In ancient times, there is a saying that people often hang on their lips, that is, "all things are under the quality of reading high", in the eyes of the ancients, reading is the best way out of a person's life, whether it is poor or rich, as a parent, they all hope that their children can be high school.
However, in ancient times, reading is not a simple thing, when the child is enlightened, it must be sent to the private school, but also to the husband to give gifts, for ordinary families, going to the private school is a huge expense, the child from the "Three Character Classic" to the "Four Books and Five Classics", this is a difficult process.
If you want to rely on the imperial examination, you must at least be familiar with the "Four Books", about 40,000 or 50,000 words, and you must be familiar with these to have the basis for taking the exam, please note that you only have the foundation, and then if you want to be admitted to the xiucai, lifting people, and entering the army, you must continue to study the subset of the history of the scriptures.
Many people have studied hard all their lives, but they can't get a meritorious name, and the lowest level of meritorious name in the Ming and Qing dynasties is to obtain the qualifications of students through the college examination, don't underestimate the qualifications of this student, some people do not get this qualification until they are dozens of years older, and with this qualification, they can continue the examination.
For the poor, the best way is to conduct scientific research, so in ancient times, the examination was often carried out by the poor, and most of them were able to support their families only by showing talents in the examination, and these talents usually made a living by teaching, and their lives were relatively poor, so they were called poor talents.
In some costume dramas, the image of "poor show talent" often appears, which leads the audience to mistakenly think that "poor show talent" is useless, and even scolds people for "poor show talent" at that time, but in the real life of ancient times, "poor show talent" is something that many people can't afford to climb.
Modern people have a great misunderstanding of Xiucai, in the Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, it is not easy to be able to obtain Xiucai, the reader first takes the tongsheng, and then goes to the county to take the exam, after passing the county exam and then to the prefectural exam, after passing the layers of exams, it is considered a Xiucai.
It is often said that rarity is precious, and so is a certain type of talent, so are there many ancient shows? If there is more, it is not worth much, and it is understandable to be called "poor xiucai", but the ancient xiucai is very rare, according to records, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, a county was usually only a dozen xiucai.
It can be seen that in ancient times, shows were scarce, and each show was very respected in his hometown or villages and towns, in addition to not being able to be an official, other benefits were envied, they belonged to the class of scholars, and for ordinary people, they were people with status.
Xiucai can also enjoy exemption from servitude, see the county grandfather does not have to kneel, in addition to Xiucai's field can be tax-free, so many people will hang the field under the name of Xiucai, in order to reduce taxes, so Xiucai's income is very good, in terms of social interaction, he can always find the county grandfather.
Therefore, the ancient show talent is not poor, even the poor show talent is envied or even high, otherwise why so many people sharpen their heads also have to be examined, the so-called unprofitable is not early.