Regarding a series of institutional changes in the Qing government, as a bystander, Sun Yuanqi often held the attitude of watching the fire from the other side.

For example, the establishment of the Patrol Police Department is roughly similar to today's Ministry of Public Security. Although there are more than 100 households outside the school gate, there is too little oil and water, and it is estimated that the patrol police department will not set up a branch here for a while and a half. There are mostly school workers near the school, not to mention the quality of teachers and students on campus, and there are security guards patrolling daily, in fact, there is no need for patrols.

As for the inspection of the political hall, he couldn't fight with Sun Yuanqi and Jingshi University, so he didn't bother to pay attention to it.

Only the setting of the school made Sun Yuanqi quite concerned.

The so-called school department is roughly equivalent to the current Ministry of Education. Prior to the Wuxu Reform, China's education management and examination selection were mainly handled by the Ministry of Rites. Corresponding to the local level, the province is the study and administration, the government is the professor and instructor, the prefecture is the study and discipline, and the county is the teacher and discipline, all of which are in charge of special officials.

During the reform of the law, there was a proposal to "abolish the imperial examination and build a school", during which in addition to the establishment of the Beijing Normal University Hall in the capital, local primary and secondary schools also sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. The school is a new thing, and it needs to be supervised by the government, and when everything is done, there is no time to think carefully, so he arbitrarily set up the position of "Minister of Management of the Hall of Beijing Normal University" to take charge of national academic affairs. The first minister of management was his uncle and grandfather, Sun Jianai.

After the change of Gengzi Kingdom, the old lady Cixi returned to Luan from Xi'an, learned from the pain, and began to implement the new policy. One of the new policies is to set up a school affairs office in March 29 of Guangxu to govern the national school affairs. As for the Kyoto Normal University Hall, there is a separate general superintendent who is subordinate to the Office of Student Affairs. There were three first ministers of education, but these three people Sun Yuanqi knew each other: in addition to Sun Jianai, there were also Zhang Baixi and Rongqing. Zhang Baixi asked himself for help, and Rong Qing is the current boss.

At this time, the education of the whole country was split into two parts: traditional education and imperial examinations were returned to the Ministry of Rites, and new education was returned to the Office of Academic Affairs. In September of this year, Yuan Shikai and others played a concert, requesting the abolition of the imperial examination and the promotion of the school. The old lady Cixi saw that the imperial examination was like a flower of tomorrow and could no longer adapt to the current development situation at home and abroad, so she pushed the boat down the river and allowed this fold. As a result, the Ministry of Rites has almost no right to govern education, and only the Office of Student Affairs is left alone.

In view of this, the old woman once again ordered: In the future, the provincial school administration will be specially managed by the school affairs, and the performance of the school administration will be assessed by the minister of school affairs, and there is no need to be subordinate to the Ministry of Rites. At this point, the Ministry of Rites has completely withdrawn from the education mouth, and the Office of Student Affairs has become the de facto Ministry of Education, and only a clear statement is owed.

More than 10 days after the assassination of the five ministers, Shanxi Xuezheng Baoxi issued a confession, thinking that it was a bit unjustifiable to use the Office of Student Affairs to govern the academic affairs of all provinces across the country, and requested that the Office of Student Affairs be the school department. Grandma Cixi forwarded this excerpt to the Administrative Office and the Minister of Studies, and asked them to discuss it first and come up with an opinion.

In Sun Yuanqi's view, this is a matter of course, changing the brand, why use the administrative office and the minister of education to discuss? Just write the word "quasi" directly, but in the future, I will take care of my mother-in-law, in addition to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the school department has been added. And I don't know if the new official of the school will take office three fires and deliberately come to find trouble for himself.

The day after Sun Yuanqi saw the news from the "Declaration", Xia Ruifang, general manager of the Commercial Press, knocked on the door of the principal's office.

Sun Yuan saw that it was Xia Ruifang, and hurriedly got up to greet him: "Brother Cuifang, I haven't seen you for a long time, when did you arrive in Beijing?" I should say it before I come, and my little brother should go to the station to greet me."

The last time I saw Xia Ruifang, it was when I went to the United States via Shanghai, and it had been a year and a half in the blink of an eye, and it was indeed "a long time no see". Although they did not meet, because of the copying of the manuscript and the settlement of the remuneration, the two exchanged letters very frequently. Over the years, Jingshi University has published at least three to four hundred kinds of books in the Commercial Press, and there are almost nearly 200 kinds of books in Sun Yuanqi alone

After the greetings were over, Xia Ruifang said with a straight face: "Baixi, the foolish brother has nothing to do but go to the Three Treasures Palace."

"Where are these words? You and I, what is the difference between each other? Please come."

"I don't know if you've seen the excerpts played by Lord Xibao of Shanxi Xuezheng recently?"

Sun Yuanqi was stunned: "I just saw it on the "Declaration" yesterday, didn't you talk about the establishment of the school? What's wrong? ”

Xia Ruifang took out a few pages from his sleeve and handed them to Sun Yuanqi: "This is the full text of Lord Bao's recital, please take a look." ”

Sun Yuanqi hurriedly took it and read it carefully. At this time, I learned that the full name of Bao Xi's recital was "Playing for the Imperial Examination to Run a School After the Stoppage, Propose to Establish a School, and Declare the Statute, Select Three Important Methods, with a School System, and Expect Results, Respectfully Fold with Chen, and Pray for the Holy Examination". Translated into the vernacular, it is to ask for the establishment of a faculty, and in order to achieve this effect, I have come up with three important methods. What are the three most important ways to do this?

First of all, the school teacher should be a civil servant. In Bao Daren's view, the teachers in the provincial schools are all appointed, and if they disagree with the students, they want to resign and leave, which can easily lead to the interruption of students' schoolwork. If you become a civil servant, you won't resign easily.

In this way, it is quite practical for Lord Bao to think about the problem. In the past 30 years of reform and opening up, teachers in primary and secondary schools have not been very frequent in the past. Once it becomes an appointment system, it is to replace thousands of soldiers, especially famous professors in universities, jumping around, it seems that they are rushing to the settling-in fees of various schools, and once the money is in hand, they are immediately ready to jump to the next one, regardless of whether the students live or die

Secondly, unify textbooks. When he originally helped Zhang Baixi compile the school's charter, Sun Yuanqi clearly wrote: "Now the government does not have the ability to compile standardized textbooks in a unified manner, so each school should be allowed to compile its own textbooks, and if there is no violation, it should be able to print and use." Privately compiled textbooks can also be used as long as they are approved by the school and conform to the norms of the textbook. In this way, a legal basis was found for the rationalization of the textbooks of Jingshi University. Zhang Baixi saw it and did not revise it.

In the song, Mr. Ho believes that it is necessary to unify the textbooks. Now, since the state does not have the ability to compile them, it is necessary to collect textbooks that are relatively common throughout the country, have them uniformly examined and approved by the Compilation and Compilation Office, and select the best of them according to the subjects to be used as the study textbooks in all schools across the country. After the establishment of the faculty, we will reserve enough talents and then compile it in a unified manner.

The first is to unify the students' clothing, similar to the promotion of standard school uniforms. There's not much to talk about.

After reading it, Sun Yuanqi knew in his heart: this first point, the first point, the first ..., with the current national strength of the Qing Dynasty, there is basically no possibility of implementation; And it is impossible for Xia Ruifang to come all the way from Shanghai to find herself for this. The key point is the second point, the Qing government not only wants to do it, but also can do it, and it will also cause some harm to Jingshi University and the Commercial Press.

The damage to the Commercial Press, that's obvious. The textbooks compiled by Jingshi University have accounted for more than ninety percent of the sales of the Commercial Press. Once the school department determines that other people's textbooks will be used as the unified books of the national school, the Commercial Press will definitely lose half of its life, and it will be crippled if it does not die

For Jingshi University, the remuneration of the Commercial Press is also a large source of income, and it is a pity to abandon it. Moreover, the school really wants to recommend a batch of inconsistencies in textbooks, and then check them every three or four times, you say, how do teachers teach? How do students learn?

Sun Yuanqi put down the pages and said, "Brother Cuifang, what you are worried about should be the problem of unifying the textbook, right?" ”

Xia Ruifang nodded: "That's right, Brother Baixi, the textbook you compiled and printed is rigorous, hierarchical, detailed in content, and complete in knowledge. From Jiangsu and Zhejiang in the east, to Sichuan and Guizhou in the west, to Zhili in the north, and to Liangguang in the south, all the new-style schools, the ten residences, eight and nine treasures who use our handouts also admit in the excerpts that the various handouts we compile and print are "not treacherous, complex and simple, and quite enough to be adopted".

"Although we are superior in terms of content writing and print quality, we have a huge drawback: we at the Commercial Press are private publishers. In contrast, the lecture notes of several other schools were either written by the Department of Zhili School or printed by the Hubei Government School. If it is reviewed by the Compilation Office or the Division, I am afraid that there will be a lot of cats in it."

Sun Yuan nodded: "I have to guard against it."

Xia Ruifang said: "The result we can accept is that either the imperial court does not approve and maintains the status quo; Either when it is judged, let the gentlemen of Jingshi University participate in it and ensure fairness"

Sun Yuanqi also meant the same. However, Xia Ruifang came this time, and she definitely didn't just want to let herself know about it, I'm afraid she still wanted to let herself achieve this result, right? You must know that your uncle and grandfather, Sun Jianai, are still the Minister of Studies, and they will get the moon first near the water

This matter is beneficial to himself, and the benefits to most students in the country also outweigh the disadvantages, so Sun Yuanqi is very happy to contribute to this matter. Early the next morning, Sun Yuanqi went into the city to pay respects to the boss.

Since the beginning of the year, the elder often feels that his body is not at peace, and he often takes time off to recuperate, often for months. After all, he is nearly eighty years old, and the old man also wants to go home to spend his old age in peace, firstly, Cixi still needs the champion and the emperor to decorate the façade, and secondly, the big family of Shouzhou Sun still needs people to stand in the court, so he can only support it.

It's already mid-October, and the autumn weather in Beijing is crisp, and the old man's health has also improved greatly. When he walked into the courtyard, he was lying on a rattan chair, enjoying the warm autumn sun.

After kowtowing to say goodbye, Sun Yuanqi did not hide it, and explained his intentions, hoping that the old man would nod and agree: either the court will not approve it, or it will be fair during the review.

The old man squinted his eyes, as if he was going to sleep in the warm sunshine, but he didn't sleep, and said for a long time: "You don't want to get involved in this matter." ”。.。