Beihai Province and Heilong Province seem to have negotiated something, and they went to the Government Council almost at the same time.

There are many indigenous peoples in the area, and it is difficult to communicate with each other, but the population of each ethnic group is small, and it is obviously unrealistic to ask public officials in the prefecture and county to learn indigenous languages.

In order to strengthen the management of indigenous people, both provinces have asked whether the government council can consider setting up local Chinese language schools for indigenous people to learn Chinese.

If the natives learn Chinese, it will not only strengthen the exchanges and intermarriage between the natives and the government and between different natives, but also speed up their sinicization.

This is a major event involving the naturalization of the indigenous issues of the two provinces.

If the Government Council decides to be fully naturalized, it will need to build a large number of schools, have a large number of Chinese language teachers, and in addition, the financial investment must not be too small.

Huang Liji couldn't call the shots, so he had to report to Zhu Youzhen.

Zhu Youjian looked at the two provinces and decided to discuss them at the court meeting.

According to Zhu Youzhen's instructions, Premier Huang Liji read out the two governors' instructions on the same day.

"Zhong Aiqing, for the requirements of the two provinces, let's discuss it, if you have any good ideas, you might as well say it in public." Zhu Youzhen already had his own ideas, but he wanted to hear the thoughts of the ministers first.

"Back to Your Majesty, the requirements of the two provincial governors, the old minister thinks that it can be implemented, people outside the customs, do not educate, do not understand the words of the sage, it is difficult to obey the discipline of the government, the government must be difficult to manage, and the words of the sage, when the Quartet, can make the four Yi surrender." Kong Zhenyun, who has always liked to speak, is the most respectful of teaching Chinese and promoting the words of saints.

"Master Kong, how much money does it cost to open a school outside the gates, I don't know if Master Kong has calculated it?" Bi Ziyan saw that he was spending money, he was distressed, just now Zhu Youzhen asked him to allocate a huge amount of money for the design and construction of new warships, he was annoyed! Bi Ziyan didn't dare to get angry at Zhu Youzhen, but Kong Zhenyun asked him to take out a large amount of silver, of course he was not happy.

"Master Bi, if you need silver, then the school won't be opened? Isn't it the same to spend money to open schools in the five northern provinces? Could it be that Heilong Province and Beihai Province are not the land of the Ming Dynasty? Kong Zhenyun led the war to Zhu Youzhen, and the compulsory education in the five northern provinces, but Zhu Youzhen single-handedly promoted it, was the top priority of his reform.

Bi Ziyan was really stunned, "Master Kong, the five northern provinces are all Han people, can this be compared with Heilong Province and Beihai Province?" ”

"The minister agrees with Master Kong's opinion," Although Li Chunye does not fully understand the importance of education, he is already a die-hard fan of Zhu Youzhen, "There are many natives in Heilong Province and Beihai Province, and the languages are different, if you want to learn their language well and then communicate, I don't know if you wait until the Year of the Monkey and the month of the horse, and it also requires a large number of manpower, and these personnel also need to pay a lot of money, if you want to solve the problem once and for all, you still have to promote the Chinese dialect in the local area." ”

Kong Zhenyun is overjoyed, today there are finally like-minded comrades-in-arms, "Master Li said very well, promoting the Chinese language, but also speeding up the local sinicization." ”

Li Chunye bowed his hand to Zhu Youzhen: "Your Majesty, Lao Chen believes that to speed up the sinicization of the two places, it is better to open two types of schools, one is a full-day class, so that children can learn Chinese from an early age and accept the influence of the words of the sage, and the influence on them in the future will be deep-rooted; In addition, adult classes should be set up, so that adults can set aside a certain amount of time every day or month to learn Chinese and learn to communicate with Han people as soon as possible. ”

"The minister seconded the proposal!"

"The minister seconded the proposal!"

"The minister seconded the proposal!"

……

Since Heilong Province and Beihai Province are already the land of the Ming Dynasty, all the people should naturally learn Chinese and accept the overall management of local officials.

As for the money needed to open a school, that is a matter of self-discipline, and it will not deduct their money anyway.

In the face of the flood of consent, Bi Ziyan was lonely, he was going to object, but in the end he secretly swallowed what he wanted to say.

"Since all the secretaries agree, then the matter is settled, and Kong Aiqing is responsible for the specific operation."

Operated by Kong Zhenyun, all the natural learning is the words of a sage, and he would never have thought of educating students in science.

Zhu Youzhen also believes that there is no need to carry out scientific education for the indigenous people now, they do not even have their own language, and they are still in the period of nomadism and even fishing and hunting.

The book of the sages of the Han people, for the assimilation of foreign nationalities, has a huge role in promoting, whether it is Mongolia, or the Manchu Qing Dynasty, once they enter the Guannai, they are all proud to master the book of the sages of the Han people, and once these people like the book of sages, they will gradually lose their original wildness, become as weak as the Han people.

Now is the best time for the assimilation of the peoples outside the Guan, who do not yet have a written language and have no way of knowing the past of their own people.

Zhu Youzhen remembers one sentence, but forgets its origin: the best way to assimilate a nation is to cut off its history. Now these ethnic groups outside the Guanxi have no history at all, and often a tribe is a nation, and if they come into contact with the words of the sages and the books of the sages, and are assimilated by the Han people, it will be a matter of course.

Zhu Youzhen had other plans, so he asked Kong Zhenyun: "Kong Aiqing, how long will it take for children who don't understand Chinese at all to learn to basically be able to talk to Han people?" ”

"Back to His Majesty, this matter has not been studied, because the people who usually learn Chinese characters are children who can speak Chinese, and it will take about five or six years for them to learn to be able to read and write freely." According to Kong Zhenyun's experience, in order for children to learn Chinese characters to the level of being able to write freely, they must at least complete the Analects, Mencius, Zhongyong, and University, and have a certain amount of literacy, plus certain grammar skills, before they can freely express their thoughts with the pen.

"Five or six years? Is this still a child who can speak Chinese? It takes at least seven or eight years for children who don't know Chinese to learn Chinese, and those adults who work for a year to learn Chinese may not be able to learn it well for the rest of their lives. Zhu Youzhen is not afraid of exaggeration, the more exaggerated the better, "Zhongqing, is there a good way to shorten the time?" ”

"Returning to His Majesty, there is a way for the minister to shorten the learning time, and it takes about two years for a child who does not understand Chinese at all to learn to be able to express his meaning freely." Officials from the Ministry of Education came out to participate in the performance.

"What is Xia Aiqing's method? Say it, let's hear it. Zhu Youzhen smiled, looked at Xia Rihu deeply, and encouraged him to continue with his eyes.

"Hui Majesty, the minister's method is very simple, if this method is adopted, even the children of the Han people learn Chinese characters, and it will save a lot of time."

"Lord Xia, don't rub it off, you can say it quickly." The ministers urged the summer hu.

"First, teach vernacular Chinese, vernacular Chinese is closer to the lives of the people, convenient for daily communication, if you learn and use at the same time, you will learn much faster, about 2,000 commonly used Chinese characters, you can have daily conversations, master 3,000 Chinese characters, you can write some articles freely."

Kong Zhenyun wanted to open his mouth several times, but Zhu Youzhen stopped him and motioned for Xia Rihu to finish speaking.

"Second, simplify Chinese characters, there are too many strokes of Chinese characters, it is more troublesome to read and write, if it is a work of art, it is good, but as a tool for communication, it is complicated, if you can reduce the strokes of Chinese characters, it is much more convenient to read and write."

"Third, to the Chinese character phonetic, usually learn Chinese characters, are based on the classics, word by word to learn, book by book to learn, children need to remember the pronunciation of each Chinese character in the book, it is particularly difficult to learn, when the minister is sorting out the classics, he accidentally found that if there is a way to note the pronunciation of Chinese characters, then as long as the method of phonetic pronunciation is mastered, the illiterate words can be found to read it, and the child will learn to get twice the result with half the effort."

"Zhuyin? How to phonetic? What kind of phonetics are used? The ministers talked about it, and no one knew what was going on with Zhuyin, but when they heard that it could shorten the study time, they still agreed that it would be much easier for their sons and great-grandchildren to learn in the future.

"Your Majesty, the old minister is against it, if it is changed to vernacular, then how can future generations know the book of sages?" Kong Zhenyun also glared at Xia Rihu, blaming him for such a big matter without discussing it with him in advance.

He is the Minister of Education, and he naturally has the right to speak on the reform of Chinese characters, and he vaguely feels that he can shorten the learning time and accept it, but learning vernacular Chinese and simplifying Chinese characters, then the students, who still remembers the sage books left by the ancestors? Others can not care, but Confucius is his ancestor, and he can't help but fight for his ancestors.

"Master Confucius, the sage book naturally cannot be abolished, and the school will teach ancient Chinese while teaching vernacular Chinese, so that students can realize the beauty of ancient Chinese and the missionary role of sage books. For the books of the sages and the historical classics, they can be re-transcribed in simplified Chinese characters for children to learn. Xia Rihu himself didn't quite understand, he just said Zhu Youzhen's words as they were.

"How long does it take to re-transcribe all the texts? It doesn't cost less money, does it? Kong Zhenyun still didn't follow, but his tone was slightly softer.

"It can shorten the time for children to study, and it is worth spending some money." Zhu Youzhen is basically satisfied with Xia Rihu's expression, and the words he taught him last night can be used in the court today.

But Zhu Youzhen believes that the reform of Chinese characters has many resistances, and if he doesn't help him, he can't implement it at all with the strength of Xia Rihu alone, and helping Xia Rihu is helping himself.

Since we want to reform the written language, we must carry out thorough reform, and learn the vernacular, simplify Chinese characters, pinyin phonetics, and introduce punctuation.

At present, it seems that the biggest obstacle comes from Kong Zhenyun - Confucius's descendants, and he must be made to retreat, Zhu Youzhen took out a note from his sleeve, "Yesterday I received a piece of music, one of the sentences, I don't understand the meaning, can Kong Aiqing interpret it for me?" ”