Prodigy: The Ancient Path of the "Gifted Child"

The so-called prodigy refers to those children with extraordinary intelligence, who are talents who cannot be sought. However, in the Song Dynasty, a large number of prodigies emerged, and the more well-known ones are: Wang Yuwei was 6 years old, Kong Wenzhong was 7 years old, Jiang Tang was 6 years old, and Huang Tingjian was 7 years old and could compose poetry. Wang Zeng was "good at writing" from an early age; Su Shi was 10 years old and "heard the successes and failures of ancient and modern times, and was able to speak his own words"; Ye Mengde "became a student who became a scholar early"; Zhang Xiaoxiang "never forgot to read books since he was a child, and wrote thousands of words in an instant"; Chen Fuliang became an article as a child, becoming a family of his own, and so on.

In particular, Fang Zhongyong, a disciple of the Jinxi farmer in Jiangxi Province, was 5 years old and "did not taste the books", but he could "point to things and write poems, and his literature and science are all considerable". What's more, the prodigy Yang Yi was "several years old and unable to speak", but suddenly chanted the poem "Climbing the Tower": "The dangerous building is a hundred feet high, and the hand can pick the stars." I didn't dare to speak loudly, for fear of frightening the heavenly people. ”

To this end, the Song Dynasty specially set up a prodigy in the tribute, also known as the child lift, after examination to obtain an official or give birth, called a prodigy. Among them, Song Fang, Yan Shu, Jiang Gai, Li Shu, cai Boxi, and others during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song were successively given the title of Tongjinshi or Scholarly, while Cai Boxi of Fujian was the youngest, only 3 years old, and Song Zhenzong also gave him a poem: "Seven Fujian landscapes and rivers are multi-talented, and when a three-year-old strange child is in his prime."

After the implementation of the boy lifting in the Song Dynasty, more than 300 prodigies were recommended to participate in the boy test, but there were very few in the test, and there were only more than 30 people in incomplete statistics. During the reign of Emperor Xiaozong of Song, the Ministry of Rites said in the Song Shu: "The children of this dynasty are known as wen, Yang Yi, Song Fan, Yan Shu, and Li Shu, and later they are all sage ministers and famous attendants." However, after all, like Yang Yi, Yan Shu, and Li Shu, there are still very few people who eventually become the pillars of the country.

It was this system of child lifting in the Song Dynasty that gave birth to the upsurge of people creating prodigies. According to the "Literature Tongkao", when Emperor Yuanfeng of the Song Dynasty, there were two fasts in the Beijing Elementary School: "Just Fu" and "Chu Peng". During the reign of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, the style of running schools was particularly strong, and in the fourth year of Zhenghe (1114), there were nearly a thousand primary school students, and there were still successors who were divided into ten fasts. Children aged 8 to 12 are admitted, and the rate is based on the number of words in the chanting of the scriptures, and the difference is made up for the inner house and the upper house. The prefecture and county primary schools refer to the statutes of the primary school in Beijing, and their students prepare meals and pay for food to study at school.

Because of the good conditions for running schools in Kaifeng, Beijing, in order to enable their children to enter a good school to study, some parents do not hesitate to pull relations to find a way, and even take measures such as taking the county household to enter the primary school in Beijing. There are also some wealthy families who do not hesitate to hire tutors at great expense to "teach the Five Classics of the Second Teaching" in order to achieve the purpose of obtaining the name of prodigy.

But in such an artificial creation of gods, the quality of prodigies must be seriously reduced. In this regard, Song Gaozong was very sober: "There is something good on the top, and there will be something worse in the bottom, Gai Yu tasted the grace of one or two boys yesterday, so the seekers gathered, although this is a good deed, but it can be known that the Lord likes and dislikes, and it must not be judged... Since his ascension to the throne, the boy has taught grace and grace by reciting books, and has not heard of any famous person in Denko. Therefore, for these prodigies, On the one hand, Song Gaozong limited the number of people who participated in the boy exam, and on the other hand, for the prodigies who were recommended to take the exam, they were all released to their original places after taking rewards. For the reform of the children's examination, Song Gaozong began by reforming the examination system and the content of the examination. In addition to memorizing the scriptures, the test-taking children are required to give poems, read and understand the imperial poems, so as to test the candidates' comprehension and composition ability to make words and sentences.

The prodigy was screened out, but it was far from the useful talents of the country. Over time, these prodigies slowly disappeared with the passage of time. Song Zhu Xingzhong recorded in the "Record of Continued Return to Tian" that the prodigy Cai Boxi is an example: "Bo Xi Character Jing Fan, and Yan Yuanxian (Yan Shu) are five or six years old, and serve Renzong in the Eastern Palace as a prodigy. Yuan Xian was the most feminine since he was a child, and cai was the most feminine, and every time the prince passed the high, Cai Fu ordered the prince to walk on his back. Having practiced Zuo, Yuan Xian was known to have met the prime minister, and Cai was not very useful. Cai Boxi and Yan Shu were prodigies together, Fang Shi was three years old, and was once called "Seven Min Talents" and "Three-year-old Strange Boy" by Zhenzong, but he was not greatly used, and even became a prince and a stepping stone, on the contrary, Yan Shu was an official and prime minister.

Wang Anshi also recounted the encounter of a prodigy, Fang Zhongyong. Fang Zhongyong would write poetry compositions when he was five years old, and the neighbors and villagers read his poems "very strange" and sent money to fund them, so Fang Zhongyong became a "net red" prodigy at that time. However, his father did not cultivate his children well, but took his son's genius for profit, taking his children to visit relatives and friends all day long to obtain money and no longer let him learn. So gradually "not called the past", and eventually became "invisible to the people", and eventually fell into the countryside, no one cared.

In this regard, Wang Anshi sighed: "Zhongyong's enlightenment, the heaven of acceptance, the heaven of his acceptance, the wisdom of the talent is far away." If he is a multitude, he who receives from others will not be also. "No matter how smart the prodigy is, if he does not continue to cultivate and educate as he deserves, it will be difficult to become a great talent."

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