Ji Xiaolan gave the master a pair of couplets. A few years later, the master was almost angry.

Ji Xiaolan gave the master a pair of couplets. A few years later, the master was almost angry.

Ji Xiaolan was a politician and writer in Qing Dynasty, and also the editor-in-chief of Sikuquanshu. He was well-read and brilliant since he was a child, and won the favor of Emperor Qianlong. Although Ji Xiaolan has read many poems, he is not a bookworm. He is alert and changeable all his life, and often uses various couplets to tease his colleagues, especially Xiao Shenyang, but he can't help Ji Xiaolan every time.

Once, after Qianlong took Xiao Shenyang and others to the south of the Yangtze River, Ji Xiaolan didn't go out to play with everyone because of something, so in order to kill time, he went to a nearby temple to play alone. The host in the temple is a master in his fifties and sixties. When he heard that Ji Xiaolan, a great genius, had come, he naturally felt very happy and even held a grand welcoming ceremony. At first, Ji Xiaolan had great respect for the master, because he didn't know all the ins and outs of each other.

However, after just drinking a cup of tea, Ji Xiaolan found that the "master" opposite was actually just a mediocre person. Suddenly he was disappointed, so he made an excuse and left. However, the master couldn't let him leave easily, so he took a self-portrait and asked Ji Xiaolan to write an inscription for it. After thinking for three seconds, Ji Xiaolan wrote on the portrait: "I am full of energy and my face is old; The black scarf is white, and the turtle crane is auspicious. " After writing it, Ji Xiaolan was about to slip away when the master asked him to write a couplet for the meditation room. Ji Xiaolan couldn't refuse directly, so he had to write another couplet: "The phoenix swims in the shade of grain, the bird flies, and the horse walks beside the reed."

A few years later, a scholar came to the temple and burst out laughing when he saw two couplets written by Ji Xiaolan. When the master passed by, he was puzzled to see the scholar laughing so wildly. The master told the scholar that it was written by Ji Da. What's so funny? Then the scholar explained directly to the master.

It turns out that the first part: birds fly away in the shadow of grass, and if there is no bird in the phoenix (catfish), it is a "few", and when it is placed under the "grass", it is a "bald" word; The bottom line: the horse walks beside the reed, the grass is not born, and the reed has no grass, which is the word "household". Isn't the horse next to "Hu" a donkey? . Therefore, this seemingly good couplet actually has only two words, that is, "bald donkey". And "energetic and old-looking; The scholar did not give a positive answer to the sixteen words "black scarf is white, turtle and crane are auspicious". He just asked the master to read the first word of each sentence out loud. The master almost vomited blood before reading these four words, because these four words are "fine old turtle". At this time, the master can only mumble, "It's terrible to have no education. "