During the Kangxi period, a top scholar in the white letter was born in Yangmei County, which became a local legend. He is very wise at a young age, so he is inevitably a little arrogant and does not take others seriously.

During the Kangxi period, a top scholar in the white letter was born in Yangmei County, which became a legendary story in the local area. The name of this white-character top scholar is Sun Yuanchang. He is very wise at a young age, so he is inevitably a little arrogant and does not take others seriously.

That year, a Wenchang building was built in the county town, and County Mayor Wang asked him to write a plaque. Unexpectedly, on the day of the unveiling, the original three words Wenchang Tower were actually written as his name, "Yuanchang Tower"! This made the prefect Wang very embarrassed.

County Magistrate Wang and Sun Yuanchang’s father are classmates and their relationship is quite close. There is such a story about this friendship. At that time, County Magistrate Wang and his father Sun Fu went to the capital for the exam together, and they encountered a hero robbed him on the way. In order to save him, his father desperately blocked the bad guy's path. Unfortunately, his father was hit hard and could never stand up. In order to repay Sun Fu's life-saving grace, the magistrate Wang decided to help Sun Fu's son Sun Yuanchang, but through this incident, he could not help but worry.

As the saying goes, a drop of water should be repaid with a spring of water. After this incident, the prefect Wang still solemnly gave Sun Yuanchang a ancestral sentence Duanyan .

Sun Yuanchang was very happy. He walked closer and looked at the inkstone carefully and found that it was indeed a good thing: the stone was as tender as jade, crystal clear. There is also a bright moon in the inkstone pond, with tears on the moon, a few lotus leaves and lotus on the eyes, and a dragonfly on the flower, which looks like a raised tail, exquisitely carved, lifelike, and particularly eye-catching. The edge of the inkstone is engraved with the eight big characters "The way of a gentleman, be cautious and cautious" .

Although Sun Yuanchang was young at that time, he knew from the bottom of his heart that Wang County Magistrate gave the inkstone, so he had a lot of restraint from then on.

One day, he was learning calligraphy, and a spider suddenly landed on the beam, which scared him. It turned out that the spider actually regarded the dragonflies on the inkstone as living things to hunt and swooped down from the beam to prey. Sun Yuanchang increasingly felt that this inkstone was valuable.

After several years of study, poetry and prose have made great progress, and it is finally time to go to Beijing to take the exam. After saying goodbye to County Mayor Wang, Sun Yuanchang went to Kyoto to take the exam. When it was almost dark, he happened to pass by a villa, so he knocked on the door and asked to stay for one night, and spent the night. However, Sun Yuanchang met a family with status. The owner saw that Sun Yuanchang had a high vision and had good conversations, and expected that he would be a useful talent in the future, so he deliberately asked him to stay by his side to teach him to study.

At one time, Sun Yuanchang saw a pair of children in the lobby of the old man’s house, which read: Family affairs are treated as state affairs, and the ministers are even more laborious than ministers. Seeing this, Sun Yuanchang couldn't help but show off again. He couldn't help but say to the old man: "As soon as I saw this couplet, I knew that the old man must be a family of poets and books."

The old man smiled, "You really have a vision. To be honest, this is Xu Sanli's hometown and a Grand Secretary of the Cultural Center of the dynasty. Although college student Xu Sanli is in Beijing, he was told that all candidates who go to Beijing will be arranged to stay here. I was his family teacher!"

This made Sun Yuanchang even more proud. He thought for a while and said, "I want to modify this couplet to be 'state affairs as family affairs, and ministers are more laborious than minors.' I wonder what the old man thinks?"

The old man seemed disagreeable and was very unhappy, and sneered: "Don't you feel that there is anything wrong with this modification?"

Sun Yuanchang smiled and said, "Of course I am very particular about modifying this, and there must be a reason for it. Only by treating state affairs as family affairs can you do the best; If family affairs are regarded as state affairs, wouldn’t it be a comparison between yourself and the monarch? Others say that you have ulterior motives and are not sage, but you have nothing to say, and you may also violate the power of the dragon. This Grand Secretary Xu should work hard for the country and the people. Only in this way can he not let down the monarch’s expectations. If he does not change, he will be considered arrogant, greedy for comfort, and be seldom the monarch.”

Although it makes sense, a scholar who dares to show off in front of Teacher Xu’s family is obviously looking for death.However, the teacher was very restrained and hid his displeasure in his heart. He just nodded and smiled, and even said that he had made a good change! This made Sun Yuanchang more and more ignorant.

On the evening, Sun Yuanchang wanted to borrow a candle to warm the book but could not find the candle. He thought the old man wanted to make things difficult for him and deliberately arranged Sun Yuanchang in the library. Because it is inconvenient to light candles in the library, I did not give him the candles, but only gave him a handful of incense to light them.

The next morning, the old man got up and asked Sun Yuanchang: "Sir, thank you for your hard work last night. What books did you read in the night?"

Sun Yuanchang smiled and said: "Although there is no candlelight, burn incense to make candles, and you will see all the treasures."

This crazy remark shocked the old man. The old man then casually took out an extremely difficult ancient book "Qimao" from the pile of books and asked him to retell it, but Sun Yuanchang remembered it like a stream. The old man took out the four poems and five classics of the previous dynasty and chose one casually. Sun Yuanchang was even more outspoken. These ancient books were also remembered so much in addition to the must-read classics, which surprised the old man.

Before leaving, the old man of Xu gave Sun Yuanchang twelve taels of incense. The old man repeatedly reminded him that he would light incense when he arrived in Beijing. One is to ward off evil spirits and avoid filth, and the other is to think like a spring, which will definitely be helpful to him in the exam.

Sun Yuanchang didn't know that this fragrance was not the incense burned last night, but the special spice mixed with dizziness used by the Xu family to protect the burglar and hospital at night.

Sun Yuanchang didn't know that as soon as he left, the old man sent a letter to Grand Secretary Xu Sanli. The book describes Sun Yuanchang's arrogance and the unrepaired couplets, and also strives to exaggerate the literary talent of this person, saying that if this person can win, he might be the Grand Secretary of Wenhua Hall in the future. Such a madman will definitely harm the country.

After reading the letter, Grand Secretary Xu was so scared that he was sweating coldly. He thought about the couplets at home and felt that they could not stand the scrutiny, so he immediately replied to the old man and asked him to modify the couplets and hang them again according to Sun Yuanchang's wishes to avoid disasters in the future.

That's it, Master Xu paid special attention to Sun Yuanchang's test paper. After the test paper came out, he studied it carefully. He is indeed a very talented person. Not only is he excellent in writing and fluent in his discussion, he is also extremely rich and bold. He is an absolute genius, which makes the marking teachers very happy.

But after carefully examining the handwriting and ink marks, Grand Secretary Xu suddenly discovered a fatal mistake by Sun Yuanchang. When Sun Yuanchang quoted the Song people's saying "The upper and lower levels are in harmony, and the disadvantages are not good", there was a typo that should not be wrong. The Grand Secretary showed a sneer on his lips: "Little madman, he is nothave properly, everything is caused by himself."

Kangxi When the emperor was reading, he saw that Sun Yuanchang's paper was the most prominent, so he picked it up. He is really talented, and his words are like writing about himself, and he can't help but be very happy. He picked up the ink pen and asked about the key points of the article. Mr. Xu seized the opportunity to point out the typos on the paper for Kangxi. It turns out that the word "Qing" written by Sun Yuanchang is three points less water.

This is a keyword. "Qing" is related to "Qing". If you make this mistake, it will not only ruin your future, but also may lose your head.

However, what is unexpected is that as Kangxi looked at it, he felt that the word "green" with three points of water was better. When he looked carefully, he suddenly found a spider crawling on the test paper, which just made up for those three points!

This caught Master Xu off guard. He hurried forward and reached out to bounce the spider away, which made the emperor misread the stroke.

Kangxi was a little confused. The article is written so well, how can you write such a crucial and simple word incorrectly?

For the sake of cherishing talent, in the evening, he opened the paper again to think about it. To his surprise, the spider that was bored appeared on the typo "Qing". He was shocked and bounced it away again, but the spider crawled back to that position!

Kangxi saw this phenomenon and thought it was God's will, so he convened a group of examiners of the Ministry of Rites, including the Grand Secretary, to discuss it overnight.

Seeing that the emperor intended to designate Sun Yuanchang as the top scholar, Xu Taifu said: "Now, some scholars were dissatisfied with Qing dynasty and tried every means to resist the Qing dynasty entering the Central Plains. The emperor would better ask Sun Yuanchang to ask. Maybe he could understand some details and then make a decision.It's not too late now. "

Kangxi thought it made sense, so he sent an order to Sun Yuanchang and asked him why the word "Qing" was written three points less.

Sun Yuanchang replied: "I didn't write the word "Qing" on purpose. But when I was writing this paragraph, I lit a stick of incense and suddenly felt blurred and my writing was weak. Thinking about it now, maybe God's will has written the word "Qing" three points less, which made me confused, so that the king could treat a scholar who was determined to serve the country with a broad mind, so as to prove that Qing was blessed and smooth. "

Kangxi took a photo of the dragon: "A little scholar in Jiangnan, you are a typical example of being smart. How can I believe your nonsense? "Aren't you afraid that I will kill you?"

Sun Yuanchang shivered and almost pissed his pants: "What I said is true. I hope the emperor thinks twice."

Grand Secretary Xu continued, "The black spider crawled back to the word 'Qing' again and again, confusing people's eyes. Is it because you manipulated it with black magic?" Sun Yuanchang thought for a while and said: "Minister Wang of this city gave me a Duan inkstone of a lotus dragonfly. When I was studying, the spider climbed down and often thought it was a real dragonfly, so he went from They swooped down on the beam to find food. As a result, they fell into the inkstone pool and survived.

Out of pity, I picked them up from the inkstone pool with a brush and placed them on the grass in the yard. Now there is a spider lying on a roll, which can only be regarded as a little creature to be grateful for..."

After hearing the statement, Kangxi was shocked, but he was half-believing and half-doubted, and said, "Tell me the Duan inkstone!"

Soon someone went to the hotel to bring the inkstone and took it over to take a look. It's exactly the same as what Sun Yuanchang said. Only then did Kangxi believe in Sun Yuanchang's loyalty and honesty. The eight words "The way of a gentleman is to be cautious and cautious" on the inkstone made Kangxi look energetic.

Kangxi saw Sun Yuanchang’s handsome and elegant eyes, and couldn’t help but feel happy: A kind scholar, even a spider, has compassion, let alone deal with people? If you can become an official, your people will be blessed. This is really commendable and encouraging. Even if there is something wrong, you can forgive and show extraordinary demeanor. He immediately picked up his pen and named Sun Yuanchang the first place.

Master Xu was still very disgusted with Sun Yuanchang's arrogance, so he said to Kangxi: "For historical facts, the undergraduate top scorer should be different from other imperial examinations, which also shows that the royal dignity of the Qing Dynasty is inviolable! Why not give him the title of "white-clothed top scorer"!"

Kangxi thought it made sense. Although the emperor favored and majestic, punishment was still needed, so he allowed to add a "white character" in front of the undergraduate top scorer, so Sun Yuanchang became the unbiased white character top scorer.

After this shock, Sun Yuanchang did not dare to show off his cleverness again and eventually became a good official.

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