"The Emperor puts the question before you thus: In the present condition of Imperial affairs, with an untrained army, with limited funds, with ignorant 'literati,' and with artisans untaught because they have no fit teachers, is there any difficulty in deciding, when China is compared with foreign nations, who is the strong and who is the weak? It is easy to distinguish between the rich and the poor. How can a man armed with a wooden stick smite his foe encased in a coat of mail? The Emperor sees that the affairs of the Empire are in an unsettled condition, and that his various Decrees have availed nothing, Diversity of opinion, each unlike another as fire differs from water, is responsible for the spread of the existing evil. It is the same evil as that which existed in the Sung and Ming dynasties (circa A. D. 1000 and 1500). Our present system is not of the slightest use. We cannot in these modern days adhere to the ways of the five Kings(circa B. C. 2500); even they did not continue exactly after the manner of their respective predecessors. It is like wearing thick clothes in summer and thin ones in winter. "Now, therefore, the Emperor orders all officials, metropolitan and provincial, from prince down to 'literati,' to give their whole minds to a real endeavour to improvement. With perseverance, like that of the saints of old, do your utmost to discover which foreign country has the best system in any branch of learning and learn that one. Your great fault is the falseness of your present knowledge. Make a special effort and determine to learn the best of everything. Do not merely learn the outside covers of the books of knowledge, and do not make a loud boast of your own attainments. The Emperor's wish is to change what is now useless into something useful, so that proficiency may be attained and handed on to posterity. The Metropolitan College will be the chief one, and must be instituted at once. The Emperor orders the Grand Councillors to consult with the Tsung-li Yamên on the subject, and to come to a decision as soon as possible, and then to memorialize the Throne. Any of the compilers and graduates of the Hanlin College, the secretaries of the Boards, the officers of the Palace Guards, expectant Intendants, Prefects, district Magistrates, and subordinate officials, sons and brothers of officials, the hereditary officials of the Eight Banners, and the sons of the military officials of the Empire, can enter the College who wish to do so. By this means knowledge will be handed down from one generation to another. It will be strictly forbidden to members of the College to be careless or dilatory in their studies, or to introduce as students any of their friends without regard for the latter's capabilities; for such things would frustrate the benefit of this excellent plan of His