Chapter 198: Yangming Academy

Chapter 198

"Tear Down These Walls!"

Early in the morning, Li Yao was directing a large group of people at work.

She intended to keep only the first house she had bought to live in, out of the five houses she owned. The remaining four would all be connected to open up the Yangming Academy.

These houses were now under Wang Er's name, which could also be considered as some private property Li Yao had secured for Wang Er.

Wang Er was a scholar. He aspired to become an official and thus could not possibly stay in River Bend Village forever.

After three full days of hustle and bustle, the Yangming Academy was finally tidied up.

Although the layout was not fully satisfactory, with nearly two hundred rooms in total, it was absolutely sufficient for an academy that had just opened.

There was also a nearly fifty-mu huge backyard. Li Yao was having people dig fish ponds and build corridors and pavilions. She also had trees and flowers transplanted to create a scenic garden of striking beauty.

Scholars always liked such an elegant environment after all.

When everything was done, the whole family came to the entrance of the Yangming Academy.

"Mother," Wang Er said, "please name the academy."

"You and Little Hui started this. You should name it yourselves."

Wang Er and Du Xiao Hui looked at each other. Finally Wang Er said, "We still ask that mother name it. I admit I lack profound knowledge and surely cannot come up with a better name than mother."

"Let's just use your name," Li Yao was quite casual about names. "Call it the Yangming Academy. It sounds bright and promising, perfectly suiting the youth."

"Alright, Yangming Academy it is. I'll ask the master to make the signboard today." Wang Er said, "But our Yangming Academy has four main gates. How should we place the signboard?"

"Right," Wang Yuanguo said. "Putting it over any specific gate would seem partial."

Li Yao looked at this uncle. She did not expect a dock worker to know what "partiality" meant now.

"Why are you looking at me like that, sister-in-law?" Wang Yuanguo felt somewhat terrified under her gaze.

"There are four gates. Let's make four signboards. That solves the partiality issue."

Wang Yuanguo slapped his forehead and laughed. "As expected, sister-in-law has the solutions."

"And the east gate shall be Yangming Academy Gate One, so on and so forth," Li Yao said. "With four gates opening alternately, we can decorate each gate differently too. That would be a distinctive feature."

Du Xiao Hui made sure to remember this point firmly.

As the Chief of Yangming Academy, she would be in charge of managing the entire academy in the future.

"Have the teachers arrived?"

"Sent people to bring them over already," Wang Er said. "Marquis Wang from Yizhou said those tutors from River Bend Village could come to temporarily teach at our academy for now."

"No no no," the young man waved his hand. "Yangming Academy currently has four famed tutors transferred from the capital responsible for teaching students. Two of them used to teach the princes!"

Those who taught the princes were the creme de la creme of teachers!

Any other academy with such outstanding faculty would charge at least five taels per month!

Yet this Yangming Academy only collected three taels for the entire year!

"There's more."

"What else? Speak up!"

"Students from extremely impoverished households can apply for reduced tuition fees, even... totally waived!"

Everyone was collectively stunned.

Could Yangming Academy be opened by a Bodhisattva?

"Then how does one get into this academy?"

"In three days, the academy will send people to our county for tests. Children wishing to enter need to show up in front of the county government office in advance to take the exams. Those who pass get to attend."

...

The news about Yangming Academy's recruitment astounded not just the commoners. All the major academies in Yizhou City, as well as wealthy merchants were also shocked.

Especially with Qianshan Academy taking the lead, they were extremely furious about Yangming Academy's approach.

It was outrageous enough that Yangming offered such great facilities. Its famous teachers made things worse. And charging so little for tuition was destroying their rice bowls!

What's more, the Chief of Yangming Academy was actually a woman!

The prestigious academies tracing back hundreds of years had never allowed women to rise to prominent positions, let alone as the Chief of an academy!

It was utterly disgraceful and scandalous!

Thus Chief Jiang of Qianshan Academy went together with over ten other Chiefs to bring this up to Magistrate Song who had just taken office not long ago.

"It's their prerogative to decide how much to charge for tuition right?" Magistrate Song said. "There are no Daling laws stipulating standardized rates."

With one statement, Magistrate Song dismissed them.

Chief Jiang and the others did not expect a fellow scholar like Magistrate Song to not take their side.

"Humph. If he won't handle this, we can't just let such things happen right under our noses," Chief Jiang said. "Let us rally some wealthy merchants and officials, forcing Yangming Academy to increase their tuition at the minimum."

"That's right, they must raise it!"

"And change that female Chief too!"