Entry
Cheng-hua: Year 17, Month 2, Day 29
28 Mar 1481
The Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Right Wu Cheng, grand coordinator of Yun-nan, memorialized: "It is requested that all of the native-official offices be instructed to send the due heir of their office to a Confucian school in a nearby prefecture to study, so that he will know loyalty, filial piety, propriety and righteousness. Thereby, their yi ways will be changed and the problems of succession struggles will be eliminated. Also, teachers and students at the schools should be forbidden from demanding salaries or presents from these heirs." The Ministry of Rites re-submitted the memorial, noting: "It is held that this will be beneficial in civilizing them and it seems to be feasible. If the area is distant or the child young, a village school should be established and a scholar from a nearby area could be engaged as a teacher. They then should be subject to examination by the supervisory education officials." The Emperor said: "Agreed. The native officials of Yun-nan have for generations fulfilled their tribute duties without daring to transgress, and yet succession dispute problems regularly occur. This is because although they have been made subject to rule, they have not yet been subject to the civilizing influences of education. You are to instruct all of the native officials to send their due heirs to study, as the grand coordinator and ministry suggested. In this way, the habit of the man and the mo of struggling for succession will gradually die out, and the civilizing influences of Chinese propriety and righteousness will reach to the distance. How wonderful this will be!"
Xian-zong: juan 212.6a-b
Zhong-yang Yan-jiu yuan Ming Shi-lu, volume 47, page 3695/96
Preferred form of citation for this entry:
Geoff Wade, translator, Southeast Asia in the Ming Shi-lu: an open access resource, Singapore: Asia Research Institute and the Singapore E-Press, National University of Singapore, http://epress.nus.edu.sg/msl/reign/cheng-hua/year-17-month-2-day-29, accessed January 22, 2019