The fourth topic to be discussed is the issue of education for all.

Gongsun Kang spoke first, he said: "A century-old plan, education-oriented! Here, on behalf of the Liaodong government and the people of Liaodong, I would like to express my gratitude to the old gentlemen who have been silently teaching and educating people in Liaodong. ”

He stood up, dressed neatly, and solemnly bowed to the seats where Bing Yuan, Guan Ning, Cai Yong and others were sitting.

Several old gentlemen hurriedly got up, bowed their waists and saluted, saying, "Don't dare to be, I'm really ashamed." ”。 Although they looked sincerely scared, they were all secretly happy in their hearts. To be respected by others, everyone is happy. What's more, it is the respect of the Liaodong government and the people of Liaodong.

After everyone was seated, Gongsun Kang continued: "Eight years ago, I wanted to carry out universal education in Liaodong. However, due to the shortage of teachers, it has not been implemented. Now, I feel that the conditions are ripe. ”

In the past 8 years, Bing Yuan, Guan Ning, Cai Yong and others have brought out hundreds of students. Most of these students are from poor families, and they went to work as teachers and brought out thousands of students. This is a source of teachers in Liaodong.

Among the many people who fled from the Central Plains states to Liaodong, there are tens of thousands of people who know how to read and write, although not all of them can be called scholars. But there is no problem in teaching naughty children to read. In this era, being a private school teacher is more decent and respected than other professions. So this is also a big source of teachers in Liaodong.

The third source is the military academy. In recent years, dozens of junior military academies throughout Liaodong have continuously cultivated more than 100,000 young people who know how to read and write. These people are not all in the army, and those who are not qualified in physical strength and military skills are eliminated and enter the society, and these people can also be used as a major source of teachers.

In short, tens of thousands of teachers can be recruited as long as there is an open recruitment and only the simple requirement of being able to teach characters of less than 1,000 words.

Xi Zhicai explained the basic methods of popular education to everyone in detail:

The government subsidized the establishment of public schools in each village. Two-year compulsory education is implemented. Each public school requires one teacher and about 50 students. If there are less than 30 students, several nearby villages will be combined for education. The number of students in each public school is limited to 40 to 60. For larger villages with more than 60 students, the number of teachers will be increased.

Only required to teach: words within 1,000 words and basic mathematics.

The age of the student is between 7 and 15 years old, and those who meet the age requirements can sign up for the study.

Only five days of classes are held every seven days, with two days off; They only attend half a day of classes every day, which will not delay them from helping their families with work and farming.

Xi Zhicai emphasized: There is no tuition fee for registration, and the government provides a set of pen, ink, paper and inkstone for free. However, people are not forced to send their children to school, and registration is purely voluntary.

As for the completion of the two-year compulsory education, if the children still want to continue their studies, they will have to go to various private schools for further study.

Deeper education still needs to wait for the further development of Liaodong's economic and cultural undertakings before it can be popularized.

In mathematics, Gongsun Kang has already written a textbook, which is the textbook level of the fifth grade of primary school in later generations.

In mathematics, he invented the ten numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, and Gongsun Kang did not say what Arabic numerals were. He was talking about the number of Gongsun. Among these 10 numbers, the number 0 is an epoch-making invention that has shocked many contemporary mathematicians.

Gongsun Kang wrote a multiplication formula: one by one to get one, one to two to get two. Popularized addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

He also invented the abacus by the way, and after the popularization of education, there may be many poor children who rely on this skill to become bookkeepers and make a living.

Guo Jia also spoke: "I invite all the old gentlemen to come here because I want to ask the teachers to compile a thousand-character text as a textbook for young children to read and write. This is a great event that can be passed down through the ages. ”

At this time, they were not invented, they were not only literacy textbooks, but also instilled some ideas in them. Gongsun Kang did not want to follow these ideas, so he did not mention these three books.

Just let Bing Yuan, Guan Ning, Cai Yong and others edit a simple literacy textbook. The name is a thousand characters, which means that you can know a thousand words.

After doing so much work, it also paved the way for the imperial examination in the future. Only when there are more scholars in the whole society can the imperial examination be conducted. Only then can we give the poor a way out, and only after breaking the monopoly of the wealthy family on knowledge and education can we break the monopoly of the wealthy family on the officialdom.

But this ultimate goal, Gongsun Kang buried deep in his heart, when the conditions were not ripe, he would not put forward the word imperial examination at all.

Compiling a thousand-character essay can be passed down through the ages, and at the same time, it is also the good name of the writer. This is a major event that can be on par with Sage Kong, so Bing Yuan, Guan Ning, Cai Yong and others are very excited. Not only did they agree, but they also rushed to make various suggestions.

After the collective climax, Cai Yong remembered mathematics. As Gongsun Kang's teacher, he naturally made a request and said: "Rende, you just said that you invented the abacus, take it for us to see." ”

Gongsun Kang asked people to bring dozens of abacus, and each of the people present gave one.

He stood up, holding up a large abacus, and demonstrated how to use it on the spot.

The people present are all contemporary scholars and university scholars. Everyone understands mathematics.

Gongsun Kang only explained it once, and everyone understood how to use it.

The abacus file is crossed by a beam, and there are 2 beads on the beam, and each bead is 5; 5 beads under the beam, each bead is 1. This is what was invented for the hexadecimal system. Later generations of people were born to learn the decimal system, so many people do not understand why there are 2 beads on the beam instead of 1 bead. For the decimal system, 1 bead is sufficient.

Gongsun Kang doesn't want to promote the decimal system yet, that would be too big a step. And hexadecimal was the basis for the invention of the computer, and he didn't want to lose it.

Of course, the multiplication formula he invented was based on the decimal system, and it is estimated that after popularization, because of the convenience of the decimal system, it is likely to replace the hexadecimal system more than 1,000 years in advance.

Thinking that the computer of the future might not be born for his own reasons, Gongsun Kang broke out in a cold sweat. It was decided that the coexistence of hexadecimal and decimal systems must be preserved until the day the computer was invented.

Computer data is represented in binary codes, which are said to have been invented inspired by the Chinese hexadecimal system, and it is also said to have been inspired by the Chinese theory of yin and yang gossip.

Perhaps Gongsun Kang thought too much, and later generations could invent computers only according to the theory of yin and yang.