Li Dazui Read history with a big mouth
China's couplet culture has a long history, dating back to the Three Kingdoms period.
There are many couplet stories circulating in folklore, either the works are exquisite or the authors are famous.
Today's story, the couplet itself is not exquisite, but it is very famous for the couplet, and more importantly, different couplets actually foreshadow the lives of different authors.
According to Lang Zhao's "Seven Revision Drafts", "Li Xiya, the elder of the cabinet, Cheng Huangdun, and chenghuajian were each held in Beijing as prodigies. Fang Chao saw, suitable for the direct tribute crab to Yan, Yingzong immediately out of a pair of test clouds, crabs covered in armor. Cheng to Yue, Phoenix all over the article. Lee is right, and the spider is full of warp. After the West End into the phase and the economic world. Cheng Ze finally bachelored and became famous for his articles. Occasionally, a couple, and a lifelong career. ”
Here, Li Xiya is a generation of famous ministers Li Dongyang, "fifty years after the founding of the dynasty, eighteen years of the country", in the civil service for a full fifty years, as the premier for eighteen years.
Cheng Huangdun is Cheng Minzheng, perhaps not so famous, but to say one thing, many people know.
This Cheng Minzheng once served as the chief examiner, and it was during that scientific expedition that the great talent Tang Bohu was innocently involved in a fraud case in the examination room, and as a result, Tang Bohu was isolated from his career, and Cheng Minzheng was also wronged and angry, and he cried out for his life.
This couplet story tells that Li Dongyang and Cheng Minzheng were both known as prodigies when they were young, and the emperor was very interested, so he wanted to see and see.
When the two children stood in front of the emperor, just in time to send tribute crabs on the place, the emperor casually came out with a "crab full of armor", the two children did not timidly, Li Dongyang was on a "phoenix full of articles (heraldic)", and Cheng Minzheng was on a "spider full of belly".
From the perspective of the neatness of the couplet, the two lower links are no problem, but Li Dongyang's lower league is obviously larger, and this also indicates the future of the two people: Li Dongyang has achieved the first assistant of the cabinet above ten thousand people under one person, Cheng Minzheng has only achieved a bachelor's degree, and he is very famous in the literary world, and the achievements in the official field are not enough to see compared with Li Dongyang.
However, the story recorded by Lang Kun is a little flawed, that is, the emperor and the era are mistaken.
Judging from the experience of Li Dongyang and Cheng Minzheng, the period of their "prodigy" should be during the reign of the Jingtai Emperor, Li Dongyang was born in 1447, Cheng Minzheng was 1 year older than Li Dongyang, after the "Change of Tumu Fort" in 1449, Ming Yingzong temporarily withdrew from the historical stage, and when the "change of the door" came back, it was already 1457.
As for the Chenghua years mentioned by Lang Kun, it began in 1465, when Li Dongyang and Cheng Minzheng were almost 20 years old, and they had long been out of the age range of prodigies.
There is also a record of the prodigy Li Dongyang in Cha Jizuo's Records of Sin.
At that time, Li Dongyang's father took Li Dongyang to see Emperor Jingtai, when entering the main hall, the threshold was very high, Li Dongyang people had short feet, they could not cross over, the emperor was in a good mood, came to a shanglian "prodigy foot short", Li Dongyang did not hesitate, the next "Tianzi gate high", both neat, but also patted the emperor's ass.
Emperor Long Yan Dayue leaned over and picked up Little Li Dongyang and made him sit on his knee, at this time, Li Dongyang's father was very nervous to the side.
When the emperor saw this scene, he made another upper link: "The son sits on the father's standing, courtesy?" Li Dongyang did not beat Ge Leng, and casually said to him, "Sister-in-law drowning uncle aid, Quan Ye." ”
The story is more believable, at least time-appropriate.
However, Li Dongyang also has a stain, and history says that he is attached to the eunuch Liu Jin, but it is not clear whether he is greedy for life and afraid of death or bears the burden of humiliation.
Politics is not the same thing as articles. Articles can be judged by good or bad, and politics is complicated.