Talk about serial.

Someone once used this couplet to describe Mr. Pu Songling:

I didn't have a chance to follow the ponytail, but I was lucky to be in Sun Shan.

"Ji Wei" means "ancestor" and "capable person". "Accompanying ponytail" refers to the pace of chasing celebrities or gifted scholars, which can be extended to chasing fame and profit. These three words on Pu Songling mean seeking fame and profit.

"I can't keep up with the pace" means that Pu Songling missed Sun Shan in scientific research all his life.

19 years old (fifteen years of Shunzhi), Pu Songling was the first scholar in the three exams of county, state and Dao, and even the Zichuan County Records recorded that he was "famous for his writings".

His father, Pu Pan, pinned all his hopes on him.

However, since then, Pu Songling has suffered four defeats in the Sun Shan Juren Examination, which seems to have exhausted all his luck.

I took more than 40 exams in my life, and I didn't make up a tribute student until I was 7 1 year old. There are five kinds of tribute students, which are called "Five Tributes", namely, Eun Gong, Sui Gong, You Gong, Ba Gong and Gong Ke.

Pu Songling belongs to the "old tribute".

Old tribute, also called "tribute", is actually a scholar who has been a student for a long time (a student of national grain distribution), and the queue is a nominal title.

At the age of 65,438+09, the scholar is high and low. After more than 50 years as a scholar, I can't walk any further. Pu Songling's life did not disappoint.

What is the reason for this? Let's explore it together.

First of all, let's talk about the system of taking scholars in the Qing dynasty at that time. I think everyone is familiar with it. Formally, we call it "stereotyped writing". Eight-part essay consists of eight parts, namely, topic-breaking, topic-taking, topic-entering, open-position, middle-position, back-position and binding. The topics are all from the original texts of the Four Books and Five Classics.

In the past, students' exams all imitated the tone of saints such as Confucius and Mencius and talked about the way of governing the country and securing the country.

This is what we often say, to carry the word with the text and to learn from the world.

In ancient China, knowledge and technology were very practical.

For example, in the past, many scholars in the world suspected that the "four great inventions" that had a great impact on the world all came from China. Why didn't modern scientific civilization start in China?

Actually, it's because China's technology is very practical:

What was gunpowder invented for? Set off firecrackers to celebrate and blow up the mountains to clear the way;

What was the purpose of Sina's invention? For divination;

What was the purpose of inventing paper and movable type printing? In order to better record things.

Without all kinds of needs in production and life, there would be no such great invention.

This kind of science and technology, which is purely based on actual needs, is doomed to have no system and depth of science and technology compiled by western laboratories.

At that time, China (in fact, since ancient times) was very particular about "applying the world", learning written martial arts and selling goods to the emperor.

Therefore, we can imagine that Pu Songling's romantic style of "talking about ghosts" was likely to be recognized in the imperial examination room at that time in front of those examiners who wrote Miao Honggen's eight-part essay.

Obviously very difficult.

Therefore, it seems understandable that he has not been promoted for many years in a row.

But at this time, we have another question, so since the style of writing does not match, why did Pu Songling win three consecutive firsts when he first debuted? (County, government and road are equal to our present towns, counties and provinces)

In fact, this is because Pu Songling met a Bole, who was the examiner at that time-Shi.

Stone portrait

In the early Qing dynasty, there was a saying that "Nan Shi was applied to the Northern Song Dynasty", and "Nan Shi" refers to Shi Zhangrun.

This is a famous poet in the early Qing Dynasty, and Shi is famous for his magnificent imagination.

We can look at his poems:

From the corner of the empty village came the words of the ghost of the battlefield. -"After the chaos and a trip to the suburbs of Liu Wenbo"

Time flies for half a year, called wandering souls. -"Zhuyuankeng"

Wind and rain in amityville horror. The mountains are full of sadness. -"Recalling the past and sending Song Li Shang to Longxi"

In his poems, ghosts, wandering souls, ghosts and gods and other images emerge one after another.

Although it can't be inferred that Shi likes these "Machamp fans" very much, we can know that the great poet doesn't reject these eccentric things.

Stone statue

At the same time, Shi has a greater advantage-cherishing talents.

Pu Songling's "Rouge from a Lonely Studio" tells a story:

"I tasted the celebrity entrance, wrote the article" Cherish Prosperity "and mistakenly wrote" Underwater "; It was only after the recording that I realized that, as expected, there was no reason. Because the lyrics say: "The treasure is in the mountains, but it is mistaken for the water's edge. The Crystal Temple is built on the mountain. Hu Changfeng is pointed, and the beads are at the top of the tree. This time, the punter fell to his death on the cliff! Tell heaven: leave some tips for friends. "When the master read it, he said," Bao will boast about the mountain, and suddenly he sees the water in the water. The woodcutter talks like a fisherman. Although the title is poor, the text is good. How can it be placed under others? "

It is said that in an exam, a candidate misjudged the topic and thought it was too far from the topic and hopeless, so he wrote a poem with a self-deprecating charm at the back of the test paper, saying, "Leave some tips for my friends to see", in fact, he was asking for "save some face for me and don't make a fool of yourself in front of my friends". Therefore, Shi did not send duck eggs directly, but wrote a poem specifically to echo the candidates.

It is very rare for people to cherish talents so much. Even Pu Songling bluntly said that he "loves talents like life".

At that time, Shi saw Pu Songling's sharp and spicy writing and ingenious ideas, and immediately moved, and immediately named Pu Songling the first place.

Pu Songling is also very grateful to the teacher. He said:

"Mr Yushan is also my teacher. You were still a boy when you saw it. Stealing his prize for scholar, I am afraid of boxing; If there is a little grievance, it will be handled well. I refuse to be a school. I want to brag about my power. There is more than one generation of masters who have truly passed on sages, and there is no one in Hengwen. "

His gratitude to his teacher is beyond words. After all, swift horses are common, but Bole is not.

However, we can't ignore that, to a certain extent, it is also the greatest Bole who hurt Pu Songling.

Teacher Ma Ruifang once said that when Pu Songling took the exam, Shi gave him the title "The Rise of Fleas".

This topic comes from "Qi people have wives and concubines" in Mencius:

"When fleas started, charity came from good people."

It means: when I wake up in the morning, my wife secretly follows her husband.

Pu Songling wrote this at the beginning of this topic:

"The fleas also, definitely. Why do couples get together early? Just because of a lover. It takes a lot of effort to taste wealth. Gentlemen drive away the DPRK and villains drive away the wild, all of which are wealth. As for those who are not rich, they are eager to serve the door of wealth and are afraid of meeting and hating each other. Those who do good deeds and do nothing are not experts, but women in the boudoir. "

It is pointed out that the wife actually followed her husband in pursuit of wealth, and his face was ugly. At the same time, it includes all the ugly gestures of the world's fame-seeking people (gentlemen drive the DPRK, villains drive the wild, and they are all rich). A few crossings, the skills can be seen.

Stone after watching very happy:

"The first art has a strange smell in the air, which lasts for a hundred years. Exposing a rich state on the words for a while is straight enough to maintain the morals and customs. The second time, reading is like the moon, writing is like the wind, and there is a joy of taking off the arm. "

He said, "It's fun to parade with bare arms", which is as cool as swinging your arms.

If the beginning is really amazing, let's take a look at the end. At the end, Pu Songling wrote:

"This also, people doubt how, also unknown. Not earlier than before, but earlier than today. Does it make me rich? The general will say, "I am dead, but who am I?" "And women shouldn't. This also, qi people fortunately, is unknown. If you dare not get up first, if you dare not get up, will you respect my wealth? The general will say, "My daughter-in-law has retired and doesn't have to work together. And women don't care. "

We don't pay much attention to style here. Just look at what Pu Songling wrote. He directly supplemented the conversation between Qi people and their wives. Where is this eight-part essay? This is obviously a mini-novel.

Such an article is far from stereotyped writing, and it should be reasoned in the tone of Confucius and Mencius, but the examiner Shi applauded, making Pu Songling mistakenly think that this is the level of scientific research articles.

Therefore, since Pu Songling 19 entered the imperial examination, his whole style of writing has actually gone astray, which has also laid the groundwork for his repeated failures.

A word from teacher Ma Ruifang:

"Pu Songling's eight-part essay emphasizes talent and deviates from the runway, which should be the main reason."

To some extent, the first place in his previous three exams can be said to be due to luck, because if the same article falls into the hands of other examiners, there may be no such achievement. In Qing Dynasty, examiners were required to be officials of ministries and colleges who were born in Hanlin and Xiucai. Therefore, it is not surprising that Pu Songling frequently failed in the exam when he met those examiners who studied eight-part essay since childhood and firmly adhered to the main theme of "hard work".

Therefore, it is a pity that Shi saved Pu Songling's novel creation talent, but it also made him fail to pass the exam all his life.

Generally speaking, the reason why Pu Songling failed in the list all his life was that his writing style deviated and did not meet the requirements of the ruling class at that time, so he fell out of Sun Shan for more than 40 times. This is Pu Songling's tragedy, but it is our blessing. If he is on the list, will we still have a chance to read more than 500 well-known strange books in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio?