To say that the most extensive entertainment among ancient scholars is definitely not poetry, but a pair that has been passed down to this day. After all, not everyone is like the "Hundred Poems of Li Bai Dou Jiu", creating a masterpiece still has a certain degree of difficulty for many literati. For the pair, it is not the same. Not to mention the taste and the common appreciation, it is also interesting, so everyone from the princes and the nobles to the old farmers in the countryside are happy to participate in it. Of course, although it is not difficult to get started with a pair, it is extremely difficult to find an absolute right.
today is the story of Ming Dynasty Miao to the prodigy Cheng Minzheng . Friends who are interested may wish to continue reading.
Portrait of Cheng Minzheng
The past of a child prodigy
Cheng Minzheng was born in Cangzhou, Hebei. He was smart and smart since he was a child.
At the age of thirteen, Cheng Minzheng was recommended to the court in the name of a child prodigy, which attracted the attention of Li Xian, a student of Hanlin University at the time, who was also Cheng Minzheng's later father-in-law. Li Xian didn’t care about this child prodigy at first. After all, no one would boast good words to the child. There were many child prodigies in all dynasties, but there were few who have been famous for the ages. Not to mention that he can speak many languages. He is also a child prodigy.
So he had the heart to test the 13-year-old Cheng Minzheng, and immediately asked Cheng Minzheng whether he could write poems and scriptures with the title of Holy Festival and Ruixue. Cheng Minzheng didn't say a word, and wrote the answer on the paper without hurriedly. Li Xian couldn't help feeling a little surprised when he saw it, and he couldn't help but give birth to a love of talent. Not only recommended him to the emperor, let him enter the Hanlin Academy to study, and after he became an adult, he married his daughter.
Cheng Minzheng also lives up to his father-in-law’s expectations,At the age of nineteen, he ranked first in the senior high school examination and became the Xieyuan of Shuntianfu . At the age of 21, he was ranked second and second in the First A, and then ranked second in the high school in the palace exam. At the same time, he was also the youngest among the hundreds of people on the list. He was appointed as the editor of the Imperial Academy. The future is bright.
Cheng Minzheng's handwriting
But in fact, because of the early death of his father-in-law and father, the literary Cheng Minzheng failed to reach high positions as he wished. Instead, he was up and down in officialdom until he was 53 years old. You servant of the Ministry of Rites and a bachelor of Hanlin Academy. Of course, many years of life in the Imperial Academy also transformed him from a young and vigorous childish prodigy to a great scholar who passed on to the capital.
But no one would have thought that this great scholar of the dynasty died unfairly in the ensuing storm.
In 1499 AD, 54-year-old Cheng Minzheng was appointed as the chief examiner of the examination, responsible for supervising the examination of the imperial examination. During the period, he expressed his optimism about his two younger generations, Xu Jing and Tang Bohu. But then he was falsely accused, slandered Xu Jing privately, and accepted bribes. Although it was clear that there was no such incident in the end, in order to calm the turmoil, Xu Jing and Tang Bohu were expelled from their fame and never hired, and Cheng Minzheng was also forced to return home.
After returning home, Cheng Minzheng became depressed and became ill. In the end, within a few days, he died of illness at home. After his friend Shen Zhou learned of his death, he couldn't help but uttered a sad cry of "The gentleman knows that flies are evil, the villain An Xinyu is flawless".
There are apricots and plums
Prodigy
When Cheng Minzheng was thirteen years old, on the recommendation of others, he was able to meet Ming Yingzong Zhu Qizhen . When Zhu Qizhen saw him as a young man, he was very interested in him and asked Li Xian to test him. Cheng Minzheng's performance made him very happy, so he let him have dinner together.
During dinner, Yingzong looked at the crab on the table, and he deliberately tried Cheng Minzheng again, so he blurted out "crab in armor". Cheng Minzheng, who was somewhat at a loss, heard what Yingzong said and knew Yingzong's thoughts, so he thought about it for a moment and said "Phoenix All over the Body". Crabs and phoenixes make up the delicacies of the mountains and the sea, and the armor and the articles show a literary and martial art, which is exquisite, and the Yingzong is overjoyed after savoring it carefully.
After Li Xian became Cheng Minzheng's father-in-law, he also liked the son-in-law very much, and once called him to eat together at home. At the dinner table, Li Xian pointed to the food and said the upper couplet of "Lotus root because of lotus". Here, "Lotus" and "ho" are homophonic, "Lotus" and "even" are homophonic, and if they are connected, it is why. "Ou", to the effect that I want to see what my son-in-law thinks about marriage. After hearing what his father-in-law said, Cheng Minzheng also pointed to another fruit and answered "There are apricots but not plums." It is also the homophony of "Xing" and "Xing" and "Mei" and "Mei". Cheng Zhengmin perfectly expresses his happy attitude with Xianlian. Father-in-law Li Xian was also very satisfied after hearing this. He was really satisfied with both the pair and the son-in-law.
pair
Once, Cheng Minzheng and his friend Li Dongyang had an outing together. It was the rainy season, and his friend Li Dongyang couldn't help saying "Five Winds and Ten Rains during the Plum Festival". After listening to his friend's sigh, Cheng Minzheng didn't know what he meant, so he replied "Li Bai poems from two rivers and three mountains". Here, "Shanshui" and "Wind and Rain", "Mei" can be used as both a surname and a fruit, and the same is true for "Li". In addition, the words "yellow" and "white" complement each other, which is exquisite. So, Li Dongyang couldn't help being impressed after listening, and the two smiled at each other.
The history books of the Ming Dynasty record that Vietnamese envoys once visited the capital. After meeting the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty, the envoys had the heart to humiliate the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, so they said "The Eight Great Kings of Qin Se and Pipa, Common Minds" at the court meeting. . When the Manchu dynasty civil and military heard it, it was pretty good. The indigenous people all jumped on their faces and spoke outrageously.You can't beat him directly, you can only persuade people with writing.
Vietnamese natives are clearly prepared. This pair makes the Manchu scribes have a headache, but it can’t be said that they can’t connect, otherwise the face of the heavens will be lost. At this time, Cheng Minzheng stood up and said his xialian "Four Little Ghosts, All Kinds of Intestines". After hearing this, the court officials burst into laughter, and the Vietnamese envoys also turned gray with anger.
Cheng Minzheng's character
Cheng Minzheng's prodigy name is worthy of the name, and the most admirable thing is his talent and knowledge, especially when facing foreign envoys' brazen counterattack, people can't help but admire . It is a pity that such a generation of Confucianism still fell to a bleak end, which is really sad.
