Meng Zhao, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, lived in the official residence outside the Xuande Gate, and did not give another private residence.

When he came home from work, his wife Yu Shanwei had just returned, and the couple happened to bump into each other at the door of their home.

"Going to the Dongzhen Palace again?" Meng Zhao asked casually.

Yu Shanwei's excitement has not passed, and he said with a smile on his face: "Today, the Dongzhen Poetry Society was established, and there are more than 20 women who have joined the club, and Yi'an Jushi is the head of the club. ”

Meng Zhao was a little worried: "There are concubines and concubines of the former dynasty in Dongzhen Palace, and it will not be taboo to associate with them, right?" ”

Yu Shanwei said: "They are all people who have not been regulated, and neither Your Majesty nor the crown prince will be held accountable, so you don't have to be too cautious." I heard that Zhao Huan, the abolished emperor of the old Song Dynasty, was also promoted as a persuading agricultural official. Instead of worrying about the nobles of the previous dynasty, it is better to beware of the officials of the present dynasty. The Wang family in Qin Hui's family was really too enthusiastic, and he tried everything to please me, which made me quite uncomfortable. ”

Meng Zhao said: "Qin Hui is the old acquaintance of the prince, and he is quite talented, so sooner or later he will have to be promoted and reused. The prince asked him to check the land in Xicheng, and this person did an excellent job, and he had cooperated with the local government to dispose of more than one million mu. ”

The couple chatted all the way and walked into the back house together.

Meng Zhao has always been afraid of his wife, and he has great respect for his wife, so he has not taken a concubine and does not dare to take a concubine.

There were already four children, one of whom died, and two sons and one daughter remained.

Now Meng Zhao is not sure about anything, and he will refer to the opinions of his subordinates. If you still feel that there is a problem, you can consult your wife after returning home, and Yu Shanwei can often help him make a choice.

In addition to assisting her husband as an official, Yu Shanwei also has a job.

Zhu Ming made a decision as soon as he patted his head, ordering only three temples to be kept inside and outside Tokyo, but he forgot about the female Taoists and nuns.

Later, after being reminded by the monks and Taoist priests, it was decided to keep two more temples for nuns and female Taoists to practice.

And Yu Shanwei is responsible for supervising and co-organizing this matter, which should be returned to the vulgar and which should be stayed, Yu Shanwei can have full power.

Especially Yaohua Palace and Dongzhenguan!

Dongzhen Temple belongs to the serious female Taoist temple and has a complete Taoist system.

However, the women who voluntarily become monks and cultivators, as well as the concubines and concubines who make mistakes and practice, will be arranged to enter the Dongzhen Temple as female Taoist priests, so this Taoist temple is more special.

If the concubines and sect daughters of the Dongzhen Temple continue to make mistakes, they must be sent to Yaohua Palace to practice.

In Yaohua Palace, there is no Taoist system.

It belongs to the upgraded version of the Dongzhen Temple, if it is the queen mother, the queen level, or the extremely favored concubine, after making a mistake, it will directly enter the Yaohua Palace.

Empress Meng during the Zhezong period has been living in the Yaohua Palace, and now she has been transferred to the Dongzhen Temple.

The Dongzhen Temple was retained, and the Yaohua Palace was abolished.

But as long as there are relatives alive, the convicted nobles can voluntarily choose to return to the world and go back to live with their families, and Zhu Ming did not forcibly manage them.

Condemned noblewomen who choose to continue their cultivation will be regarded as normal female Taoist priests in the future, and they will be allowed to participate in Taoist activities (previously they were not allowed).

Meng Zhao took off his light gauze coat, Yu Shanwei took it easily, and handed it to the maid to take and hang up.

Meng Zhao said: "Your Majesty has given instructions on the division number of the former Empress Dowager Meng. You can keep the Yuqing Miao Jing Immortal Master, but you have to remove the four characters of Huayang Sect Master. When the rank of the Taoist official of the new dynasty is determined, she will also be given a Taoist position. ”

"The officials are merciful." Yu Shan smiled.

The couple didn't know that this decision was made by Zhu Ming, purely out of a good historical impression of Empress Dowager Meng.

Meng Zhao sat on the chair and said tiredly: "The "Da Ming Ceremony", which has been edited for half a year, was beaten back and redone by His Majesty, which is really a headache." ”

Yu Shanwei said: "The official family and the prince are both pragmatic and avoid hypocrisy, isn't the Ministry of Rites compiled according to this way?" ”

"It's not enough," Meng Zhao said, "For example, fasting before the sacrifice, in the old Song Dynasty it was ten days, and Your Majesty changed it to seven days." A lot of red tape has to be changed, or procedures are simplified, or time is shortened. Also, the ceremonies of the national funeral must also be decided. ”

Yu Shanwei said: "This is to summarize the lessons of the old Song Dynasty. ”

The Song Dynasty followed the Tang Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty's "Zhenguan Ceremony: National Compassion" was deleted, resulting in the funeral of the Tang Dynasty royal family being different from person to person, so the funeral of the Song Dynasty royal family was also different from person to person.

Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi brothers, the funeral was extremely simple, but the later emperors of the Northern Song Dynasty were all buried thickly, and the whole folk was also prevalent in thick burials.

Zhu Guoxiang and Zhu Ming, father and son, have just opened the country, and they will set the etiquette of the Ming Dynasty, one of which is to set the royal funeral. As long as the provisions are clearly written, the future emperor wants to be buried, and the minister will have a basis for objecting.

At the same time, the good side of the royal funeral in the Song Dynasty was all retained in the new Ming Dynasty.

For example, the days instead of the months.

If the emperor of the Tang Dynasty died, the small auspicious ceremony was an anniversary sacrifice, and the Song Dynasty shortened it to 12 days; The Great Auspicious Ceremony was a two-year anniversary sacrifice, which was shortened to 24 days in the Song Dynasty. The Great Auspicious Ceremony lasted for three months, which was shortened to three days in the Song Dynasty.

In this way, the ultra-long mourning period of two years and three months was directly shortened to 27 days.

After these twenty-seven days, everyone no longer has to wear mourning clothes for the dead emperor.

At the same time, the emperor of the Song Dynasty did not repair the tomb during his lifetime, and completed the imperial tomb within seven months after his death, and Zhu Guoxiang also retained this system. It can prevent future emperors from building the imperial tomb to great grandeur while he is alive.

Meng Zhao continued: "The changes in the "Military Salute" are even greater, and on non-major occasions, soldiers do not need to kneel to the emperor, they only need to perform the new military salute. Ordinary sergeants are not allowed to kneel to generals, and those who kneel and those who receive the kneeling salute must be severely punished! Those who are issued with soldiers are not allowed to have words tattooed on their faces, but only on their wrists. ”

Yu Shan smiled and said, "The prince really loves soldiers like a son. ”

Now there are people who have been assigned to the army, and before they were mainly assigned to southern Sichuan, and now they are starting to be assigned to the northwest. The main thing is this kind of frontier area, normal migration is too slow, and the distribution and replenishment of the army can quickly enrich the population.

The tattoo on the wrist is to prevent the escape of those who are in charge of the army, and at the same time retain a certain dignity.

Meng Zhao complained, and called his three children to teach them their homework and knowledge.

The next day, I went to work in the Ministry of Rites, and the Hanlin Academy sent a new edition of "The Righteousness of the Rites of the National Dynasty".

This book was edited by Hu Anguo and will be used as one of the books for the imperial examination in the future. Because it's related to etiquette, let the Ministry of Rites also look at it and symbolically ask for advice.

Meng Zhao didn't find any problems after reading it, so he and Hu Anguo donated the book.

Zhu Guoxiang glanced at it and said, "About the Confucian scriptures, you go to find the prince." ”

"Yes!" The two bowed in response.

Since Zhu Guoxiang ascended the throne, the compilation of textbooks has begun.

In addition to the Confucian classics, there is also a book "The Essentials of Civil Affairs". Agriculture, water conservancy, famine relief, economic ...... and so on, a rough and brief overview is given, and you don't need to be proficient in everything, but at least you have to know a rough idea.

This kind of book used to exist, but I didn't read it until after I took the Jinshi exam, and it belonged to the introductory bibliography of officials.

In the future, the imperial examination must be examined!

Arithmetic is also a must, probably at the level of the first and second years of junior high school in later generations.

Zhu Guoxiang also personally compiled a set of primary school textbooks, which were used as reading materials for Mongolian studies across the country.

Cai Jing's government-run primary schools, county schools, and state schools have been ordered to be restored in Gyeonggi, Henan, Sichuan, and Guanzhong, and each prefecture and county must have at least one. However, it is not free to attend classes like Cai Jing, but those who have paid tuition fees can attend classes in the classroom, and those who have not paid tuition fees can observe outside the classroom, and teachers are not allowed to expel poor students who attend for free.

Many low-grade and unqualified officials of the Hanlin Academy were successively thrown to the local area to serve as principals and school officials.

Meng Zhao and Hu Anguo took "The Righteousness of the National Dynasty Rites" to see Zhu Ming.

Zhu Ming opened the quick reading and kept giving instructions with his pen. He did not study the "Book of Rites" deeply, purely relying on his personal thoughts to circle the points, and when he read the "Inner Rules", he directly wrote down six words: the imperial examination does not take this article.

Meng Zhao and Hu Anguo, who were standing on the side watching, suddenly looked at each other in amazement.

What surprised them even more was still to come, and Zhu Ming wrote several annotations in a row-

"This bad habit does not have to be followed."

"This foolishness and filial piety should vary from matter to event."

"This is against the original intention of etiquette, and parents should not go their own way."

"This is a big fallacy......"

Hu Anguo was trembling when he spoke, and admonished: "His Royal Highness the Prince, commenting on the classics cannot be based on personal likes and dislikes. ”

Zhu Ming put down the brush and said: "The wonderful thing about this article is to record the daily eating habits of the pre-Qin Dynasty. How can we do it now? Take this sentence, when a woman goes out, she will hug her face. Looking at today, how many women go out with their faces covered? ”

Hu Anguo said: "Righteousness is righteousness, and secular is change." ”

"You also said that you need to change the power, and since the power has changed, it should be annotated on it," Zhu Ming said, "otherwise there will be that poor pedant and nerd who will do it according to the unreasonable content of the Book of Rites." Or in later generations, learning became rigid, and women were strictly restrained by the "Book of Rites", and women were not allowed to show their heads to meet others. Etiquette is affectionate, if it is not reasonable, it is not polite, and it is not in line with heavenly reason! ”

Hu Anguo wanted to speak and stopped.

Zhu Ming said: "There are still the rules of scholars here, they were not rich in the pre-Qin period, and gruel was also the drink of scholars. When you have a guest in your house, will you use gruel as a drink to entertain you? ”

Hu Anguo said: "No. ”

Zhu Ming also said: "The internal organs of some poultry and livestock are harmful to people and cannot be eaten. That's because the cooking method of the pre-Qin period was insufficient, and now it can't be eaten? For example, chicken liver and duck intestines, "The Book of Rites" says that you can't eat them, and you still use this to restrain the people? ”

Juan Guo said: "You can eat it." ”

Zhu Ming continued: "The scholars of the pre-Qin period, if you have preserved food, you can't eat giz, and if you have soup, you can't eat giz, you can only choose one of the two. It is not only a reasonable combination of food, but also to avoid waste, if you usually eat, will you strictly abide by this etiquette? ”

"No, it won't." Juan Guo shook his head.

Zhu Ming said: "For the constraints of scholars, scholars know about the changes. But for the restraint of weak people such as women, some scholars will take it seriously. Strict with others, lenient with self-discipline, this person's common feelings, can not be described words and long this atmosphere. ”

After the sentence "The son is very suitable for his wife, and the parents don't say it, come out", Zhu Ming commented: If a woman is not guilty of seven examples, her parents cannot come out. Occasional verbal confrontation, it is not disobedient to parents, how can people be obedient all the time?

and annotated after "The son is not suitable for his wife, and the parents say: It is a good deed for me": The twisted melon is not sweet, and it can be judged to be reconciled and divorced as appropriate.

Hu Anguo looked at Zhu Ming's various comments, and he really wanted to delete the entire text directly from the "Book of Rites", because it had been annotated beyond recognition.

Zhu Ming said: "All my comments are retained, and when printing, I can bear the infamy of 'the prince said'." ”

"Yes." Hu Anguo can only do so, and if he is someone else, he can still debate the scriptures, but he really can't argue with the prince.

Hu Anguo sighed in his heart: In the spring of the first year, Wang Zhengyue is really a new dynasty and a new atmosphere.

Not only the "Book of Rites" and the rituals of the new dynasty, but also the names and formats of official documents, all of which were unified.

Even the uppercase numbers, which used to be represented by a variety of homophones, are now officially unified as one, two, three, four, and wu...... If an official dares to scribble, he will be given a warning the first time and his salary will be deducted the second time.

(End of chapter)