Jiajing prodigy Qi Jie

Qi Tianguan (1545-1576), zi Shixiu, Xiaohu, Sizhou Zhaoxianli (now Xuyi Baoji, Tiefo) people, one of the youngest jinshi of the Ming Dynasty, intelligent and clever since childhood, is a well-known prodigy.

In the spring of the twenty-fourth year of Jiajing (1545), Qi Ang, a Sizhou native who had experienced grain harvesting in Jeju Wei, resolutely decided to resign and return to his hometown for the sake of his children's future. As soon as he left, the letter of appointment for promoting him to Tongzhi of Tai'an Prefecture came down, and his colleagues were sorry for him. One night in the winter of this year, the couple each had a bizarre dream: Qi Ang dreamed that he had been transferred to the Office of The Civil Selection Department of the Bureaucracy, and all the officials congratulated him; his wife dreamed that two snakes swam into the room, one snake suddenly disappeared, the other snake ascended to heaven, and the sky thundered. The next day, the twins landed on the ground, and after the full moon, they also suffered from acne rashes and died prematurely. Qi Ang was full of sorrow and joy, and named his son Qi Jie, hoping that he would realize his dream of becoming an official in the future and honor his ancestors.

When Qi Jie was five years old, he studied with his father and never forgot it. When he was six years old, he studied with a school master, and mr. Taught the "Three Character Classic" and "Hundred Family Names", and the students all felt that it was difficult, but he said: "Just teach these things?" The gentleman was taken aback and asked him to recite it, and he memorized half a book in one breath, so he asked him to study the "Filial Piety Classic" and "Zhongyong" directly. He listened carefully to the teacher's explanation, read the content he learned in time every day, and did not recite it without rest. It took two years to conquer these two books. When he was eight years old, he studied the Analects, insisted on studying three chapters every day, concentrated on his mind, and had no distractions.

One day, gongs and drums were beaten on the street, the state official held a ceremony to welcome the new keju people, and the classmates went out to watch, and he was the only one who buried his head in reading. Someone asked him why he didn't go to the street to watch the liveliness, he said: "This is a matter for readers, and I will do the same in the future, so why should I watch it?" At the age of nine, he had completed the four books, could explain the great meaning of the four books, learned to write articles on the imperial examination, and mastered the essentials of combining inheritance and transformation with breaking and standing. At the age of ten, he learned "Mao Poems", wrote poems to fill in the words, and passed through five tones and six laws. Zhang Nandi, deputy director of the Ministry of Works, personally met with the examination after listening, and Qi Jie answered like a stream. He asked him to write on the spot, only to see him gushing with a fountain of thought, a wave, and the literary color was remarkable, Zhang Nandi sighed and exclaimed: "Really a prodigy, Qi Clan has a thousand-mile colt." Since then, the people of Sizhou have called him a prodigy.

When he was thirteen years old, Jiangsu Xuezheng Zhou Guan went to Sizhou to examine Xiucai, and Zhang Zongshan of Zhizhou read the eryi of the scriptures and "Wu Qi" written by Qi Jie, and was shocked, and he criticized on the examination paper: "It is really terrible to have these three works after leaving the swaddling. So he was rated as excellent and admitted as a show talent. Zhang Zhizhou loved this teenager very much and asked him to go to his home to study with his son. At the age of fourteen, he went to Fengyang Province to participate in the examination, ranking first among all the counties in the province. Jiajing forty years, in August, he went to Nanjing to examine people, before the exam dreamed of people sending pomegranates, woke up and said to people: "Pomegranates, clips also, I should be in the year of the first year, this year there is no hope." After the first step, he read more attentively, refused all socializing, and read behind closed doors. Three years later, when it was time for Dabi, his parents saw that he was nineteen years old and hoped that he would finish the marriage first, and he said: "The locust flowers are yellow, the children are busy, now is the tense period for preparing for the exam, I should go all out, and let's talk about the marriage in winter." "This year, the locust trees in Minglun Hall in Sizhou City are particularly lush, and there are several red flowers, which everyone says is a good sign." In August, Qi Jiezhong lifted, the good news came, people rushed to tell each other, and the people who came to the door to congratulate him broke the door. In the winter, when his parents mentioned the marriage again, Qi Jie refused to say: "Drinking above the deer feast, the golden list is titled before marrying a wife." The test is approaching and cannot be distracted. "Immediately charter a boat and brave the cold to embark on the road to Beijing to catch the exam."

In the spring of the forty-fourth year of Jiajing, the world's talents gathered in the capital and launched another round of fierce competition. In the end, 394 people were fortunate enough to become new subjects, many of whom were more than half a hundred years old, such as the famous essayist Gui Youguang was also admitted to this subject, and the department participated in the ninth examination, and was sixty years old. Qi Jie was the youngest of them, only twenty years old, with white skin, clear air, clear eyebrows, and for a time everyone was in the spotlight, exclaiming "Zi Tong". Some people said that your gold list has been inscribed, it is time for the night of the cave flower candle, and he refused to say: "I first received the emperor's favor, I only put on the official uniform, and I have not made any contribution to the country, how can I be busy with personal affairs?" Besides, Long Live Festival is coming, and I want to go with the hundred officials to pay homage to celebrate and talk about my little heart. So he went to the Punishment Department for internship, modest and studious, diligent and diligent, and produced the "Five Punishments and Five Services Diagram" to facilitate the handling of cases, which was highly praised by Shangshu Huang Guangsheng.

Someone informed Qi Jie that his fiancée, who had been seriously ill, had repeatedly postponed the marriage in order to catch up with the examination, and the chancellor reported to the emperor, and the emperor nodded his head in approval, and issued an edict ordering Qi Jinshi to return to his hometown to complete the marriage. The news of Qi Jinshi's "consummation of marriage by order" immediately spread all over the place, and friends wrote poems to fill in the words to congratulate each other, just like The Young Liang Ziqi's "Four Hundred Middle-Aged And Smallest Marriage Speeches":

The scenery of the Holy Pilgrimage is good at this time, and I hope that the immortal boat will travel in the sky. The end of the world is not helped to be surrounded by clouds, and the crimson purple glory returns to Yan Wan. Icing on the cake, this encounter is rare. But thinking of the long way ahead, the husband's career must be mian mian.

At that time, the famous painters in Beijing made paintings, and the poet Wang Shucheng compiled the poems and paintings into a commemorative collection of essays, "Xiaohu Qijun Gui marriage album", which became a good story recited by the four parties. Later, Qi Jie served as the chief of the Civil Selection Department of the Bureaucracy and the Examination Gong SiLangzhong, and his father's dream of that year was truly realized in him.