Su Shi is both talented and talented, and there have been many anecdotes about him in the folklore, and some of the legends are obviously different from the facts.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="2" >, folk legends about Su Shikeju exam</h1>
Folklore has spread the story that Su Shi's first entry into Beijing to take the imperial examination was a blockbuster, and the ups and downs of the process were full of dramatic effects.
It is said that Su Shi went to Beijing with his father Su Xun and his younger brother Su Rui to take the exam. Su Shi made the chief examiner Ouyang Xiu and other examiners greatly appreciate the article "The Theory of Rewarding Loyalty and Thickness", and unanimously agreed that this article should win the first place.
However, at that time, the examination papers had to be "pasted", so Ouyang Xiu did not know that the author of this article was Su Shi, but instead thought that such an excellent article must come from his proud protégé Zeng Gong.
Ouyang Xiu has always been cautious in doing things, afraid that others will say that he is partial to his protégés, and feels that it is necessary to "avoid suspicion", so he judges this article as the second place. He was surprised to learn that the author of the article was Su Shi and not Zeng Gong, and since then he has spared no effort to promote Su Shi.
For Su Shi's article "On the Reward of Loyalty and Thickness", the examiners still have a little doubt, that is, the "allusions" quoted in it:
When Yao was in power, Gao Tao was a soldier. Will kill, Gao Tao said "kill" three, Yao yue "Yu Zhi" three.
Even though the examiners were erudite, no one could tell the origin of this allusion. But no examiner dared to raise a hasty objection to this, because if this allusion was true, others would not know it if they knew it. These old scholars regard face as more important than life, so they all silently admit this "allusion".
Later, when Su Shi was visiting Master Xie En, Ouyang Xiu finally couldn't help but ask him about the origin of the allusion of "Yao and Gao Tao". At first, Su Shi just prevaricated: "From the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, the Biography of Cui Yan." ”
Ouyang Xiu, who was meticulous in his work, carefully read the classics several times, and did not find the allusions that Su Shi said. Therefore, when he saw Su Shi again, Ouyang Xiu asked about it again. Su Shi saw that he could not hide it, so he had to tell a story: when Cao Cao gave Zhen Mi, the wife of Yuan Shao's son Yuan Xi, to Cao Pi, Kong Rong contemptuously said, "The King of Wu cut down the silk, and gave it to the Duke of Zhou with himself" to secretly satirize Cao Cao, and Cao Cao asked where this allusion came from? Kong Rong said that he speculated about ancient events based on Cao Cao's actions, and that he was "taking it for granted."
Then, Su Shi said sincerely: "The story of 'Yao and Gao Tao' that I used is also taken for granted!" ”
Ouyang Xiu was originally a literary reformer, and seeing that Su Shi dared to break the old and corrupt, not only did he not pursue his fault in fabricating allusions in the examination, but instead more vigorously recommended and trained him, making Su Shi famous in the Beijing Division.
This story has been sung in the folk for nearly a thousand years, and the common people have always regarded Su Shi as the reincarnation of Wenqu Xing, so they take it for granted that this is true, and after countless interpretations, the dramatic effect of the story has become stronger.
Is this story real? Where did the rumors come about? What are the historical facts? Although this series of questions is difficult to verify, through the analysis of historical data, we can also roughly deduce the mystery.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="41" > second, Su Rui wrote an epitaph for his brother in vague words</h1>
The circulation of the above story should begin with the epitaph written by Su Rui for Su Shi.
Su Shi's life was full of twists and turns, and he finally died in Changzhou on the way back to the north, and the task of writing his epitaph fell on his younger brother Su Rui. Su Rui is also a generation of literary heroes, sprinkling in the epitaph, describing Su Shi's life in detail and exquisitely, highlighting Su Shi's achievements, and at the same time hiding his shortcomings as much as possible.
Referring to Su Shi's first examination for the imperial examination, Su Rui described it like this:
In the second year of Jiayou, Ouyang Wenzhonggong took the examination for the ceremonial department to enter the priesthood, and when he was ill, Wen zhi was strange, and he thought of saving it. Mei Shengyu was given the "On Punishment Reward" to show Wen Zhong. Wen Zhong was surprised, thinking that he was a stranger, wanted to crown Duoshi, suspected that Zeng Zigu had done, Zi Gu, Wen Zhongmen Corporal also, was the second public.
From this text, it is easy to think that Su Shi performed well in the examination, believing that the examiner Mei Shengyu and the chief examiner Ouyang Xiu were both impressed by his policy "On The Reward of Punishment" and wanted to evaluate the first place in the article, but Ouyang Xiu suspected that this article was written by his protégé Zeng Gong, and in order to avoid suspicion, he sentenced this article to the second place, and for the details of other examinations, the epitaph did not mention it. Therefore, the reader also assumes that Su Shi won the second place in the imperial examination that year.
But in fact, Su Rui deliberately obscured most of the situation here, giving people the illusion that Su Shi had shined in the imperial examination that year. Why did Su Rui write this? What about the reality?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="42" > third, Su Shi exam single subject excellent, the total score is not outstanding</h1>
The Song Dynasty's imperial examination system is not a hammer and nail, but to carry out multi-faceted layer-by-layer selection of talents, the imperial examination first has to pass the township examination, the provincial examination, and finally enter the temple examination, only a small number of people with strong comprehensive ability can complete all the examinations and be selected into the soldiers.
Among them, the provincial examination includes four examinations of "policy, theory, endowment, affixing the scriptures and ink meaning", and Su Shi's performance in the two examinations of "policy" and "endowment" is not outstanding. In the "Stone Forest Yan Language" written by the Song Dynasty scholar Ye Mengde, he said: "Su Zizhan is at ease in the field house, his pen is powerful, and he cannot bend over backwards to make gifts." That is to say, Su Shi was not good at doing fu at that time, and he should not have obtained good results in the "fu" exam. As for Su Shi's achievements in the "strategy" test, there is no historical mention at all, which can be seen that it is also unremarkable.
In the "On" test, Su Shi wrote a "On Punishment Reward", which wrote an allusion to "Yao and Gao Tao" that did not know the source, so that the examiner Mei Shengyu was embarrassed and went to ask the chief examiner Ouyang Xiu, Ouyang Xiu saw that this policy was not bad, and did not care about the source of the allusions, and judged this article to be the second place. As for whether Ouyang Xiu avoided suspicion because he mistakenly thought that the article was written by his own student Zeng Gong, and changed the sentence of "On Punishment Rewards", which should have ranked first, to the second place, this is dead.
Later, Su Shi won the first place in the "Moyi" examination, and two of the four examinations were relatively excellent, so that he successfully passed the provincial examination and entered the palace examination. After the whole imperial examination, Su Shi finally got a B branch jinshi, Mo said that there are still a number of A section jinshi in front, even if the B section jinshi is lined up, I am afraid that Su Shi will not be able to turn the first. Therefore, Su Shi did not receive a title or a list of titles in this talented imperial examination, but was only an inconspicuous member of the three hundred and eighty jinshi.
There are too many cattle people in this session, Zeng Gong, Lü Huiqing, Wang Shao, Zhang Huan, Zeng Bu, Cheng Hao, Zhang Zai, and so on are among them, and the 20-year-old Su Shi, who was able to squeeze into this rank at a young age and took the imperial examination for the first time, was also caused by strength. In particular, Su Shi won the third class in the "examination of the system of science" in the later emperor's examination (the first and second grades were fictitious), which was the best result in the northern Song Dynasty in the past hundred years, so Su Shi had the title of "the first in a hundred years".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="43" >4. Why is Su Rui written in Su Shi's epitaph? Take it for granted! </h1>
Regarding Su Shi's fabrication of the "Yao and Gao Tao" allusions in his essay "On the Reward of Loyalty and Loyalty to Punishment" when he was taking the exam, this is indeed a matter of certainty. Because this "allusion" can no longer be found in Su Shi's "On Punishment Rewards". As for the details about why Su Shi and Ouyang Xiu discussed why they had to fabricate allusions later, there was no way to study them, and they could only be passed on.
And Su Ruiming knew that Su Shi did not get the best rank in the imperial examination, but he wanted to flash his words, so that readers mistakenly thought that Su Shi had won the second place, and also let Ouyang Xiu endorse it?
In fact, this can not be completely blamed on Su Rui, and the text of his epitaph is followed by fourteen words:
The repetition of "Spring and Autumn" is the first in the righteousness, and the temple test is in the B section.
Although Su Rui gave a supplementary explanation of the results of Su Shi's imperial examination that year, these fourteen words were too inconspicuous compared to the previous large-scale description. The reader is captivated by the wonderful story of the previous article and will not savor the statement that follows without waves. As a result, readers rushed to pass on the scenery fragments of Su Shike's examination, ignoring its unobtrusive results, so that it was deduced into a story with a plot comparable to that of a novel.
This is where Su Rui's cleverness lies. First of all, epitaphs are usually picked and heard, and those that are not good are not mentioned, after all, the dead are large, and the people who read them will not really calculate. Su Shi was seriously partial to the four examinations in the provincial examination that year, the good subjects were among the best, the bad subjects were not worth mentioning, Su Rui wrote out the best, and those things that could not be put on the table were hidden. Secondly, Ouyang Xiu may have really mistakenly thought that the article was written by Zeng Gong, but according to his character of reforming the old and the new, he would not deliberately demote his disciples because he wanted to "avoid suspicion", and it should be reasonable to judge Su Shi to get the second place in this article, Su Rui said this only to give Su Shi not taking the first place a step, but also highlighted his close relationship with Ouyang Xiu, presumably Ouyang Xiu's old master in the spirit of heaven does not care about this matter.
Su Shi and Su Rui were originally a pair of good brothers with deep feelings, and their literary styles also learned from each other, Su Shi's articles were not limited to historical classics, and su ru was also imitated. For those seemingly innocent stories written by Su Rui in Su Shi's epitaph, Su Rui can use a sentence of "take it for granted" to laugh indifferently.