Chapter 678 A Dream of Youth 210
Anyway, they have more than one daughter.
After all, they were genuinely envious of the help Xie Ning provided to Xie Wangzhi and the Xie family.
Finally, the emperor decided to grant official positions to the top three, while the rest would only be granted the title of Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination) and receive awards, to be given official positions when they grew older, or to enter officialdom through the special imperial examination. Then the emperor looked at Xie Ning with great hesitation, not knowing what official position to give him.
The other two were secretaries, while Xie Ning was already a fifth-rank proofreader.
Xie Ning received the emperor's gaze and instantly understood. He bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I have already entered officialdom, but I have never taken the imperial examination. That is why I am going to participate in the examination, so that the young ladies who will be selected as female officials in the future may have something to refer to."
"Now that my talents have been recognized by Your Majesty and the assembled officials, that is enough."
This meant that no official position would be granted. The emperor was very pleased with Xie Ning's understanding and therefore bestowed upon him an exceptionally generous reward.
Throughout the entire event, Xie Wangzhi stood to the side without speaking up for Xie Ning. Only after things had settled down did he step aside to present a memorial, which concerned the matter of training talents by subject.
The first thing to mention is the improvement of textile machinery, which extends to farmland irrigation, astronomy, transportation tools, and war machines, etc.
These all require specialized personnel to study. Xie Wangzhi listed the importance of cultivating professional talent, and then cited classical texts to elevate the status of craftsmen, saying, "According to the 'Guanzi: Xiao Kuang,' scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants are the four classes of people, the foundation of the state..."
It is often said that merchants are ranked last, but in reality, the social status of artisans has always been close to the bottom. This is because the low social status of merchants is only due to their political dislike by the ruling class. In terms of material life, merchants are millions of times better off than artisans.
Moreover, the Zhou Dynasty was more lenient towards the Shang Dynasty than other dynasties.
Another difficult point to overcome in cultivating talent is the scarcity of good teachers.
Many people take on apprentices, and their skills are only passed on to their apprentices. Xie Ning's previous proposal for patent rights only increased the enthusiasm of craftsmen for research, but the imperial court did not establish a special school to train such specialized technical talents.
This memorial was written by Xie Wangzhi and Xie Ning together. It mainly proposed to establish a special school and hire master craftsmen as teachers to train technical talents.
Such vocational schools were not without precedent; they existed in previous dynasties. In their memorials, they simply expanded upon the existing vocational schools of those dynasties.
The current dynasty also had something similar, namely the craft workshops under the Imperial Household Department, but they were too small to be called schools and could not meet the needs.
The memorial also mentioned the importance of awareness regarding experience summarization and theoretical research, suggesting that measures should continue to be taken to enhance the research enthusiasm of craftsmen.
The submission of this memorial quickly sparked a series of reactions, with some in favor and others against.
Xie Ning listened attentively. Although she thought she had considered everything very thoroughly, and it was a decision made after much discussion between the two of them, different people could still find some flaws.
After all, each situation needs to be analyzed individually, and dissenting voices can also help them to make improvements.
The emperor did not immediately approve Xie Wangzhi's proposal to train talent in different disciplines. Instead, he simply followed the memorial and decided to discuss it again later. Training talent was a good thing, but it also required money.
He is very poor now. Since the end of summer this year, he has been spending a large sum of money on military expenses.
Six-petaled snowflakes fall, and auspicious snow blankets the capital.
Xie Wangzhi draped a fox fur coat over Xie Ning before getting into the carriage to go to the Ministry of Works.
Xie Ning looked at the deep and shallow footprints on the snow. This winter has snow, so next year should be a good year.
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