Pu
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In the fourteenth year of Shunzhi, the villagers of Pujia Village in Zichuan County, Shandong Province, went home to beat their children, for the simple reason that Pu Songling, the third son of the businessman Pu Xun, took the first place in the case (the first place in the county test and the government test), which is equivalent to the first place in the xiaoshengchu and the middle school examination, both of which are the children of the civilian family, how can this difference be so big?
The next year, the children of Pujia Village had a more difficult life, and when they met Pu Songling on the road, they looked at him with a strange look, as if they were stared at by wolves in the grass when they walked at night, and Pu Songling was looked at with some hair.
However, the thin Pu Songling was not worried at all, because this year, he went to Jinan as the head of the case to participate in the hospital examination, and won the first place with a mysterious article "Early Rise", and successfully promoted to Xiucai.
Xiucai is an unusual figure in the village, and when he sees an official, he does not have to kneel, does not have to be an errand boy, and even if he commits a crime, he cannot be executed. And there is also income every month - the rice subsidy.
Pu Songling was only 19 years old at this time, the future was unlimited, the landlord Hao Gentry had to be respectful when he saw it, and those children with hostility could only roll their eyes behind their backs to vent their anger.
But things soon changed.
Two years later, Pu Songling's college entrance examination (township examination) fell off the list for the first time, and the township examination was to compete with the elites of the country, and it was normal to fall on the list, such as Zhang Juzheng, the first prime minister of the Ming Dynasty, who also experienced the township examination, but was still highly respected in his hometown. However, Pu Songling's treatment is different, and he is cold and cold by his fellow villagers every day, and the psychological pressure is extremely high.
For example, Pu Songling was preparing for the exam at the home of his classmate Li Ximei, and a guest came over and directly sneered and ridiculed: Time has passed, you have not yet been admitted to the imperial examination, you don't know how to be self-vigilant, it's a shame.
(The sun and the moon have passed away, and the work has not been accomplished, and it is enough to be ashamed of self-vigilance.) ）
After Pu Songling listened, not only could not refute it, but instead bowed his head and was ashamed. (Hey but shame).)
Pu Songling made up his mind to work hard to prepare for the exam, and had just finished formulating an ambitious study schedule: please book a book, recite a yanshu every day, read a yanshu, make an art, imitate a yanshu.
As a result, he received a remote ridicule from his friend, and his good friend Sun Hui wrote to him: You are such a smart person, read it with a little effort, you are a first-class character, can you read seriously?
(Brother Tai is extremely clever, a little bit of hard work, since he is a first-class person, I don't know if he is willing to use contempt as a yay)
Pu Songling felt aggrieved, he was exhausted every day, how could these people not know how to encourage and encourage themselves?
Soon, the second friend also sent a WeChat scolding, Zhang Duqing said extremely directly, directly revealing why the villagers mocked and scolded him reasons: after that, they still worked hard, chatted and talked about nothing!
It turns out that everyone is very clear that the reason why Pu Songling failed in the township test is not that his talent has disappeared, but that it is related to his literary and artistic addiction, after going to high school, although Pu Songling's study plan is very detailed, but his mind is completely absent from the eight strands of the text used in the exam, collecting all kinds of demons and ghosts stories all day long, writing novels, writing scripts, and writing slang tunes, he not only plays, but also plays quite seriously, and writes "Liaozhai Slang Songs" all night long.
It turned out that the villagers and friends were all well-intentioned, thinking that he was talented and talented, and there was so much human energy, and the more time he spent on novels, the less energy he had to study, and it was difficult to have both.
Although the novel script is good, the slang song is good, but it does not support the family.
If you don't wake him up, I'm afraid this prodigy will be a waste of firewood in this life.
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The fears of the villagers became a reality.
Pu Songling went farther and farther on the road of playing literature and art, and became more and more wasteful of firewood in the eight-share college entrance examination.
How much waste firewood is there?
If du fu in the Tang Dynasty is the most unlucky candidate, Du Fu's classmates met a difficult examiner in the first college entrance examination, and the second examination encountered the traitorous minister Li Linfuye, who had no left behind and did not take the policy, which is really unlucky, but compared with Pu Songling, it is really a small witch.
The prodigy Pu Songling's path to the imperial examination is simply a tear-jerking movie of "being born as a man, I am sorry": at the age of thirty-six, he took the seventh exam, fell first, forty-one, fell in the eighth exam, forty-two, failed the ninth exam, and at least once again took the exam at the age of forty-five to sixty-five, and still failed. Straight to the test made him "cold and hungry", miserable.
At this time, Pu Songling, who had stumbled into a greasy middle-aged man, was already poor and could not stand it. Can't pass the examination, can only be a village school teacher to earn some extra money, the income is not as good as ordinary villagers, and as a rural teacher, when the village encounters a bad harvest, his income will be broken, such as his "Locust Coming", "Only sorghum is waist-high, and the leaf banana can not be kissed by people", which means that only sorghum leaves can be eaten to fill the stomach.
Poverty is on the one hand, what is even more depressing is that there is no status, as an old Xiucai, all day long by corrupt officials and local tycoons and inferior gentry, can only swallow their anger, dare not speak out, one of them was forced by Zichuan County Caoyun, can only use the way of writing letters to report back, write letters to petition the competent officials, "with Wang Sikou" said that "there is a accumulation of stupid Kang Lizhen ... So the poor people of Xiayi were empty of skin and bones. ”
The root cause of all this pain comes from the failure of the college entrance examination, in ancient times, if you want to get ahead, in addition to inheritance, it is the imperial examination. Otherwise, you can only live at the bottom of society forever. At this time, Pu Songlin understood the difficulties of life, he had no other choice, he could only take the exam again and again after falling off the list again and again.
Of course, Pu Songling is not completely desperate, can't literature and art and the eight shares coexist? The left hand writes the novel, the right hand writes the eight strands, the left and right reflections, the right hand is old, as long as you don't give up your efforts, the glory of childhood will one day shine back on your face.
My cousin Pu Songling, is this life really a real waste of firewood?
To tell you the truth, Comrade Pu Songling, you have really been in this life, at least in the examination.
In view of the fact that Comrade Pu Songling's unfortunate history has been too long, and in view of the fact that he has suffered too much, we will no longer set up the suspense of his counterattack, but only say the result.
Pu Songling lived to the age of 75, until the age of 71, and when he was old, he could not win the lift, and even Fan Jin was not as good.
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Perhaps some friends feel arrogant, the adult world where there is no black and white, are all wanted, while playing online games while being admitted to Peking University, some are, Pu Songling can not pass the exam, can only say that the ability is not good.
In fact, Pu Songling's situation is really very special, when he took the township examination at the age of 19, he was vaguely aware that as long as he did not give up the writing of Liaozhai, the examination in this life would probably be hanging.
Remember the full score essay "Get Up Early" that he took the first place in the middle school exam? It is written in the form of his favorite novel, and the reason why the novel can also take the first exam is related to the inclusive examination atmosphere of the Shunzhi Dynasty.
The Shunzhi Emperor was a man with unique tastes, and he was not very kind to the eight-strand argumentative essay, but instead liked the vivid and impressive articles.
For example, Jin Shengsi once did a question called "Is it touching the heart like this?" This sentence is from Mencius. Jin Sheng sighed suddenly short-circuited his head and wrote such an eight-strand text: "In the middle of the empty mountains and poor valleys, there are ten thousand taels of gold; outside the dew and white leaves, there is a beautiful woman." Ask Confucius, are you moved? The Master answered: Move, move, move..... Thirty-nine moving words were written in one breath.
Written in this way, the college entrance examination paper in today's college entrance examination is also likely to be judged to zero points. As a result, after reading it, the Shunzhi Emperor actually gave a thumbs up and said, "This is a master of ancient Chinese, and it is not time to look at him." ”
However, compared with Jin Shengsi, Pu Songling was not so lucky, and when he took the township examination at the age of 21, he was already in the Kangxi Dynasty.
After entering the Kangxi Dynasty, the atmosphere of the imperial examination changed, Kangxi did not like the old father Shunzhi so much like the ghostly and unique text, he felt that the riot writers were not eligible to enter the examination room at all, let alone be admitted.
"The article is based on the play of righteousness, the relationship between the world is precious, and the word is troublesome, but at the end of the skill, it is not the most expensive."
The above is the examination syllabus re-published by the Kangxi Emperor.
After Pu Songling saw it, he felt that his eyes were black, and his heart was miserablely silent: The emperor's most hated troublesome lyricist and the end of the skill were officially under the fall.
Want to give up your favorite chat? There is too much energy invested in the novel, there is no way to turn back, the big officials have no hope of doing it, the super rich have no hope of doing it, even being a writer is not ok, and the things I write can't sell for money.
If I had to choose again, would I still go down this path?
These are meaningless, the keju waste Chai Pu Songling, oh no, we should call him the online writer Pu Songling, he understands very well.
Once on this path, there is no turning back.
Novels can't quit, this is the hobby I spend most of my time, but a person's energy is limited, you choose where to put it, your life path is naturally fixed.
Half a point is not by people.
It may be that he is too stimulated by the list, Pu Songling is becoming more and more addicted to the creation of ghost novels, of course, for real life, he has also thought of another life.
If I hadn't chosen to write fiction then, what would my life be like now? Maybe it has already been a gold list title or a life of glory and wealth. In the position of a high-ranking official, he lived his life in the envious eyes of everyone.
We all know all the mistakes, but in the end we can't change them.
What can be changed is called shortcomings, and what cannot be changed is called weakness.
Pu Songling's weakness is to talk about fasting, although reason tells him to write eight strands seriously, but the love of literature and art cannot be suppressed, the pleasure brought by writing ghost novels has been integrated into the bone marrow, the pen is suspense, is the plot, is the fun, but how can not be fully devoted to the eight strands, even if you know that the price may be a lifetime of poverty.
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In the Ming Dynasty, there was a person who never participated in the imperial examination, that is, Xu Xiake, a descendant of Xu Jing, one of the protagonists of the Tang Bohu fraud case, who traveled to the great rivers and mountains of the motherland on his own throughout his life, became the first donkey friend of the Ming Dynasty, and wrote a book of Xu Xiake's travels, which seemed crazy to people at that time, but Xu Xiake said before his death: Zhang Qian, Xuanzang of the Tang Dynasty, and Yelü Chucai of the Yuan Dynasty, they all traveled the world, but they all accepted the emperor's orders and were ordered to go to the four directions.
I was just a commoner, I was not ordered, I just wore a cloth coat, a cane, a straw shoe, and traveled the world by myself, so although I died, I had no regrets.
In fact, there are many things in this world that do not need a reason.
Just as Zhou Xingchi's classic question in the journey to the west: Do you need a reason to love someone?
"Xu Xia's Travels" records the details of the mountains and rivers of the motherland, involving geographical water conservancy and landforms, and is known as the greatest geographical work of the 17th century, translated into dozens of Chinese words and spread around the world.
To this day, when we sit in the movie theater and watch Zhou Xun and Chen Kun perform "Paint the Skin", who remembers the names of those winners in the Kangxi Second Year Township Examination, and this movie is only a small piece in the "Liaozhai Zhiyi" by Pu Songling, a professional who fell off the list.
"Liaozhai" is the name of a series, and Zhiyi is just one of them. Pu Songling also wrote "Liaozhai Anthology", "Liaozhai Poetry Collection", "Liaozhai Slang Song" and so on. The works that have been handed down include fourteen slang songs, three kinds of dramas, as well as "Nongsang Jing", "Daily Customs", "Provincial Quotations", "Yao Chongshu", "Caomu Zhuan" and other agricultural books, medicine books, a large number of poems and a large number of interesting texts.
These works have developed into a specialty today, which scholars call "Pu Xue".
There are two other people who enjoy this treatment in the field of literature and history, one is Cao Xueqin (Hongxue) and the other is Wang Yangming (Yangmingxue).
Unfortunately, these behind the glory, they can not see.
In the lives of Pu Songling and Xu Xiake, there is no autonomy, no recognition, at least not before they die, no interests, no future, giving up everything, spending a lifetime, just to write a travelogue or chat.
There are many kinds of successful life, and the prince will be the one who is the most publicized, the rich merchant.
Unfortunately, the threshold is too high, and most people have no luck with it.
But there is still a kind of life, although "one life has no chance to attach the tail, and the third life has the honor of falling on the sun mountain", it is enough to despise all the princes and generals, that is, in their favorite way, seriously and hard, to spend life.
Author: Our special guest author Haiyan
Resources:
"The Interaction between Shi Yanzhang and Pu Songling and Its Influence"
"Pain- The Driving Force of Pu Songling's Creation"
"A Heart of Sorrow and Indignation, a Lifetime of Talking- Reading Pu Songling's "Chatting with Zai Zhiyi""
"Women and Keju in "Chatting with Zai Zhiyi"
"Pu Songling's Simple Life"
"Those Things of the Ming Dynasty"