jdhmnovel Chapter 123 Scholar's Welfare
Chapter 123 Scholar's Welfare
After receiving the reply, Lin Chuyi walked into the main hall of the headman's house carrying a bag containing the remaining chili seeds, small change and copper coins.
When the village head saw Lin Chuyi coming in, he happily invited her to sit over.
The village head was previously in charge of maintaining order in the yard. When he saw someone causing trouble, he was prepared to stand up for Lin Chuyi.
If anyone dares to cause trouble in his territory, it means that they do not respect him as the head of the village. It is only right and reasonable for him to step in and take care of it.
Before he could make a move, Lin Chuyi attacked first. Although the other party provoked him first, it was not good to attack. As the village head, he could not sit idly by if he saw it.
So the headman simply retreated back into the house, pretending that he was not there and did not see anything, allowing Lin Chuyi to make an example of him. He did not show up in the second half of the incident and stayed in the house drinking tea and keeping quiet.
Now that everything was done, he could naturally go out, but everyone outside had already left, so there was no need for him to go out. He just waited in the house as dinner would be served soon.
Just now in the room, he told his wife Wang that Lin Chuyi had given him five taels of silver in the morning.
The two of them decided to invite Lin Chuyi and his sister to have a simple meal at their home to enhance the relationship between the two families.
Seeing Lin Chuyi coming in with something, he was not surprised at all.
"I didn't go out for the second half of the trip. Is everything going well outside?" asked the head of the village.
"Thanks to you, except for those few troublemakers, everything went smoothly afterwards."
"That's good."
Seeing that the conversation was about to get awkward, Lin Chuyi quickly brought up the topic he had thought of outside, "By the way, Village Chief, I have one more thing to ask you."
"Oh? What's the matter?" Upon hearing this, the village head sat up straight and his expression became much more serious.
"I want to arrange for several children in my family to go to school. I heard that they need to pay respect to the teacher first. I have no experience and don't know what to prepare. I hope you can help me with some advice."
The village head originally thought it was a big deal, but he didn't expect that Lin Chuyi wanted to ask about this, and his expression suddenly relaxed.
Studying is good. The number of families in the village who send their children to school can be counted on one hand. Is it because they don't want to? No, it's because they can't afford it.
To study in school, one had to pay a tuition of two taels of silver every year, and also had to provide one's own paper, ink, brush and inkstone, which were all consumables, and would cost three to five taels of silver in a year.
In addition, gifts have to be prepared for the teacher during festivals, which is another expense.
It is already difficult for ordinary families to maintain food and clothing, let alone spend a lot of money to cultivate a scholar.
But those who have a little extra money will send their descendants to school, because in this era, taking the imperial examination and becoming an official is the best way for ordinary people to change their status quo.
The emperors of the Great Chu Dynasty valued scholars very much and gave many benefits to scholars with meritorious service.
Take the scholar for example. After successfully passing the examination, he would receive one or two taels of silver from the court every month and a monthly supply of 30 liters of rice, and occasionally fish, meat, oil, and salt.
In other words, after passing the examination to become a scholar, as long as you are not a spendthrift, you will not starve to death even if you do nothing at home every day.
In addition, scholars can meet officials without bowing. If a scholar commits a crime, he cannot be punished. He must first be stripped of his official title before being punished.
These are personal benefits for scholars. There is also a measure that can benefit others, and that is the tax exemption policy.
A scholar can be given a hundred acres of good farmland tax-free. The land does not necessarily belong to the scholar. Other people's land can also be registered under his name, and the scholar can use his tax-free share to reasonably avoid taxes.
In order to pay less taxes, many landlords would choose to cooperate with the newly promoted scholars, exchanging a certain amount of money for a tax-free share, which was also another source of income for the scholars.
If you choose to stay calm after passing the examination for the scholar degree and give up on continuing to take the examination for the juren degree, these two incomes will be enough to make a living.
But such people are only a minority. People always want to move up, and most of those who can pass the examination to become a scholar want to try again to see if they can pass the examination to become a juren.
By the time they took the imperial examinations, the education in ordinary schools could no longer meet their learning needs, so they went to study in more advanced county schools, prefectural schools, or large academies.
The cost is several times that of taking the examination for a scholar, and the probability of passing is also several times lower than that of taking the examination for a scholar.
If you can pass the first few exams, everyone will be happy.
If you fail repeatedly but are unwilling to let all your previous investments go to waste, you have no choice but to try again and again.
Some people still insist on taking exams when they are in their fifties or sixties, but in the end they are only a scholar. Their insistence on taking the exams will also bring trouble to their already poor families.
However, some people would stand out in one exam after another, become a Juren, and obtain the qualification to take the exam in Beijing. They would win the few Jinshi places in that examination hall where many talented people gathered. They would transform themselves from a farmer's son into an official respected by the people, completely changing their family status and bringing honor to their ancestors.
After all, only a few people could pass the imperial examination and become officials appointed by the court, but it was the emergence of such people that gave ordinary people hope.
If they are able, they will send their children to school, hoping that their children can become the next official.
The head of the village had received some education himself, so he naturally knew the importance of reading and literacy, so he sent both of his sons to school.
It’s a pity that they were not good at studying. The eldest’s level was about the same as his, and the second one got a headache when he read. Later, one became an accountant, and the other could only dig in the fields for a living.
The village head didn't believe that there was no one in his family who could read. Seeing that the two older ones had no hope, he set his sights on his grandson.
The eldest grandson is better than his father. When he is in school, he can occasionally get praise from the teacher. When the younger grandson grows up a little, he will also send him to school.
He had never thought of sending his granddaughter to school. It was not because he favored boys over girls, but because he did not have the conditions or the need to do so.
No matter how well a woman studied, she could not take part in the imperial examinations. The most she could do was learn good handwriting and write good articles. These were icing on the cake for wealthy families, and they could earn her the title of a talented woman. But for women born in their peasant families, this skill was meaningless.
When farmers are looking for a marriage partner, they look at whether the woman is hard-working and can manage the household frugally, but no one would require the woman to be literate.
Lin Chuyi just said that she wanted to send several children in the family to school, which meant that she also wanted to send Lin Wuyou to school. Naturally, he would not and had no right to object. After all, she had the money to send her sister to school. As long as both parties were willing, it was fine. As an outsider, he had no right to interfere.