Go to school at four o'clock in the morning and have six and a half days off in a year.
Emperor Qianlong Hongli, his younger brother and Prince Hongzhou were studying in the study room at the same time. Prince Bao was the first to finish all his homework every time. And when he was doing nothing, Fumin asked him to preview the next day's course in advance after finishing the day's course, so that tomorrow's study would be equivalent to review. But every time when Prince Bao finished all the extra homework, the poor brother and the prince were still working on their own homework, and they still couldn't finish it even after school was over. At this time, Fumin said to Prince Bao: "Your own brother is still studying here. How can you, the elder brother, withdraw early without waiting for him?" So he was assigned a new task. When Emperor Qianlong looked back on this past event after he ascended the throne, he once mentioned his teacher's good intentions towards him.
As for the holidays of the princes, you might not believe it. Today's students have winter vacation, summer vacation, long vacations, small long vacations, plus weekends, and they can take almost half a year off this year. Even students who are in the third year of junior high school or high school can take a few days of rest from time to time as a reconciliation during difficult times. But these little princes, starting from the age of six, only have one day off every year for New Year's Day, one day for Dragon Boat Festival, one day for Mid-Autumn Festival, one day for their birthday, and two days for their father's birthday. there is none left. At that time, there was no concept of seven days a week, and there was no concept of weekends. So these little princes took a small fraction of three hundred and sixty-five days off together, which was really hard work.
Some activities were also part of the studies of princes in the Qing Dynasty. For example, in the "Mulan Autumn Festival" activities that the Qing emperors often participated in, we can often see the princes. In addition, there were some routine sacrificial activities of the court, and sometimes The prince will do it for him. Of course, in order to hone the political abilities of these princes, they sometimes need to participate in some national affairs. Even cultural events, such as the compilation of "Sikuquanshu", do not forget to let the princes play the role of editors. These activities fully exercised their abilities.
The place where the princes study is in the gallery on the east side of Qianqing Gate, which is called "Shangshufang" (renamed shangshufang during the reign of Emperor Daoguang). From the age of six, they start attending school. As for the age of graduation, there is basically no fixed requirement. Some princes even have to study until they are around thirty years old (now they have to be super postdoctoral).
The strict schedule of the princes every day in class may be unbelievable to today's people: they "arrive at school" at around four o'clock in the morning and don't "get out of school" until after four in the afternoon. As soon as the prince arrived at school in the morning, he would start "morning reading", that is, reciting the scriptures he had learned in the previous few days, or previewing the content to be explained that day. Although they are princes, they would never dare to neglect this matter, because the head master of the study room will often come to check everyone's homework, but if the teacher's inspection is compared with the emperor's father's random inspection, it is simply insignificant. , because if any problems arise in the emperor's spot checks, either the students will be punished or the teachers will be unlucky. When teachers have problems in teaching, the emperor directly transforms from a parent to a principal and director of the education committee. He punishes teachers by deducting their wages, and can even directly fire or convict teachers. Think about it this way, teachers have to work hard if they want to be good.
The teachers of the princes have levels. The highest level is the "chief master" mentioned just now, which is somewhat similar to the academic director of the school. There are several masters under him, which are the teachers of major subjects. The contents taught by these masters are basically Confucian classics in Chinese culture. and Manchu are taught by the next level of "savvy". In addition to Manchu Shuda, there is also Mongolian Shuda. Mongolian and Chinese must be regarded as the "foreign languages" of the princes. But because they are so deeply influenced by Chinese culture, they even pay more attention to the learning of Chinese than Manchu . In contrast, Shuida who teaches Manchu has obvious disciplinary advantages over Mongolian Shuda. The treatment of Shuda is also different - Mongolian Shuda must stand and speak, while Manchu Shuda can sit and speak. , after all, Manchu is also the native language for the princes.
The princes' main day of lessons begins with physical education class. The instructor is "Shuida" who is responsible for teaching bow and archery, called "Boli Shuda". Bow archery is the most traditional sport among the Manchus. During the Shunzhi period, an "Arrow Pavilion" was built in the Forbidden City where land was scarce to remind Manchu descendants not to forget the fundamentals of martial arts. This shows that the Qing royal family attached great importance to it. After the
physical education class, there is the Mongolian class. The Qing Dynasty had a very close relationship with Mongolian tribes, and even the creation of Manchu was directly based on Mongolian. Many concubines in the Qing Dynasty were also Mongolians, so Mongolian had a language environment in the palace, and every year the royal family There will be gatherings with Mongolian princes, and the princes will also have the opportunity to participate, so they can practice Mongolian regularly. And this is exactly what is missing in our current English teaching: except for the forty minutes in class, children basically have no language environment in their lives. Therefore, without practice, it is inevitable that students will have difficulty learning.
After the Mongolian class, it is time to learn Manchu, the mother tongue. Manchu language teaching in the Qing Dynasty focused on the language itself and translation. Manchu was mostly used by emperors when communicating with their families or tribesmen. Therefore, if the Qing Dynasty dramas we watch now were to restore their true colors, it is estimated that more than 95% of the content would be incomprehensible to the audience. They would not even be able to figure out whether the concubine was praising the emperor or scolding him. The princes spend a short amount of time studying Manchu every day, about an hour or so. The rest of the time is basically devoted to the super major subject - the world of Chinese.
The teaching of Chinese in the Qing Dynasty was different from today. The classes in the study were very detailed: after finishing the study mentioned above, the princes would have breakfast and take a rest. After that, the Chinese course in the morning basically consists of reviewing what we have learned before and talking about the content of the day. After lunch, we will practice calligraphy, recite ancient Chinese and poetry, etc. Basically, all the princes can't get out of school until around four o'clock every afternoon. What's interesting is that some teachers will leave individual students alone for tutoring.
The princes' main day of lessons begins with physical education class. The instructor is "Shuida" who is responsible for teaching bow and archery, called "Boli Shuda". Bow archery is the most traditional sport among the Manchus. During the Shunzhi period, an "Arrow Pavilion" was built in the Forbidden City where land was scarce to remind Manchu descendants not to forget the fundamentals of martial arts. This shows that the Qing royal family attached great importance to it. After the
physical education class, there is the Mongolian class. The Qing Dynasty had a very close relationship with Mongolian tribes, and even the creation of Manchu was directly based on Mongolian. Many concubines in the Qing Dynasty were also Mongolians, so Mongolian had a language environment in the palace, and every year the royal family There will be gatherings with Mongolian princes, and the princes will also have the opportunity to participate, so they can practice Mongolian regularly. And this is exactly what is missing in our current English teaching: except for the forty minutes in class, children basically have no language environment in their lives. Therefore, without practice, it is inevitable that students will have difficulty learning.
After the Mongolian class, it is time to learn Manchu, the mother tongue. Manchu language teaching in the Qing Dynasty focused on the language itself and translation. Manchu was mostly used by emperors when communicating with their families or tribesmen. Therefore, if the Qing Dynasty dramas we watch now were to restore their true colors, it is estimated that more than 95% of the content would be incomprehensible to the audience. They would not even be able to figure out whether the concubine was praising the emperor or scolding him. The princes spend a short amount of time studying Manchu every day, about an hour or so. The rest of the time is basically devoted to the super major subject - the world of Chinese.
The teaching of Chinese in the Qing Dynasty was different from today. The classes in the study were very detailed: after finishing the study mentioned above, the princes would have breakfast and take a rest. After that, the Chinese course in the morning basically consists of reviewing what we have learned before and talking about the content of the day. After lunch, we will practice calligraphy, recite ancient Chinese and poetry, etc. Basically, all the princes can't get out of school until around four o'clock every afternoon. What's interesting is that some teachers will leave individual students alone for tutoring.
