Chapter 1326 - A Visit to Fangcao Di: A Sense of Loss

Though Huang Ping performed actively, the Red Team was overall somewhat inferior. The match concluded with a Blue Team victory. When the final whistle sounded, Dong Yizhi descended from the field to greet the delegation.

Liu Dalin observed this Australian gentleman with eyes full of curiosity: dark complexion, robust physique, and having just refereed a match while running back and forth alongside the students—fine beads of perspiration glistened on his large forehead after the exertion.

"Master Dong, your group truly possesses the ability to turn stone into gold," Liu Dalin remarked tactfully. "I hear most of these children are destitute orphans collected from the mainland? Who would have imagined that after your instruction, each and every one now shines with brilliance, no longer resembling children of poor and humble origins."

"Not at all," Dong Yizhi replied modestly. "Didn't the venerable Master Kong also say: 'In teaching, there should be no distinction of classes.' Chen Sheng and Wu Guang likewise proclaimed: 'Are kings and nobles born to their status?' Though wealth and poverty cannot be equalized throughout the realm, as long as everyone has access to education, children of poor and humble families can also truly get ahead."

China's ancient imperial examination system was indeed a relatively fair system—at least institutionally, it guaranteed the possibility for children of humble families to transform their fate through study and examination. However, in reality, those who achieved this transformation were as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns. Studying in ancient society required considerable economic foundation; truly impoverished commoners, unless by some fortuitous coincidence, simply couldn't afford to support their children in schooling.

Liu Dalin understood this truth intimately—he himself came from an official's family. Whether his fellow examinees from the provincial examination or his fellow jinshi candidates, very few truly came from impoverished common families. At the very least, their families possessed a few mu of thin farmland or had clan support.

Though the Australians' schools didn't teach the learning of the sages, they could genuinely be called "teaching without discrimination." Though he wasn't a merchant and his livelihood was managed by family members, he understood that a school of this scale, with daily expenses for thousands of children in food and supplies, amounted to an enormous sum. Not to mention all the construction and maintenance expenses for the school itself. Liu Dalin estimated that even if old Lingao County had devoted its entire tax revenue, it still couldn't have sustained this institution.

"Ha ha, this skill of 'taking a hundred years to nurture people'—I could never match it." Liu Dalin spoke from the heart. "But there's one matter I've never understood. You gentlemen already bestride the four seas. If you wished, you could collect all the wealth of the realm. Why do you still put yourselves through such exhausting labor? Haven't you heard that life is short? The talents you cultivate at such great expense won't be ready for use for another ten or twenty years." As he spoke, his small but sharp eyes fixed intently on Dong Yizhi.

Dong Yizhi found himself momentarily at a loss for words. He thought to himself: how could I explain our darker motives of building harems and human species museums? I couldn't articulate those to you anyway. Watching Transmigrator Dong's face redden as he appeared to struggle in thought, Liu Dalin waited patiently. Finally Transmigrator Dong produced something and declared with raised head:

"We who establish schools do so neither for wealth, nor for power, nor for fame. We do it so that one day: all the land under heaven will be the soil of Huaxia, and all the people on earth will be subjects of Huaxia!"

For a moment, all the scholars within earshot stood dumbstruck. These words were arrogant in the extreme, far exceeding anything as mundane as "rebelling to become emperor."

The height of wild insolence! Huang Bingkun thought to himself.

He observed Liu Dalin's expression—and found it remarkably complex. Silently he cursed: You people also dare claim Huaxia! These were mad demagogues bent on transforming the civilized into barbarians, yet they kept hanging the word "Huaxia" on their lips as a banner. Truly shameless beyond measure.

Huang Bingkun had originally planned to use this opportunity for a proper conversation with Huang Ping—particularly to sternly point out that embracing female students was "injurious to public morals," and that any girl who would embrace him so must be "flighty and lascivious." He wished Huang Ping to examine himself properly and not sink further into depravity. Who would have imagined that his former servant, upon encountering him, displayed no consciousness of the distinction between master and servant? Before he could even commence his lecture, Huang Ping casually mentioned he needed to shower immediately and had evening self-study afterward, then simply took his leave.

"There's a physics test tomorrow. I need to go back and review properly," Huang Ping explained. "The teacher says: master mathematics, physics, and chemistry and you can dominate the world. I need to put in some genuine effort."

This left Huang Bingkun feeling utterly lost: Huang Ping had served him since childhood, with a bond far deeper than that of ordinary master and servant. Now that he had come here to study, he seemed to have grown distant. What was so special about the Australians' learning that it could bewitch people's hearts so?

Had his decision to send Huang Ping to study here been the correct move? Should he simply summon Huang Ping back and end his schooling? If so, the channel he had painstakingly arranged to understand the Australians would be severed. But if he didn't recall him, at this rate, Huang Ping was destined to transform into a "fake-pirate."

Carrying this conflicted state of mind until dinnertime, Dong Yizhi noticed him looking somewhat abstracted in the cafeteria and inquired whether his appetite was poor.

Huang Bingkun shook his head. He suddenly asked: "Just now I heard a Fangcao Di student say, 'Master tree-li-wa and dominate the entire world.' Is that true?"

Dong Yizhi was puzzled for a considerable moment before comprehending. He burst out laughing: "It's 'Master mathematics, physics, and chemistry, and go anywhere under heaven.'"

Huang Bingkun persisted: "Is this 'tree-li-wa' really that formidable?"

Dong Yizhi affirmed: "Of course. Shipbuilding and construction, road-building and bridge-erecting, marching and fighting—how could any of that proceed without mathematics, physics, and chemistry?"

Huang Bingkun concluded that this "tree-li-wa" must constitute the Australians' secret arts. He listened as Transmigrator Dong continued: "But even if you're proficient at math, physics, and chemistry, your three views must also be correct." Seeing Huang Bingkun's blank expression, Transmigrator Dong elaborated: "The three views are worldview, outlook on life, and values." Only then did Huang Bingkun's expression show comprehension.

In truth, what Huang Bingkun was actually thinking was: apparently the pirates' secret arts followed the Way. These "ten-commandments-view," "ginseng-view," and "appreciation-view" must be three extremely important Taoist temples in Australia. If the opportunity ever arose, he must visit and investigate them.

Huang Bingkun inquired further: "I've also heard that students must practice the 'tree-li-wa' talismans daily, not only memorizing them but copying them repeatedly."

Transmigrator Dong laughed: "Those aren't talismans, they're formulas. Formulas have universal applicability; they can solve all sorts of problems in the world. They're extremely important."

Huang Bingkun's heart leaped with joy. These "formula talismans" must be the key to the pirates' secret arts. So he humbly requested instruction: "Might the Transmigrator grant me... ah, teach me some formulas?"

Dong Yizhi wondered, what do you want these for? Have you really seen the light after this visit? So he withdrew a notebook and casually wrote down several mathematical and physics formulas for him. Huang Bingkun accepted the paper and examined it repeatedly, then asked: "Which is the most powerful?"

Dong Yizhi casually pointed to one and said: "This one. This one is most important."

Huang Bingkun treasured the formula paper and carefully stored it away, intending to take it home and study it thoroughly.

That evening, Huang Bingkun sat at the desk in his dormitory practicing Australian talismans. After copying more than a dozen pages, he still sensed something was amiss. Slapping his forehead, he sighed: "Alas! I forgot that the pirates draw their talismans using Australian pens and must write horizontally from left to right."

So he immediately sought out the school's convenience store and purchased Australian charcoal pencils. He also adopted the "Australian calligraphy" style for copying formulas. But years of habit writing from right to left and top to bottom made him extremely uncomfortable. He couldn't help grumbling while writing: "The Analerta says 'unkempt hair and left-lapelled robes.' These pirates with their short hair and left-to-right writing—being abroad so long truly transformed them into barbarians."

But though the talismans were copied well, he still couldn't make head or tail of what "tree-li-wa" actually meant—he would simply have to wait for Huang Ping to return and inquire.

The delegation's visit had reached its final day. Though they had only stayed two nights, most delegation members were already anxious to depart.

During their time at this Australian school, the overwhelming impression was that "I'm an uneducated person." Even the content studied by the very lowest-level Junior Elementary students—much of it proved completely incomprehensible to them. This made the scholars feel quite wounded. Worries about future prospects left them unable to spare any thought for critical spirit.

Chinese scholars had always taken "excel at studies and become an official" as their ultimate life goal. When they discovered that their "bellies full of learning" wasn't part of what the Australians sought in selecting "scholars," one and all they panicked.

Though what they had learned satisfied the Great Ming's standards for selecting officials, these scholars were well aware in their hearts that, given this county's literary tradition, they might not produce even one jinshi in another hundred years. Producing a few juren would already be noteworthy enough to record in the county gazetteer.

Now there appeared this Australian nouveau riche—whether they intended to seize the realm and ascend the dragon throne, or merely carve out Hainan, for frustrated scholars this represented a brand-new opportunity. If they could attach themselves early, securing a minor post in the new dynasty would surely pose no difficulty. Quite a few in the delegation were people hoping to climb into positions; this visit to Fangcao Di was partly to probe the Australians' selection standards.

Now it transpired that Australian learning was completely different from theirs. Their only advantage over these students was knowing more characters and being able to compose a bit of poetry.

Given this situation, several of them pressed Transmigrator Dong—who frequently appeared to receive them—to build connections, hoping to discover some chance to study "Australian learning."

Transmigrator Dong smiled and thanked them for their interest. However, he explained that Fangcao Di currently only offered classes for children. There were no classes for adults. The only classes currently open to adults were literacy teacher training classes. If the gentlemen were interested, they could apply to become literacy teachers at Purification Camps, and then they would have opportunities to participate in specialized training.

These words deflated them considerably—it wasn't as if no scholars had gone to Purification Camps to become literacy teachers, but those were all student scholars who couldn't even pass the initial examination, clerks who had lost their positions, or at most impoverished licentiates. For them—people who were after all men of some face and standing in the scholarly world—to associate with such company was really beneath their dignity.

(End of Chapter)