"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."
Those old tutors had come from the capital city originally to teach Liu Yun. Now that Liu Yun was no longer in River Bend Village, naturally they could not keep staying there.
Of course there would be no problem with them coming over for a few months.
The housing was ready and so were the teachers. The books Wang Er and Du Xiao Hui had purchased were also being transcribed in large quantities. It would not take too long for everything to be delivered.
It seemed like everything was prepared. Next would be student recruitment.
Following Li Yao's instructions, Du Xiao Hui took Wu Tong, Alice and Anna to post recruitment notices all over Yizhou City.
Wang Yuanguo also hired a large group to post notices in other counties too.
In almost no time, nearly the entire Yizhou region knew about the Yangming Academy.
"What does the notice say?"
Illiterate people were asking learned men dressed in green next to them.
"The notice says Yangming Academy in Yizhou City is recruiting three hundred students aged between six and fifteen, regardless of background. Even village kids can attend. But only candidates of outstanding moral character and academic competence can get in, through two screening tests."
"Can girls attend too?"
Undoubtedly, such news was shocking enough to astound everyone.
Never in history had anyone imagined that girls could also enter academies to study!
Even if some girls did get to study, it would be the daughters of high officials and rich merchants, secretly tutored at home rather than allowed into any academy.
Yet this newly opened Yangming Academy was thoroughly smashing such rules!
"That's what the notice says." The young man in green affirmed.
"Then how much are they charging per month?"
"Hang on. Let me read everything in order." He continued, "Once admitted as a student of Yangming Academy, one gets to live on campus. The academy provides quilts, clothes and footwear uniformly. It also issues books, writing brushes, ink sticks, etc. And three meals will be served daily too."
"So at the academy, you basically don't need your family to provide anything?"
"That's correct."
"For giving so much stuff, it must charge a hefty fee of at least a few taels of silver per month right?" Someone commented. "Otherwise it would be suffering huge losses!"
"It says here, the annual tuition fee is... three taels of silver?"
"What? Just three taels a year? You're joking right?"
The young man in green rubbed his eyes and confirmed he read it right. "I'm not joking. It's clearly printed there in black and white."
"Impossible. It cannot be true!" Someone retorted. "They must be tricking people in first before supplying them shabby stuff later and shoddy food. With barely qualified teachers too. Going to an academy like this would be utterly wasteful."
"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!"