We read all the lead to present a different history.
When it comes to the imperial examination, everyone will be familiar with it. However, some friends may not know that the ancient examination can be much more difficult than today's "college entrance examination". In ancient times, if you wanted to be a champion, you generally had to go through many tests such as the township test, the meeting test, and the temple test. If examinations such as the township examination and the meeting examination focus on examining the kung fu on paper, then the temple examination has a deep subjective color and uncertainty.
▲ Ancient image of the yuan
The temple examination was generally presided over by the emperor himself, and the first three were selected from some of the selected scholars (i.e., gongshi), who were designated as champions, list eyes, and tanhuas, especially the most important of which were the champions. Generations of students have been reading hard for several years in order to be able to achieve the leap in life of "Chao Wei Tian Shelang, Twilight Heavenly Son Hall". For those students who can participate in the palace examination, they will often prepare well and strive to show the emperor what they have learned in their lives in order to impress the emperor. However, everything is unexpected, and there is such a tribute in history who was directly hand-picked as a champion because he would not answer the examination questions from the emperor.
▲ Ancient temple test scene painting
This strange emperor was a narcissist, the Qianlong Emperor. Later generations' evaluation of the Qianlong Emperor has always been praised and depreciated. It is undeniable that during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor, the Qing Dynasty reached the peak of prosperity, social stability, and prosperity of the people's livelihood, showing a vigorous vitality. However, as far as the Qianlong Emperor was concerned, he was too proud and arrogant, blindly pretending to be the king of the heavenly kingdom and implementing the policy of "closing the country behind closed doors". Judging from the history of the late Qing Dynasty, it was the "closed country" policy of the Qianlong period that indirectly caused China's decline and humiliation for hundreds of years. As an emperor, the Qianlong Emperor had always been a vassal of elegance, and was the most prolific person in poetry, and there was no one. According to statistics, the Qianlong Emperor wrote as many as 41,863 poems in his lifetime.
▲The Qianlong Emperor's imperial dress
For the monarch, he can have his own small hobbies, but once this hobby becomes his own capital to show off, it is the misfortune of the state and his courtiers. The Qianlong Emperor himself liked calligraphy and painting, which was bound to cause his ministers to pat the emperor's ass. Of course, there will also be some people who will be tortured because of this--the Qianlong Emperor often liked to show off his literary talents in front of his subordinates, and often asked the ministers to confront him. This put the chancellor in a dilemma, and if he answered or answered well, it would make the Qianlong Emperor faceless. If you can't answer or don't answer well, you will appear to be very incompetent. Therefore, on the surface, the minister was very interested, but in fact, few people were willing to oppose the Qianlong Emperor's poetry.
▲ Qianlong Throne of the Imperial Pole Hall
Not only did he treat the ministers like this, the Qianlong Emperor also brought personal preferences to the serious state examinations, and whenever there were students who took the palace examination, the Qianlong Emperor often had to take the exams. In a temple examination, Qianlong gave the students a five-character upper link, the content of which was "Smoke Lock Pond Willow". At first glance, this upper link seems to have nothing surprising, but in fact it has a very deep meaning, and it can even be said to be an ancient absolute, this couplet is beautiful and fascinating in the artistic conception, in addition, the more rare is that the five words of the couplet contain the five elements of gold, wood, water, fire and earth, and even the legendary talent Ji Xiaolan has not been on the lower link in his life. For candidates, it is naturally difficult to come out.
▲Qing Dynasty Imperial Examination List
After half a day, one of the examinees stood up and said directly to the Qianlong Emperor: "Your Majesty's appearance is too difficult to join, and the last study is impossible to do." As soon as the words fell, the gongshi turned to leave, but was stopped by the Qianlong Emperor. The Qianlong Emperor said that this couplet was originally a dead pair, and that it could be given up decisively after thinking, which was enough to show that he was honest and dared to give up, and that people were self-aware, so they hand-picked it as a new branch leader. Of course, this gongshi may also be trying to get away with it, ostensibly telling the truth, but in fact praising the Qianlong Emperor's superb level without a trace, and the art of speaking is so pure, which emperor would not like it?
Resources:
"Qing Barnyard Banknotes", "Qing Shi Lu Gaozong Shi Lu"