In order to write the Guozijian, I went to the Guozijian for a visit, but I couldn't get the point.I came back with dozens of books from the Capital Library. After reading them for a few days, I was dazzled and depressed, but I didn’t get much.Later, I went to talk to an "old" friend for two nights, and I seemed to understand a lot of things.This friend of mine has worked in the Imperial College for generations, "served" Weng Tonghe, Lu Runxiang, Wang Yan, etc. to offer wine, and held the banner of "No. 1 Scholar and First" for the new champion. Guozijian is the former university.

What this place looked like before, there is no way to know (maybe it was a desert).It was established as Guozijian after the capital was moved to Dadu in the Yuan Dynasty, and it was about 700 years ago in the 24th year of the Yuan Dynasty (1288 A.D.). The relics of the Yuan Dynasty are already difficult to check.There are two old trees that testify to this time: a locust tree and a cypress tree.One is in front of Yilun Hall, and the other is at the bottom of Dacheng Hall.It is said that this was planted by Xu Heng, the first president of the National University of the Yuan Dynasty, Guozijian Jijiu.The cypress trees are still quite stubborn, with old trunks and horizontal branches, whirling and green, and it seems that they can live for another few hundred years.That locust tree is about the thickness of a No. 2 laundry green basin commonly used in the north, with a few thin branches scattered sparsely, dry, stiff, and lifeless. live.It is said that it had already died once, for decades, and somehow came back to life for a year.This happened during the Qianlong period, this year coincided with the sixtieth "longevity" of the Empress Dowager Cining, ho, this is a great joy!So the emperor and ministers wrote poems and wrote notes, and even drew portraits of the old locust tree, all of which were carved on stones, which was really lively.These steles are still there today.

Guozijian is a school, except for some big trees and stone monuments, the main buildings are some university buildings.The scale of these buildings was probably built by Yongle in the Ming Dynasty (roughly based on the Guozijian founded by Emperor Hongwu in Nanjing, but the scale does not seem to be as large as before), and was rebuilt or modified in the Qing Dynasty.Among them, the one with the most buildings was Qianlong, who stood on the peak of the Qing Empire and loved both martial arts and literary affairs. As soon as you enter the gate of the Imperial College - Jixian Gate, there is a yellow glazed archway.The archway is a very large and gorgeous building.This is Biyong.This is the most central and prominent building of Guozijian.This is what Qianlong created.Piyong is the learning of the Son of Heaven.Since the Han Dynasty, there have been different opinions on what the study of the Son of Heaven should look like, and no one can tell.From what it looks like now, it looks like a perfectly round pool was opened on the flat ground, leaving a piece of square land in the middle, and a very grand square hall was built on it, with double eaves, two-story porch columns, and yellow glazed tiles. A huge gold-plated roof, beams, pillars and eaves decorations are all painted with red lacquer and gold, and the color is applied through the engraving, which looks like a big sedan chair.The Piyong Hall has doors on all sides, which can be opened.The pool is surrounded by white stone railings and is accessible by stone bridges on all sides.There are many things to pay attention to in such a pattern, so there is no need to talk about it here.Piyong was built by the emperors before Qianlong, but they all gave up because there was no water (it is said that the learning of the Son of Heaven must have water).When he arrived in Qianlong, he was indeed more ambitious, thinking that "Beijing is the capital of the world, and the education is the first. The lack of grand ceremony is not because of advocating Confucianism and Daoism. The ancient and the ancient and the present and the residence" ("Yuzhi Guoxue Xinbi Yongyuanshui Gongcheng Stele").What does it matter if there is no water!Four wells were ordered to be drilled, water was drawn up from the wells, injected from the dark passage, and sprayed into the pool built of white stones through four faucets (chi heads), so that the stone pool was covered with empty shadows, glowing with sparkles. shimmering.In the second and eighth month, after offering sacrifices to Confucius and Shidian, Qianlong came.The bell was ringing in the bell tower in front, the drum was beating in the drum tower, and sandalwood was burning in the four large incense burners in front of the hall. He walked into the podium, sat on the throne, and lectured on a chapter of "University" or "Book of Filial Piety". The students knelt by the bridge of Shichi and listened. This grand ceremony is called "Linyong".

This grand ceremony of "Linyong" seems to have been held during the Daoguang and Jiaqing years. When it came to Guangxu, according to my friend Lao Dong, there was no such thing at all.The main hall is rarely cleaned twice a year, and the Crescent River (the pools around the Piyong Hall are called four "Crescent Rivers" by the old Dong Guan) is dry all year round. Only after the heavy rain in summer, the rainwater from all over the place rushes here Come inside.The water is stagnant, and the scene is not difficult to imagine. However, Piyong Hall is indeed a beautiful and unique building.Among the famous buildings in Beijing, apart from Tiananmen Square, the blue dome of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests in the Temple of Heaven, and the turret of the Forbidden City with nine beams and eighteen pillars, this big four-sided sedan chair should be counted.

After Biyong, there is a hall in the front, which is the Yilun hall, where the principal—the sacrificial wine and the provost—are working.In addition, there are "four halls and six halls", Jingyi Pavilion, East Wing and West Wing.The fourth hall is the staff office.The six halls were supposed to be classrooms, but in the Qing Dynasty, some houses were built diagonally opposite the Guozijian as a place for students to live and study. Places), there seems to be more in Liutang as an examination room.Students' monthly and quarterly exams are held here, and the township exams for each subject must be taken here for a day before they can go to the Gongyuan.

In the six halls there was a set of the heaviest books in the world. Each page of this book was three or four feet wide, seven or eight feet long, one foot thick, and weighed several thousand catties.This is a set of thirteen classics carved in stone, which was written by an old scholar Jiang Heng.According to Old Dong, he did it silently!He dedicated this set of books to the emperor, who accepted it and engraved it in the Guozijian as an important decoration.This emperor is Emperor Gao Zongchun His Majesty Qianlong. There are many inscriptions in Guozijian, and the most numerous are the scriptures written by Jiang Heng.Famous ones, formerly known as "Huang Ting", "Le Yi", "Lanting Ding Wu Ben" written by Zhao Songxuelin; Check it out.However, I think the most interesting and worth reading is an edict issued by Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty instructing his students:

Every student you listen to: Zongna used to make sacrificial wine, the school rules were so strict, and scholars were willing to learn from them every time they followed the rules, so everyone taught was useful, and the court was so good.Later, when he passed away, he was sent back to his hometown for burial with gifts. Along the way, there were priests offering sacrifices to him. In recent years, every time the old scholar made sacrificial wine, he always had a different intention and refused to teach. He changed Zongna's school rules to the bad, so all the students didn't learn. They used him, and bad things happened.

Nowadays, every time that young scholar official comes to study, the school rules he sets are followed every time.Anyone who dares to resist, act mischievously, or violate the school rules will not be spared if they come to play with wine at the sacrifice!The whole family went to the smoky ground, or served as an army, or as an official, or as a leader. From now on, the school regulations will be strict, and if there are any undocumented students who dare to slander the teacher by posting a headless post like before, they will be allowed to come forward, or they will be tied up in the future, and they will be rewarded with two big silvers.If someone who has pasted the ticket before knows, or comes out, or binds the future, he will generally be rewarded with two big silver.The prisoner was delayed, Xiao Ling was in front of the prison, the whole family was confiscated, and the population was sent to the smoky ground.This!

There is a bloody story in it: Ming Taizu was very enthusiastic about running schools in order to obtain "talents".His school-running policy has only one word: strict.Jijiu Zongne, the first Guozijian appointed by him, followed his will and made many regulations.The students were treated very cruelly. Some students starved to death and hanged themselves.The students couldn't stand the persecution and hunger, and there were two student riots.The student Zhao Lin who started the incident in the second student uprising published a poster (post without head).When Taizu heard this, Longyan was furious, and killed Zhao Lin, and set up a long pole in the Guozijian, and hung his head on it to show the public (the language of Taizu illuminated is "Xiaoling").After ten years, he still couldn't forget this incident, and one day he called all the staff and students to give lectures.The inscription on the stele is the original text of the lecture.

These things originally happened in Nanjing Guozijian, so how come there is such a monument in Beijing Guozijian?It must be that Emperor Yongle felt that his lord's speech was so wonderful that it should last forever, so he specially engraved another copy in Beijing.Yes, it's worth a watch.His vernacular precepts are much truer and more powerful than the words of the emperors of all dynasties, such as "advocating Confucianism and emphasizing Taoism". This monument is on the right hand outside the gate of Guozijianyi, and it is easy to find.The stele is divided into two parts, the lower part is the rule for the servants, which is even more serious: "Fifty bamboo grates"! "Chop"! "Cut tendons"...

Although the emperors of all dynasties seem to have attached great importance to Guozijian and have continuously formulated many academic regulations, but for some reason, Guozijian does not produce so many talents. The book "Dai Dou Ye Tan" says that Beijingers have classified Guozijian as "ridiculous": According to the legend of the capital, there are ten ridiculous things: tea soup from Guanglu Temple, prescriptions from Taiyuan Hospital, God’s optimistic prayer, arsenal department with swords and guns, camp department’s workshop, nursing home clothing and food, Jiaofang Sipo Niang, Metropolitan Procuratorate’s Constitution, Guozijian Academy, Hanlin Academy article. Guozijian's schoolwork has always seemed to be quite sloppy.The main homework for students is reading, writing, and composition.Guozijian students—the education and treatment of supervisors have changed in different periods.By the end of the Qing Dynasty, according to the old Dong, they wrote an essay every six days, transferred (upgraded) once a year, graduated in six years, and students received a monthly scholarship (teaching fee) of eight taels.After graduation, most of the students are employed as county-level cadres, or as the county magistrate (prefect), deputy county magistrate (county magistrate), or as the chief of the education section (discipline).In addition, there is another special purpose, which is to transfer to the central government to write (there was a period in the Qing Dynasty that the noodle bags of Guanglu Temple were all made of imitation paper by Guozijian students).Since the Ming Dynasty, there have been cases of recruiting students from the Imperial Academy to copy the "Records".A large series of books in the Ming Dynasty "Yongle Dadian", and a larger series of books in the Qing Dynasty "Siku Quanshu" drafts, some of the regular scripts in the correct (and impersonal) Guange style are from the top students of the Imperial College handwriting.This kind of work is called "walking on the desk". The status of Guozijian students is not very valued.Since Emperor Jingtai of the Ming Dynasty made the entry of Nasu Nama into prison, the threshold of Guozijian has been lowered.Since then, the trend of donating prisons has become popular, and prison students are even more worthless. Guozijian is a noble school, and Guozijian Jijiu is a dignified official—among the officials in Beijing, there is only one with a four-rank handprint.The sacrificial wine maker lived a rather leisurely life. He only went to work on the sixth day of the month. After he left, the servant had a short drink at the door and made a bowl of tea. The students set out the questions and read the papers; on the first and fifteenth day of the junior high school, they took the students to kowtow to the Dacheng Hall, and there was nothing else.In the Qing Dynasty, they still had two special tasks: one was to lead their officials to the Meridian Gate to receive the calendar for the coming year on the first day of October every year; Rescue", but the lunar calendar only comes once a year, and solar eclipses and lunar eclipses are even more rare.Dai Lu's "Tengyin Miscellaneous Notes" said that this official is "clean, simple and quiet", and these words are very appropriate. However, ordinary officials seem to have little interest in this job.The imperial court seemed to know this kind of mentality, so, except for special exceptions, the wine would be transferred within three years.Why is that?Because this errand has no oil and water. According to the old regulations of the Qing Dynasty, the monthly salary for sacrificial wine is 105 taels, and 1,260 taels a year; plus office expenses, 3 taels a month, 36 taels a year. That's a lot.First, there is no one in the Imperial College to sue, and second, there is no salt tax and river engineering to contract, and there is no extra money.But after all, being able to support the high and low court officials and servants depends on a fairly stable amount of money, which is the handling fee for donating prisons every year. According to my friend Lao Dong, in addition to paying a sum of money to the Ministry of Officials to get a "passport", the students in the prison also need to pay money to the Guozijian to get a "supervisory license"-a university graduation certificate.As usual, a prison photo costs one tael and seven dollars in silver.According to the old regulations of the Guozijian, the accumulated silver is two hundred and eighty taels, which is counted as one "character". According to the number of "thousand-character writing", one character is counted as one character, and the average annual income is about 500 characters.I did the math, and Guozijian earns about 140,000 taels of supervision silver each year, that is, there are 823,000 people who obtain university graduation qualifications—supervising students—by buying certificates from the state without going through entrance examinations and examinations.It turned out to be something more than a crow!The 140,000 taels of silver will not be handed over according to the regulations of the state. It will be shared by the officials and servants of the Guozijian, and each word of sacrificial wine will be divided into 12 taels. Much more.The rest of the divisions have their own differences.According to Old Dong, he even splits five cents and eight cents for a "character", and earns two hundred and eighty-nine taels of silver a year from this item! Old Dong said that the Guozijian still has many regulations.For example, like him, he is a printer in the Hall of Classics, and he is in charge of "making volumes" for students—printing red grid notebooks for writing.His father knew this craft when he was there, but he didn’t learn it at all when he was there. He just went to Dashilankou to buy a knife of raw-edged paper, and took it to Liulichang to find a shop to print. of.Therefore, Old Dong said that in those days, the money in his hand was too much to spend - the braised duck sticks were only sold for 400 yuan each!As for those "Tang Zao", it's even more terrible!It is a huge fortune just to give "gunners" to candidates for each subject (this matter deserves a special article).At that time, all the errands liked to drink rice wine, and there were rice taverns in the streets and alleys, like teahouses, which were specially prepared for the errands.Therefore, errands like Guozijian are also hereditary.This is an industry that can be sold or pushed out! Old Dong's memory is excellent, and if my retelling is correct, this is really a precious historical material that has not been recorded.The reason why I took the trouble to write it down is to tell people younger than me how weird the economic, financial, and personnel systems of the feudal era are! Guozijian is now the site of the Capital Library.The old base of the Capital Library is the Beijing Library in Hair Hutong, that is, the original popular library - a library that was established at the initiative of Mr. Lu Xun, who once sponsored and donated books; When I went to the Temple of Heaven, because the location of the Temple of Heaven was cramped, it was moved here again.In addition to the original books in Fafa Hutong and the newly purchased books after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the capital library collection is mainly the collection of the original Kongde School and the French Library.Among them, the most distinctive and abundant collection in China is Gu Ci and folk songs.