What did the scholars at this time in the Ming Dynasty read for?

This question, it seems that there is no need to ask, the reason why scholars study is not to participate in the imperial examination and gain fame, because if you do not participate in the imperial examination and gain fame, not only will you read the book in vain, but it will even be difficult to maintain your personal livelihood.

This is a very real problem, because the investment in reading books in these years is too large, not only to invest more than ten years or even decades, but also to invest in pen, ink, paper, inkstone, books and even examination fees, how can ordinary people have so much spare money, so most of the readers are in debt to study.

If you can get fame, then it's okay, even if it's the lowest level of talent and fame, it will be of some use, you can go to the yamen to be a small official, you can also go to a rich family as a guest, no matter how bad it is, you can also open a private school to teach disciples.

In short, as long as a scholar obtains fame, there is still no big problem in making a living, the so-called "poor talent", "poor talent", although the talent is poor, it is not that there is no food.

Question, how many of the six or seven million scholars are famous?

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

How many scholars in this world have meritorious fame, and the accurate number is difficult to count by the Ministry of Rites, because there are people who die every year, and there are new ones who are admitted every year, and it is too troublesome to calculate, and no one has to calculate this accurate number these years.

However, it is still very simple to estimate.

Generally, the township examination and the general examination are one out of twenty to thirty, and the number of jinshi admitted to the triennial general examination is generally about 300, that is to say, the number of people who participate in the general examination is about 6,000 to 9,000 people in each session.

Most of these people will go to the meeting to try their luck, of course, there are those who have repeatedly failed to give up, and there are also those who are old and can't pass the exam.

In other words, these 6 to 9,000 people are not all of them, only about half of them, and almost half of them did not take the examination.

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

And the number of Jinshi, it is better to calculate, every three years, one session of three hundred, the average age of the Jinshi is generally about 30 years old, and the average life expectancy of this era is less than 60 years old, even if the people who take the Jinshi can live to 60 years old, they can roughly leave 10 sessions, about 3,000 people.

As for the number of Xiucai, it is easy to estimate that the admission ratio of Xiucai to lift people is roughly 20 to 30 to one, and the comparison between the number of lifters and Jinshi is roughly 1 to 4 to 1 to 6, that is to say, the number of Xiucai is roughly between 5 and 100,000.

There are millions of scholars in the entire Ming Dynasty, and there are only about 100,000 famous readers, so how can the remaining millions of people live?

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

The so-called "useless is a scholar", if you read too many books, other survival skills will naturally be wasted, so the scholars who have no fame at this time generally live a very difficult life, or rather, very poor, poor and sour, this is the true portrayal of the scholars at this time.

The reason why Yang Cong is so insane is that he spent millions of taels to print millions of copies of his "The Principle of Knowledge", and the target is these millions of poor and poor readers.

Giving away the book for free was only the first step, and then he began to fulfill his promise to help the students of the Physics School set up workshops and produce all kinds of equipment.

For example, spinning machines, looms, blowers, printing presses, embryo drawing machines, ploughing machines, etc.

The efficiency of these things is amazingly high, almost ten times higher than the efficiency without a steam engine, and the price is surprisingly low, generally not more than ten taels of silver, so to speak, even if you buy one without a steam engine, it is not much cheaper than these.

Anyway, he didn't plan to make money, as long as he could make the disciples of the School of Physics make money, as for the copper used to make the steam engine, in fact, he hired people to dig it out of the mine, and it was not worth much, so he just invested a little labor cost.

In short, the workshop production equipment founded by the disciples of the Faculty of Physics is surprisingly cheap and efficient.

These factories were established not long ago, and after many merchants and craftsmen tried their products, they were eager to buy as much as they could, and some even borrowed money to buy a few more.

There is no way, the people of Daming are like this, the things that can make money, everyone is sharpening their heads and drilling into it, not to mention this kind of thing that can make a lot of money.

This is not nonsense, just like the cloth village in Suzhou, as soon as it noticed that the demand for cloth in Dongying Nanyang and other places had increased, it desperately purchased equipment and expanded production, and the result was several times increased within a few years.

Therefore, in these years, there are not many people who are engaged in business and start the business, and it is inevitable that the equipment produced by the workshop run by the disciples of the School of Physics is so high-quality and inexpensive, and the sales volume will skyrocket.

At the beginning, these workshops were disciples of the School of Physics with their relatives and friends or something, and it was amazing to be able to make hundreds of sets of equipment a month, but this order was an increase of hundreds of thousands, how could they be busy.

As a result, many such workshops have begun to recruit people, and the treatment is so good that it is not good, at least a few taels of silver a month, but there is one point, if you want to get such treatment, you must pass the exam, and the content of the exam is "The Principle of Knowledge".

In this way, many readers' attitudes towards "The Principle of Knowing Things" began to quietly change.

At the beginning, although Yang Cong gave books for free, desperately delivered books, and almost all the readers who sent them could see or borrow them, but there were not many people who really read them seriously, and most people took them for entertainment out of curiosity or when they were fine.

After all, the imperial examination will not test this "The Principle of Knowing from Things", who will really take this book seriously.

Yang Cong asked the disciples of the School of Physics to do this, and many readers began to pay attention to "The Principle of Knowing Things", no way, these days, it is not easy to live, a few taels of silver a month, that is not a small amount, basically can make the family live a life of food and clothing.

Perhaps, there are still many scholars who are still there to fake Qinggao, muttering something in their mouths, "Everything is inferior, but only reading is high." ”。

Perhaps, there are still many scholars who disdain to do business and set up a factory, thinking that these people are inferior and lowly business.

However, everyone has to live, they have to eat, they have to dress, in the face of the basic needs of life, not everyone has a tendon in their brains, only knows how to read, one road to the dark, even if they can't get any fame, even if they can't eat enough and don't warm up every day, they still hold books and eat as food.

Even if they want to go on like this, their families can't stand it.

You look at people, casually read "The Principle of Knowledge", the exam will be passed, you can have a few taels of silver income every month, the whole family eats well and wears well, like you are a useless thing, all day long holding the "Four Books and Five Classics" to read, and the fame can not be examined, and you have to borrow money everywhere to study and catch the exam, so that the family will follow you to starve and freeze, are you sick in the brain?

Not to mention, there are many such people in the people these years, and scholars seem to be superior in front of others, but there are many people who are counted by their own families at home.

For example, in Fan Jinzhongju, Fan Jin's father-in-law is a pig killer, before Fan Jin was admitted to the lifter, he was still a showman, but this guy scolded Fan Jin when he caught him, and he scolded the thief ugly.

There's no way, who told Fan Jin that he can't make money and can't support his family, so his wife will be hungry.

This is the reality, most readers have to bow their heads in the face of reality, Yang Cong such an operation, the atmosphere of Ming scholars slowly began to change, many readers began to pay attention to the "Principle of Knowledge", and slowly came out of the ethereal road of the imperial examination.

After all, the "Four Books and Five Classics" cannot be eaten, and the fame can only be obtained by a few readers, and other readers have to live.

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