The Ming emperors and ancestors of our country have attached great importance to the education of princes. However, if the education of princes is the most stringent and the princes study the hardest, it is probably the Qing Dynasty under the rule of the Manchus. Perhaps it is precisely because of this that ethnic minorities have ruled China, which is dominated by Han people, for 296 years.
After Huang Taiji ascended the throne, he widely absorbed Han culture. He also studied Han culture assiduously and became one of the emperors with outstanding resourcefulness and military strategy in Chinese history. His son Fulin (Emperor Shunzhi) was an emperor who studied hard and worked hard to govern. Fulin once said: "I was extremely unlucky. When I was five years old, my ancestor Taizong had already given me a banquet. The empress dowager gave birth to me. I was very pampered and had no one to teach me, so I was out of school. When I was fourteen, the nine kings (Dorgon) passed away. , Fang began to take charge of the government. He was at a loss when reading the memorials of the ministers, so he studied hard every morning except for military affairs. I was able to recite it in the Ming Dynasty. I studied for nine years and once vomited blood. "This is the truth. He once wrote to himself while sitting here: "Don't wait until old age comes to learn Taoism. The lonely graves are full of young people." He used warning to encourage himself.
The formal system of royal education in the Qing Dynasty was not established until Kangxi "pacified the Three Feuds". During the reign of Kangxi, the princes lived and studied separately. According to the "Yangji Zhai Conglu": "In my family law, when the prince and grandson are six years old, they will study with their foreign master." This means that the prince will start studying at the age of six. Reading, 5 a.m. to 3 p.m., 10 hours. You can only have 5 days off a year, namely New Year's Day, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, the emperor's birthday, your own birthday, and not even New Year's Eve. Emperor Kangxi was studying at a young age, and he was so tired that he coughed up blood, so he could recite the Four Books and Five Classics fluently. Emperor Qianlong could do this at the age of 14, so he was deeply loved by Kangxi.
In the early years of Yongzheng's reign, in order to facilitate the prince's study, the Shang Study Room was set up in the palace. It was collectively referred to as the Shang Study Room after Daoguang. The upper study room is located on the left side of the Qianqing Gate in the current Forbidden City. The reason why the upper study room is located here is to "get close to the imperial palace and facilitate inspection." Emperor Yongzheng also wrote a couplet in his own handwriting, "Sincerity is the foundation of life, and theory is the first priority in reading." Emperor Qianlong also attached great importance to the study room. "Yongzheng's establishment of the Shangshufang also has another mystery. First, it will not lead to overt and covert struggles for imperial power if the successor is not clear; secondly, the merits of the princes can be judged based on their educational level; thirdly, When secretly establishing an heir, there are many alternatives; in addition, the high level of education of the princes is also of great benefit to the prosperity of the country.
The class time in the study room is very early every day. Just after the fifth watch, it is still dark. The prince will go to the study room with a lantern to go to school. It will not be until dusk in the afternoon that he completes the day's work. academics. At noon, the guards brought meals, and the prince and the teacher ate at separate tables. Most of the teachers were Han ministers appointed by the emperor. They mainly taught Confucian classics and taught according to different ages. The prince who just entered the study room first learned to read and read with the teacher. The teacher wrote a sentence, and the prince read it, repeated it, and kept it in mind until he knew it by heart. As people get older and their understanding increases, they move on to the history of reading. The teacher corrects errors and teaches the meaning of the history of books. Although the summer is hot, the prince is not allowed to use fans to dispel the heat when he is studying. Every word he learns must be written 100 times, and a text must be recited 120 times. At the age of twelve, Manchu and Mongolian teachers were arranged to teach Manchu and Mongolian. At the age of fourteen, he learned bow, arrow, riding, archery and martial arts. It didn't stop until the prince was sixteen or eighteen years old and had to live in separate houses after getting married.
Most of the teachers in the study room are concurrently appointed by important ministers, and the teaching discipline is very strict. If the prince disobeys, he may be forced to stand or even kneel. According to legend, Qianlong once inspected the upper study room and saw Wang Jie, then the chief master of the upper study room, kneeling down to punish the prince (later Emperor Jiaqing) for not studying hard. He angrily asked the prince to stand up and said: "Teach the prince." The emperor is the emperor, and the emperor is the emperor if he does not teach. He is the emperor and his ministers are ministers!" It means that his son will still be the emperor regardless of whether he studies or not. He blames Wang Jie for not having the etiquette of a monarch and his ministers. Wang Jie replied: "Those who teach are Yao and Shun, those who do not teach are Jie and Zhou. This is the way to be a teacher!" This means that although a prince can become an emperor regardless of whether he studies or not, but if he reads well, he may become Emperor Yao and Emperor Shun of the Tang Dynasty. Such a holy master who does not study may become an unscrupulous tyrant like Xia Jie and Shang Zhou, so punishing the prince is fulfilling his duty as a teacher. After hearing this, Qianlong thought it made sense and ordered the prince to kneel again.
According to "Qing Bailei Chao", Daoguang's fifth son Yi Pei poured a cup of tea one day, brought it to the teacher, and said: "The students are usually naughty, so the teacher has troubled me, so I invited the teacher to drink it." I accept this cup of tea as an apology from the student." The teacher did not doubt him, took the cup and drank it in one gulp. Only after drinking did he realize that the tea smelled like urine. Facing the triumphant Yi Pei, the teacher couldn't scold or hit him, so he could only weep alone. At this time, Emperor Daoguang came to inspect and saw the teacher standing aside crying instead of teaching the prince to read. He was very dissatisfied and asked why. The teacher handed the cup to Daoguang, saying that the fifth elder brother had poured the tea for him, and asked the emperor to smell it. Daoguang knew at the first sniff that it was Yi Pei who was causing trouble. He was furious and punished Yi Pei immediately. Later, Yi Pei was adopted by Dao Guang to his childless brother, and was completely excluded from the heirs, that is, because he was punished for repeated impoliteness.
In short, the emperors of the Qing Dynasty attached great importance to the study and study of their princes, which was beyond the reach of previous feudal dynasties. Although there were mediocre emperors among the 12 emperors of the Qing Dynasty, none of them were faint emperors, which is not unrelated to this.
The princes of the Qing Dynasty were no easier than our current students. They did not neglect their studies because they grew up in an imperial family. Therefore, compared with previous feudal dynasties, the overall cultural accomplishment of the emperors of the Qing Dynasty was relatively high. Although the harsh education methods of today's "tiger mothers" and "wolf fathers" are quite criticized, doting on education is even more undesirable.
Although the strict family education of the Qing Dynasty royal family cannot be completely copied, it is worth learning from today's parents!
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