get-shopping Chapter 163 - 140: Establishing the Classics Academy (Part 2)
Chapter 163 - 140: Establishing the Classics Academy (Part 2)
The current Instructor at Yuanling Mountain was someone Jiang Kui had invited from her main family branch in Qi Yun. Although he was just a mortal, both Liu Xun and Qu Wujie were very well-behaved in his presence.
The old Instructor had been on Yuanling Mountain for eight years. He was already at an age where he should have been enjoying his retirement. After being invited by Jiang Kui, he had worked hard to teach batch after batch of Jiang Family disciples. Now, he had finally succumbed to the limits of a mortal lifespan and passed away.
Now, a new problem lay before Fang Qingyuan: he needed to hurry up and find a new Instructor.
The position of Instructor was fundamental to Yuanling Mountain and required careful consideration. If he hired someone with impure intentions, it could affect generations of people. This was not a matter to be treated carelessly.
Moreover, he wanted to find someone with real ability, and preferably someone younger. Although the original Instructor had worked hard and contributed greatly, he was too much of a traditional scholar, with a stubborn and pedantic air about him.
But such a person wasn’t easy to find. The Southern Border was a veritable cultural desert. Compared to Qi Yun—a prosperous land with tens of thousands of years of heritage, where all sorts of classic texts were published and ideas flourished—the Southern Border had only been developed for three hundred years. Its cultural and educational foundations were weak, and there was a dearth of local talent. Even the better ones were treasured by their respective families and wouldn’t be easily let go.
’Should I ask Jiang Kui for help again? Hire an Instructor from Qi Yun at a high salary to solve this urgent problem?’
’But if I do that, in another eight or ten years, the new person will leave, and I’ll be stuck with the same headache all over again.’
Fang Qingyuan mulled it over and over, his mind growing muddled. But just then, he suddenly realized he was being too rigid in his thinking.
Recalling the educational methods from his past life, Fang Qingyuan had a sudden epiphany. Instead of looking for one all-around, omni-capable Instructor, it would be better to find ten ordinary Instructors who each specialized in a single subject, establish a school, and completely abandon the current private tutoring model.
The other mountain clans were all accustomed to finding a single Instructor to handle everything. ’Why should I have to follow that rule? I’ve really lived in this world for too long; even my way of thinking has started to sync up with the Cultivators of this realm.’
With the income from the Yuanling Square Marketplace and the Crimson Iron Ore mine, the expense of a mere school was nothing to worry about. Yuanling Mountain now had a population of 20,000, with school-aged children making up one-fifth of that number.
Mortals in this era married early, often starting families at fifteen or sixteen. It was common for men to become grandfathers by the age of forty.
The Jiang Family originally had over a thousand children, but only a little more than two hundred were able to receive an education. Even among them, the majority were given a hands-off, "free-range" education. Ordinary mortals from families with no financial means couldn’t afford the cost of continued schooling.
Within a large family, resources were not distributed equally. For an ordinary clan member, their greatest contribution in life wasn’t to become a well-reasoned, capable pillar of the family, but to have more children. Fortunately giving birth to one child with aptitude was better than anything else.
But Fang Qingyuan didn’t see it that way. He felt that a fundamental change was needed. If everyone could read and learn to reason, then the entire culture of this place could one day shine with a unique brilliance, setting it apart from the rest of the Southern Border.
’What kind of soil you have determines what kind of fruit you grow.’ Fang Qingyuan had no desire for the future Cultivators of Yuanling Mountain to end up like those from White Mountain and the Southern Border—harsh, ungrateful, and caring only for profit.
At this thought, Fang Qingyuan’s desire to reform the education system, establish a school, and gather all the children to study grew even stronger.
He wasn’t expecting any extraordinary talents to emerge from these children. It would be enough if they didn’t live their lives in a muddle-headed daze and could pass on good principles to the next generation. After all, parents are a child’s best teachers.
And so, Fang Qingyuan got up and went to the Yuanling Square Marketplace. He wrote out a notice and posted it in the marketplace square, informing the passing Cultivators that he was widely recruiting talented individuals to serve as Instructors for Yuanling Mountain, specifically those who had deeply studied the classic texts.
Within a marketplace, Cultivators were not the most numerous. It was often the inconspicuous mortals who made up the majority. As soon as Fang Qingyuan’s notice was posted, the mortals in the marketplace began to get ideas.
To be able to go to Yuanling Mountain to serve as an Instructor, working under a disciple of the Beast Taming Sect—wouldn’t that be an excellent post?
And just like that, in the half-month after Fang Qingyuan posted the notice, an endless stream of mortals came to Yuanling Mountain to recommend themselves. Fang Qingyuan had Zhang Yuan screen them, allowing anyone who caught his eye to be accepted onto the mountain.
This was because Zhang Yuan had been fortunate enough to become the first Dean of the Yuanling Scripture Institute. Ever since Shopkeeper Jiang had taken over the Spiritual Material Store in the Yuanling Square Marketplace, Zhang Yuan had completely let himself go, drinking himself into a stupor every day to vent the frustrations of his past.
In Fang Qingyuan’s eyes, Zhang Yuan was a veteran of Yuanling Mountain; how could he be left idle? So, he made Zhang Yuan the Dean of the Scripture Institute, giving him full responsibility for the matter. Zhang Yuan didn’t resist. As he saw it, being a Dean was better than being a Shopkeeper—at least he wouldn’t have to put on a fake smile and attend to customers all day.
After two months of hard work, Zhang Yuan finally got everything in order. The new Scripture Institute occupied 380 mu, had its own hills and water, and was situated next to a pond on Yuanling Mountain. It was divided into five colleges, teaching five subjects respectively: Classics, Mathematics, Law, Calligraphy, and Medicine.
The College of Classics was responsible for teaching the three major, middle, and minor classics to instill moral principles. The College of Mathematics cultivated knowledge in calendrics, administration, and construction. The College of Law disseminated legal knowledge. The College of Calligraphy focused on the deep study of characters to build a solid foundation. The College of Medicine was divided into four specializations: therapy, acupuncture, classical texts, and pharmacology.
It was clear that Fang Qingyuan didn’t want to turn all the children into bookworms who could only study. He hoped these mortals could find a path they enjoyed, learn various skills, and, if they could make a living from it, that would be for the best.
In its first year, the Yuanling Scripture Institute enrolled one thousand children and recruited thirty Instructors. Fang Qingyuan allocated two thousand Spirit Stones for its budget. In the second year, the institute enrolled another thousand children and recruited ten more Instructors, but this year Fang Qingyuan only allocated one thousand Spirit Stones.
This wasn’t because Fang Qingyuan had gone back on his word. Rather, after a year of promotion and education, Loose Cultivators from other Land Realms in the Southern Border had learned of the institute. Some Cultivators began paying Spirit Stones to send their mortal children and relatives to study at the Yuanling Scripture Institute.
As a result, the Yuanling Scripture Institute required much less funding. At this rate, it might even start earning some Spirit Stones back in the future.
This development was unexpected for Fang Qingyuan, but he couldn’t spare any thought for the Scripture Institute at the moment. After several years of practice, his cultivation had reached the peak of the Eighth-Layer Qi Cultivation. He was on the verge of breaking through to the Ninth-Layer Qi Cultivation, the final realm for a Qi Cultivation Cultivator.
At the beginning of the third year after the Scripture Institute was completed, Fang Qingyuan returned to his senses from meditation one day and realized that his cultivation had, without him even noticing, crossed the threshold of the Eighth-Layer and arrived at the Ninth-Layer Qi Cultivation.