My 12-year-old nephew has passed his final exams and recently lived a winter vacation life of waking up naturally and playing. I wanted to give him some extracurricular reading, but he resisted.
I told him, "You are really happier than the Prince." ”
In the history of the Qing Dynasty, those crown princes and grandchildren who were born with a golden spoon in their mouths could work much harder and be more stressed than today's children in learning.
Snow view of the Forbidden City.
Did you know that they can take a few days off each year? No winter vacation, no summer vacation, no Golden Week, no Sunday, only 6 days off all year round, respectively:
The Emperor's longevity rest is 2 days, the first day of the first lunar month is a day off, the Dragon Boat Festival is rested for 1 day, the Mid-Autumn Festival is rested for 1 day, and the Emperor himself has a day off on his birthday. Even if Chinese New Year's Eve, you have to go to class (you can leave the class early).
In successive dynasties, the most stringent supervision of the princes' studies was the Qing Dynasty's Ai XinJue Luo family. Let's make a comparison, those emperors of the Ming Dynasty did not pay any attention to the education of the emperor's grandson. After the death of Emperor Mingguangzong Zhu Changluo, the 15-year-old emperor's eldest son Zhu Youxiao succeeded to the throne, and at this age, he could not read a basket in large characters, and his academic resume was blank, and he was called "the illiterate emperor" by later generations.
Qing Dynasty imperial palace stationery.
Perhaps learning the lessons of the Ming Dynasty, in the early days of the Qing Dynasty, it attached great importance to the combination of Confucian culture and Manchurian traditions to educate the princes and the children of the clan.
The Kangxi Emperor ascended the throne at the age of 8, was diligent and studious, listened to lectures and studied every day, did not quit in cold and summer, and even traveled and fought uninterruptedly.
After he gave birth to a child, he strictly grasped the prince's study, to what extent? Master Tang Bin couldn't look at it anymore. Tang Bin said: "The Crown Prince (Yin Rong) is too strict, and when this summer day, there is too much homework, and I am afraid that the Crown Prince will be tired and hard. ”
The Kangxi Emperor refused to ease the curriculum, saying: "When you read at an early age, you must study at the rate of one hundred and twenty times, and if you don't cover this, then the righteousness cannot be drowned, so the prince and the princes are taught to read." ”
In order to better allow the prince to read, the Yongzheng Emperor established the upper study room, stipulating that the prince and the emperor's grandson should study in the upper study room at the age of 6.
He also emphasized the dignity of the master, requiring the prince to perform the ritual in front of the master, not to put up the score, "the prince knows the grand master, the master and so on have to teach wholeheartedly, this ancient ceremony also."
Yongzheng Emperor reading like.
The status of the princes is respected, but in front of the master, they must obey the rules and regulations, and the master has the support of the emperor Lao Tzu behind him!
If you dare to confront the master, the consequences will be extremely serious. Crown Prince Yiwei felt that his master had taught him too strictly, and was very dissatisfied, so he said fiercely: "In the future, I will be the emperor, and I will kill Ru first." When the Daoguang Emperor heard about this, he was furious and flew up and kicked Yi Wei, directly asking for his life.
In the Qing Dynasty's "Beast Genealogy", the princes may have used it as a textbook.
What time does these particular students start classes every day? Zhao Yi, who had once walked in the Qianlong Dynasty Military Aircraft, recorded such a thing in the book "Miscellaneous Records of Eaves Exposure":
"The strictness of the family law of this dynasty, that is, the matter of the prince's reading, has been extinguished for eternity. When Yu Nei was on duty, during the early shift, the rate was five drums, and the hundred officials of the ministry did not arrive, but a few people came and went in the inner house of Sula. In the darkness, he did not wake up, and when he leaned on the pillar to pretend to sleep, he had faintly seen that there was a white gauze lamp entering the Longzong Gate, and the prince entered the study. ”
At the time of the "five drums", that is, at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning, the princes went into the study to attend classes. Their courses include: Manchu, Mongolian and Chinese languages; Confucian classics such as the Four Books and Five Classics; history, counseling, poetry, calligraphy and painting; and military training such as riding archery, martial arts, and bird shooting.
School ends on time at 1:30 p.m., but it is common to drag the church for an hour and a half. During this period, the second hour of the first day of the first month (7:30 in the morning) and the noon (12:00 noon) were eaten twice, each time not more than half an hour. If you want to rest during the class, the master agrees to it, and the rest time is not more than 15 minutes.
In this way, the study time of the whole day reaches 10 hours.
It can be said that the qing dynasty prince's diligence in reading has created the highest in history. Therefore, Zhao Yi sighed: "(Princes) literature is not deep, and martial arts are not skilled? ”
The Qianlong Emperor and his children.
According to the Qing system, the crown prince was knighted at the age of 15 and established a palace, and whether he could finish his studies at this time depended on the situation. If Emperor Lao Tzu had not assigned messengers, he would have to continue to study in the upper study. Even if he held a certain position, according to the qianlong emperor's request, "when he has nothing to do, he still has a regular lesson on the same day, and he cannot be abandoned a little."
It is worth mentioning that the royal child-rearing is not "widowed", although the emperor is very reasonable, he is still very concerned about the study of the prince.
First of all, the masters of the princes were chosen by the emperor. Secondly, the course content and class rules were also approved by the emperor. Third, the emperor would often check his academic performance and even take a surprise quiz. The upper study was located near the Qianqing Palace in order to facilitate the emperor to check his homework at any time.
The eleventh son of the Qianlong Emperor, Yong Yao calligraphy.
By the end of the Qing Dynasty, everything in the imperial palace was in ruins, and it was no longer as strict as in the Kang Yongqian period, but the education of the prince or the young emperor was still not relaxed.
The Xianfeng Emperor arranged for Emperor Zaichun to study when he was 5 years old, and the young emperor Zaixiang also enrolled in school at the age of 5.
However, the later courses followed the ancestral system, were not updated with the changes of the times, the content was outdated, the emperor or emperor taught had a narrow vision, a pedantic insight, and a slow response to world development and social changes. Although they have read many books, they cannot analyze or solve the problems at hand.
Resources:
Xu Ke's "Qing Barnyard Notes and Teachers and Friends", Zhao Yi's "Miscellaneous Notes on Eaves Exposure, Volume I", Zeng Cheng's "Curriculum of the Prince--The Mongolian Learning and Education of the Qing Dynasty Princes", Xu Jing's "Analysis of the Relationship between the Education of the Qing Dynasty Princes and the Feast System", Yan Tao's "Analysis of the Cultivation of the Characteristics of the Qing Dynasty's Princes' Education Chinese Martial Arts"