The newly built Changsheng Academy is in the form of a symmetrical central axis, and is located on the top of the mountain stream.

The overall layout of the college is contrary to the current architectural pattern, it abandons the long and deep form of multiple courtyards, and adopts a more suitable architectural concept for later universities, which is built by many courtyards around an open-air square.

Like an enlarged version of the courtyard, entering from the gate is a shadow wall, separated by corridors on each side.

Passing through the cloister, there are small three-story buildings with about 18 bedrooms from top to bottom.

Each dormitory is built in the same way as an eight-person dormitory, with four wooden beds in bunk beds and a spacious hardwood desk in the middle, ensuring that eight people can write and read at a time.

Personal belongings can be stored in a wooden cabinet against the wall on the right side of the house, which has been divided into different drawers, with copper locks, and each person has only one key.

Each of these three-story dormitories can accommodate 144 people, of which eight have been completed so far, and 12 more are expected to be built, which will be enough to accommodate more than 2,800 students at the same time.

Walking back from the dormitory building, you will find a spacious plaza.

The compacted soil layer was sprinkled with a layer of sand, which was bulldozed by several craftsmen over several days, and then paved with fired stone bricks and poured mortar into the crevices to ensure stability.

Considering that the students are all young people with strong blood and blood, there is also a Keju field in the central area of the square, and all kinds of signs are planned in advance with lime, so that you can come to the next game when you are tired of studying.

In addition, there are many stone tables standing in the corners of the square, depicting the shape of a chessboard, for human use.

The surrounding area is planted with pines, cypresses and willows, full of spirit.

Across the large plaza is a classroom with a plaque hanging from the lecture hall, in which futons and flat tables are used for people to read and study.

In addition, there are also quiet rooms, libraries, self-study rooms, and Taishang halls in the academy, as well as places for practicing or worshiping the immortal deity.

At this time, a few days have passed since the opening ceremony of the college, and more than 1,000 students who have passed the selection have gradually become accustomed to life in the college.

Recalling this selection, many people still feel a little confused.

I still remember that when it was rumored that the head of the sect was going to open a academy to recruit disciples, public opinion in the sect was in an instant uproar.

From eighty-year-old women to young children who have just learned to walk, who doesn't want to get a chance to become a disciple of the Daoist Sect?

Although according to the notice, the head of the sect will only serve as the head of the academy in name, and will not be responsible for the specific teaching work.

However, even so, obtaining the qualification to enter the academy is undoubtedly an increase in the opportunity to come into contact with the head of the sect.

Unfortunately, the age limit alone is enough to deter 80 percent of the church.

The minimum age is 16 and the maximum is 25, and there are about 30,000 believers who meet this condition.

After that, interested applicants will also receive a test paper.

The opening pages of the test paper are simple questions, such as asking them about their education level, family background, gender, level of understanding of Xianzun, etc.

Other than that, the rest of the questions are a bit confusing.

There were questions about Confucian teachings, as well as agricultural quizzes, and questions about how the people felt about the demon invasion and how the people could resist in order to survive.

After these 30,000 test papers were collected, a full 28,000 students were eliminated directly through their family background.

These people came from prominent backgrounds, and their families were either powerful or wealthy merchants.

This is also normal, after all, in this day and age, literacy itself means having a certain social status.

The remaining 2,000 people were much better, most of them were peasant and small landlords, and the most prominent one was only the son of a county commander.

After all, in Zhang Yuqing's presupposition, these people were used as spark and the seeds of preaching to the lower classes of the Northern Song Dynasty in the future.

The purity of this group must be maintained.

Don't ask them to truly sympathize with the bottom, at least not discriminate against the bottom.

Otherwise, even if the knowledge is taught to them, it will be difficult to continue to pass it on to the bottom through them.

In Zhang Yuqing's heart, it is best to have the kind of peasant scholar who knows a few words.

Unfortunately, the number of such people is simply rare.

Even though Bianliang is already the most densely populated city in the world, the number of simple peasant scholars is far from satisfying Zhang Yuqing's appetite.

Careful selection can only select more than 300 people.

These people were the first to receive the admission letter, but in order not to leave the rest of the seats in the college idle, they adhered to the mentality that a sheep is also a herding and a flock of sheep is also released.

Zhang Yuqing has relaxed the scope of admission.

The children of some low-level officials can also come to the academy to study.

Yes, not only men, but also female students are admitted to Changsheng Academy.

At the beginning of the construction, the dormitory building was divided into male and female divisions.

However, the number of women's dormitories is much smaller, and for the time being, only two small buildings away from the men's dormitories are planned, located on the side of the willow forest.

In this way, it was barely enough to make up the whole amount of a thousand people.

The students who received the admission letter were very excited, and according to the guidance above, they prepared their mattresses, dishes and chopsticks, and changed their clothes, and rushed to the academy from all over the country to start their study journey.

In the first cohort, there were only 62 female students.

And each of them is overcoming all difficulties, and because the academy does not charge shackles and tuition, they can make it clear that their parents come to study here.

This also has to take into account the strong religious atmosphere of the Immortal Academy itself, and every student's family is a believer in the Immortal Venerable, so that they can barely make up enough for these dozens of female students.

Otherwise, this kind of precedent-setting co-education would never have appeared in the Northern Song Dynasty.

More than 900 male students were almost stunned when they saw the dozens of smiling women on their first day of school, and many young boys were not married, and they had never come into contact with so many young women of the same generation on weekdays, and their cheeks immediately turned red.

The 1,000 people were divided into 10 classes of 100 people each.

Although there are differences in age, there is no difference in the courses they will receive.

In the morning, students learn a variety of simplified Chinese characters and phonetic transcriptions, and in the afternoon, they take lessons in mathematics and gewu.

The teachers of each class were all on the impromptu line, and in the first few days, they were all taught by the head of the Daozi, and then they turned around and began to teach the students these obscure and complicated knowledge.

Many students looked at the academy professor with two long beards in front of them, and wrote the word 'Changsheng' in lime plaster on the wooden board called the blackboard.

"Teaching, the long words are written incorrectly."

Immediately, someone opened his mouth and pointed out aloud that the upper part of the long word should be three horizontal.

"You're right." The academy professor nodded, put aside the 'chalk' in his hand a little awkwardly, and said, "This font is called 'simplified Chinese'!" ”

"Simplified?"

There was a lot of noise in the classroom, and many of the students were born poor, for whom knowledge was a very precious thing and could not be easily changed.

However, the academy teachers are initiate believers, and although they are over 30 years old, they are in good health, far surpassing these young people.

He just snorted coldly, and the noise in the classroom was instantly suppressed.

The students didn't dare to make any more noise, and they all looked at the academy teaching.

"You and others are all from poor families, and they should know that the opportunity to read and write is not easy to come by!"

When everyone heard this, they all nodded.

"Why is this happening?"

Without waiting for everyone to answer, the academy professor gave a categorical conclusion: "It is precisely because of the complexity and chaos of Chinese characters!" ”

The image of the Taoist in charge of the teachings came to mind, and the academy taught and stood with his beard and learned to teach the Taozi to explain to the students:

"The so-called 'complicated' means that there are many strokes! And chaos refers to the same word, there are a variety of variants! Therefore, it takes a lot of hard work to read through it! ”

Speaking of this, the academy teachers couldn't help but be bitter about this phenomenon.

Speaking of which, before he came here, he was just a bookkeeper in a restaurant.

Because the opportunity for the lower class poor to receive education is very rare, although he has been brilliant since childhood, he can only recognize a few words by stealing from school.

I also taught myself bookkeeping methods, so I mixed up a job in the account room.

Perhaps in this life, I will live a life where I can see the end of my life, and entrust all my hopes to future generations.

It wasn't until the appearance of the Immortal Sect that he finally saw the hope of changing his fate.

He did not hesitate to abandon his belief in the Great Xiangguo Temple and instead threw himself into the arms of the Immortal Venerable.

He has been trying to preach to his neighbors, and finally one day when he was sleeping soundly, he suddenly learned the first part of the health regimen without a teacher, and became a believer at the Taoist level.

In this way, his application for a temporary position in the teaching department was quickly approved, and he was transferred to this college to serve as a college teacher.

Now I finally live a fifteen times a month, a day off every six days, and a day of festivals every year.

But it is far more stable and steady than when I was in the bookkeeping room.

It can be said that in terms of his intelligence, if he had the opportunity to receive education back then, he would definitely be able to avoid so many years of wasted years and get ahead early.

The chaotic thoughts flickered away, and the academy teacher fixed his mind: "Do you know why, why is this happening? ”

When many protégés and students heard this, they all meditated hard but gained nothing, so they could only shake their heads and look at Mr. Jiaoxi.

"This is to maintain the 'scarcity' of knowledge!"

"Scarcity?"

Seeing that all the students were as confused as they were at the beginning, the academy teacher smiled slightly: "Not bad!

Scarcity is to artificially reduce the number of literate people. ”

"To sort this out, you have to understand a fact."

"There is always a limit to the things under heaven, but man's greed is endless."

"Those who have read books and are sensible will inevitably have more greed than ordinary people. And they have the ability to devour more!

If we don't control the speed at which 'knowledge' spreads, then the amount of gold and silver that everyone who has read will continue to decrease! ”

"......" Everyone was slightly stunned, with a slight hesitation on their faces.

Is such a rebellious statement also a truth that can be told in public? ’

Seeing the frightened faces of everyone, the academy professor couldn't help but shake his head and smile, stretched out his hand and pointed to the heavens: "You don't need to worry, you need to know that we are all immortal people, and there are true immortals watching from heaven!" ”

"Even if one of you wants to report it, you have to weigh whether he can afford this great crime against the Immortal Sect! In the future, if you enter the underworld, I am afraid that you will not be able to regret it, let alone talk about immortality, sooner or later your soul will be scattered! ”

Such thorough words from the academy opened everyone's hearts, and the faint sense of mutual wariness that lingered in the classroom disappeared in an instant.

"You and the others are all from poor families, so you can break this truth and tell it to you one by one. The reason why His Royal Highness Daozi wants to imitate Cangjie is precisely to break this 'scarcity'! ”

Hearing this, one of the students immediately asked: "But Jiaoxi, although I have seen this kind of writing in simplified Chinese in ordinary life, if it is written in the imperial examination room, it will inevitably be dethroned." ”

The academy professor glanced at him and said, "What's the worry? Now that you have entered the Immortal Sect, do you still want to follow the old path of such imperial examinations? ”

"This ......"

The man scratched his head, to be honest, there were many people among them who wanted the imperial examination, but there were almost none of them who were sure of gaining fame.

Again, the scarcity of 'knowledge'.

If you want to take the imperial examination, you can't just study hard.

It is necessary to continue to collect the latest examination papers of various subjects and continue to study, but anyone who has a little way will try their best to go to Guozi to study for inmates, or continue to participate in the poetry clubs and literary clubs of various families to accumulate talents and contacts.

This pile, piece by piece, there is no one who does not burn money.

"Now that you have entered the Immortal Sect, you are fortunate enough to worship under the command of the Sect Leader to practice this latest immortal knowledge, so naturally you will not be useless!

As long as you study devotedly, after achieving something in the future, you will not worry about a step into the body! ”

Mr. Xi almost always picked out his words, and everyone had nothing to say.

I had to learn the simplified text word by word.

The next lesson will also be in simplified Chinese, but this time they will have to learn the standard Luoyang Mandarin first.

The dialect of the Northern Song Dynasty was rampant, and the pronunciation of the font was different in different places, so a standard had to be formulated.

Zhang Yuqing also does not intend to go against the tide of the times and insist on promoting Mandarin, since people now take Luoyang dialect as the official standard, then all speak Luoyang dialect to me.

lest in the future, when I preach in various places, I will have to study the local dialects.

There are two classes in the morning, one for simplified Chinese and one for pronunciation.

At noon, the back kitchen of Guanzhong prepared the meal, sent someone to serve it in a large wooden barrel, and transported it to the college, and the students took turns to line up to eat.

After eating, you can rest for an hour.

In the afternoon, classes followed, Mathematics.

This stumped a bunch of Northern Song Dynasty cultural people, although there was already a circulation of "Nine Chapters of Arithmetic" at this time, but since the Tang Dynasty scholars no longer list mathematics as a compulsory subject.

They only learn basic arithmetic as children, but it does not involve deeper theoretical knowledge.

Stay at the level of knowing what it is, not knowing why it is.

After all, everything he learned when he was a child was so sketchy, such as learning clothes and crowns, speech and steps, reading and writing, and even sprinkling and cleaning.

Mathematics, which has the same status, is like daily etiquette, as long as you master the basics of arithmetic.

Now the things we learn at once involve such difficult problems as calculating the area, one-dimensional quadratic equations, storing water while discharging water from a pool, and sharing chickens and rabbits in the same cage.

So except for those students who were originally fond of arithmetic, the rest were all complaining.

However, after tossing for half a month, everyone's mathematical level is also rising.

And finally began to gradually abandon arithmetic and use Arabic numerals to calculate addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Once they became accustomed to this method of calculation handed down by the people of the Western Regions during the Sui and Tang dynasties, they gradually understood the subtleties and overcame the original obstacles, striving to use Arabic numerals to enumerate the formulas in each calculation.

After all, although the calculation chip is easy to use, it is more difficult to learn and use than Arabic numerals.

(End of chapter)