What are the purpose of scholars studying in the Ming Dynasty?

It seems that there is no need to ask this question. The reason why scholars study is not to take the imperial examination and get fame, because if you don’t take the imperial examination and get fame, it will not only be idle for the book, but even your personal life will be difficult to maintain.

This is a very realistic problem, because I have invested too much in studying these days. Not only do I have to invest more than ten years or even decades, but I also have to invest in pens, inkstones, papers, books and even exams. Generally, people don’t have so much spare money, so most scholars are borrowing money to study.

If you can get a fame and fortune, that's fine. Even the lowest-level scholar's fame is of some use. You can be a minor official in the yamen or a rich family as a guest. No matter how bad it is, you can open a private school to teach disciples.

In short, as long as a scholar passes the exam, there is still no big problem in making a living. The so-called "poor scholar" and "poor scholar". Even if a scholar is poor, it is not that he has no food to eat, right?

Question: How many of the six or seven million scholars have fame?

This ratio is very low, and it can be said that it is terrible.

How many scholars in the world have fame and honor? The accurate numbers are difficult to count by the Ministry of Rites, because there are people who die every year and new ones who pass the exam every year, which is too troublesome to calculate. No one has been calculating this accurate number these days.

However, it is probably very simple to estimate.

Generally, the provincial examination and the commemorative examination are 20 to 30, while the Jinshi admitted to the commemorative examination every three years, which means that the juren who participates in the commemorative examination is about 6,000 to 9,000.

Most of these juren will try their luck in the exam. Of course, some people have failed the exam and gave up, and some are old and unable to take the exam.

In other words, these six to nine thousand people are not all of them, and they can only be counted as half. In addition, almost half of them have not participated in the examination.

In this way, the number of Juren in the entire Ming Dynasty during the same period was about 12,000 to 18,000.

The number of Jinshi is even better calculated. Each year is three years, each class is three hundred. The average age for Jinshi is generally around 30 years old. The average life expectancy of this era is less than 60 years old. Even if a person who passes the Jinshi can live to 60 years old, he will probably be able to stay ten classes, about 3,000.

As for the number of scholars, it is easy to estimate that the admission ratio of scholars to pass the exam is roughly 20 to 30, while the comparison of the number of scholars and Jinshi is roughly 1 to 4 to 1 to 6, which means that the number of scholars is roughly 50 to 100,000.

There were millions of scholars throughout the Ming Dynasty, and there were only about one hundred thousand scholars with fame. So, how could the remaining millions survive?

If this problem is put in the past, it can only be solved by them.

The so-called "a scholar is useless". If you read too much, other survival skills will naturally be abandoned. Therefore, scholars who have no fame and fortune usually live a difficult life, or are very poor and poor. This is the true portrayal of scholars at this time.

The reason why Yang Cong was so crazy was that he spent millions of taels to print millions of sets of "Theory of Studying Things to Know" was that he had millions of poor scholars.

The free delivery of "Theory of Understanding and Knowing" was only the first step. Then, he began to fulfill his promise and helped students from the School of Physics to set up factories everywhere and produce various equipment.

For example, spinning machines, weaving machines, blowers, printing machines, embryo pullers, field plowing machines, etc.

These things are amazingly efficient, which is almost ten times higher than the efficiency without a steam engine, but the price is amazingly low, and generally not more than ten taels of silver. It can be said that even if you buy a steam engine without a steam engine, it is not much cheaper than these.

Anyway, he didn't plan to make money, just let the disciples of the School of Physics make money. As for the copper used for building steam engines, he actually hired people to dig it out of the mine. It was not worth much money, so he only invested a little labor fee.

In short, the factory production equipment founded by disciples from the School of Physics is amazingly cheap, efficient and highly efficient.

Such a good-quality and cheap thing is naturally very popular. Not long after these workshops were established, many merchants and craftsmen flocked to them after trying their products, and they bought as much as they can. Some even had to buy more units if they borrowed money.

There is no way, this is how the people of the Ming Dynasty are. If they can make money, they will be sharp-tongued, let alone such things that can make big money.

This is not nonsense. Just like the cloth shop in Suzhou, when it noticed that the demand for cloth in Japan and Nanyang had increased, it tried hard to purchase equipment and expand production, but it increased several times in a few years.

Therefore, there are not many people engaged in business and opening workshops these days. For example, the equipment produced by the workshops opened by disciples from the School of Physics is so good and cheap, and sales are inevitable.

As soon as this sales volume comes, these factories naturally need to increase their output. To increase their output, not only do they need site materials, but also people. At the beginning, these factories were all students from the School of Physics and their relatives and friends to make trouble. It would be amazing to be able to make more than a hundred sets of equipment in a month, but the orders are growing by hundreds of thousands. How could they be busy?

As a result, many such workshops began to recruit people, and the treatment was so good that it was a minimum of a few taels of silver per month. However, there is one thing that if you want to get such treatment, you must go through an exam, and the content of the exam is "Theory of Understanding of the Investigation of Things".

As a result, many scholars' attitude towards "Theory of Investigating Things and Achieve Knowledge" began to quietly change.

At the beginning, although Yang Cong gave away books for free and desperately, almost all scholars could see or borrow them, but not many people really read them seriously. Most people used them for a pastime out of curiosity or when they were fine.

After all, the imperial examination will not take the "Theory of Investigating Things and Learning", so who will really take this book seriously?

After Yang Cong asked his disciples from the School of Physics to do this, many scholars began to pay attention to "Theory of Investigating Things and Achieve Knowledge". There is no way. It is not easy to live these days. A salary of a few taels of silver a month is not a small amount. It can basically allow the family to live a life of food and clothing.

Perhaps, there are still many scholars who are still pretending to be noble and chanting, "Everything is inferior, but reading is superior."

Perhaps, there are still many scholars who disdain for business and opening workshops, thinking that these people are inferior to others.

However, everyone has to live, eat, and dress. In the face of basic living needs, not everyone is stubborn and only recognizes reading. They go all the way to the dark, even if they can’t pass the exam, even if they can’t eat enough or wear warm every day, they still hold the book as a meal.

Even if they want to be so noble, their families can't stand it.

Look at others, read "Theory of Understanding of the Investigation of Things", and you will pass the exam. You can earn a few taels of silver every month. The whole family has good food and clothing, like you, a useless thing, who holds the "Four Books and Five Classics" all day long, but can't pass the exam, and you have to borrow money everywhere to study and take the exam, so that everyone in your family will follow you and get hungry and cold. Are you brain sick?

Not to mention, there are many people like this in the people these days. Scholars seem to be superior to others in front of others, but they are criticized by their own families at home.

For example, in Fan Jin's passing, Fan Jin's father-in-law was a pig slaughter. Before Fan Jin was admitted to the juren, he was still a scholar. However, this guy caught Fan Jin and scolded him, and it was so ugly.

There is no way, who told Fan Jin that he couldn't make money and could not support his family, so his wife would go hungry.

This is reality. Most scholars have to bow their heads in the face of reality. With Yang Cong's actions, the atmosphere of scholars in the Ming Dynasty has gradually begun to change. Many scholars have begun to pay attention to "Theory of Investigating Things and Achieve Knowing" and have gradually emerged from the illusory road of imperial examinations.
Chapter completed!