor and disgrace throughout their lives.
Being favored brings boundless glory, while falling out of favor is like falling into an abyss. The pain is not just about unrequited love, but also about the power imbalance caused by the loss of favor.
If a woman marries the wrong man or suffers injustice in her family, she is trapped in a life of despair.
Lu Zhaoxue once sighed inwardly that there is more to love than just love in the world, but in this chaotic world, love is the most tormenting. The more clearly a woman sees through the ways of the world, the harder it is for her to endure this bitterness of being unable to control her own destiny.
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