1, Grain Rain, the tail of spring, far from midsummer, only separated by a curtain of rain. Looking back at the whole spring, peach blossoms, apricot blossoms, cherry blossoms, pear blossoms and begonia flowers have blossomed and thanked, and let themselves drift in the warm spring sunshine. In late spring, heaven and earth are gradually ruled by greenery. "It should be green, fat, red and thin." A poet hundreds of years ago lamented the disappearance of spring. Compared with modern people, the ancients were more sensitive to the changes of seasons. When flowers bloom, they admire flowers and chant flowers, and when they fall, they cherish flowers and sigh. Even in the imperial examination, they took the emotion of literati in the season of mourning as the examination topic. In an imperial examination in the late Qing Dynasty, an examiner's proposition was "light smoke to avoid rain". One of the candidates, taking a different approach, wrote two sentences, "The flowers are still in spring, and the weather is still fine", which won the favor of the examiner. This examiner is very famous. To this day, he is still the life mentor of many people. His name is Zeng Guofan. This candidate is also very famous, but he has a great-grandson who is also very famous, Yu Pingbo; There is another student, Zhang Taiyan. The candidate I am talking about is Yu Yue. It was also in a spring day that Yu Yue entered the bustling imperial city. He came to take the imperial examination. Spring in the Imperial Capital is not as beautiful as Jiangnan, the hometown of Yu Yue. At this time in the south of the Yangtze River, the grass grows long and the smoke is sparse, which is a beautiful scene. There are beautiful people in a foreign land, and there are scholars climbing mountains near the water. In March, the imperial capital was chilly in spring, and the dust was blown by strong winds to fascinate pedestrians' eyes, making the world totally embarassed. But young Yu Yue was still attracted by the weather in the Imperial City. In his eyes, the imperial city is magnificent and solemn. The emperor sits in the center of the Forbidden City and controls the fate of the empire. Officials at all levels are like stars, walking between large and small central government offices. There are also the most profound scholars and the most talented scholars here. Poems that lead the whole imperial cultural atmosphere are produced here, and classics that construct imperial ideology flow out from here. Even in the words of ordinary people in the imperial city, there is a sense of arrogance and profundity. All this deeply fascinated Yu Yue. The Yue breathed a sigh of relief, adjusted his clothes and hat, and was ready to throw himself into it wholeheartedly. At this point, Yu Yue has passed the exam. What needs to be faced below is the second interview of Baohe Hall and the subsequent entrance examination. In the second interview, he met Zeng Guofan, his lifelong mentor. The title of the poem and fu re-examined by the Ministry of Rites is "Light Smoke to Dispel Rain". This is a typical topic of mourning for the spring. In China's traditional poems, there are too many famous sentences that hurt the North Spring and Autumn Period. How to write it creatively is a problem that candidates need to consider. However, Yu Yue cleverly avoided the main theme of hurting spring and mourning spring, and answered the question with "flowers are still in spring". Although the flowers have fallen, spring is still there. After spring, it is a vibrant summer, the most vigorous season of the year. What are the disadvantages? So the next sentence, he wrote, "The weather is still sunny." His answer sheet was greatly appreciated by Zeng Guofan, the marking teacher. Zeng Guofan praised him as "it was caused by another day and cannot be measured." At that time, Zeng Guofan was in the rising period of his career, eager to do something, eager to emulate those famous ministers in history and save the Qing Dynasty. Yu Yue's aggressiveness is in line with his mentality. Under his leadership, Yu Yue won the first place in the re-examination of Baohe Hall. Then, in the court exam, Yu Yue won the 19th place. Since then, he has become an imperial scholar and officially entered the imperial bureaucracy. Yu Yue, a successful scholar, entered imperial academy, first as Jishi Shu and then as an editor. Imperial academy's editing work not only undertakes the editing and proofreading of materials, but also drafts imperial edicts for the emperor, which is close to the power center and has an infinite future, far from being comparable to today's miserable book editors. Many imperial officials and government officials have edited and edited imperial academy. A few years later, he became a political student in Henan and served as a local examiner. This is a noble job. Examiners in the imperial examination era are different from today's examiners. At that time, the examiner not only controlled the fate of students, but also had a famous teacher-student relationship with students. Every student who takes the exam should nominally worship the examiner as a teacher. This is how the political team was established. At this time, Yu Yue was full of ambition. He must think that he is qualified to challenge stereotypes and put his ideas into the most important talent selection exam in the empire. Therefore, he subverted the previous propositional rules. This practice caused an uproar among the candidates. Candidates' exam-oriented training usually follows the real questions of the past years. Yu Yue's subversion of tradition made most candidates unable to cope. They think that they didn't do well in the exam because the examiner didn't follow the routine. The examinee's strong protest finally caught the attention of Yu Yue's political opponents, who took this opportunity to impeach Yu Yue with one blow. Yu Yue was removed from office. His career is over. Some people say that when God closes one door for people, he will inevitably open another door for him. Yu Yue found the sustenance of life in her study. He took his wife and children and simple luggage all the way south, passing through Suzhou, and was attracted by Suzhou's landscape and human feelings. "Here it is." Yu Yue stayed in Suzhou, rented a yard and began his career as a scholar. Later, he taught in Tianjin, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Deqing and other places. Among his students are Zhang Taiyan and Wu Changshuo, who are famous all over the world. Later, Zhang Taiyan and Huang Jigang founded the "Zhang Huang School", which influenced the academic research direction of China in later generations. To this day, it is still something that many college students are proud of. In his later years, he lived in Suzhou Quyuan for a long time. Later, another scholar, Yu Pingbo, appeared here. In his later years, he was honored by the Japanese as the most learned man in China at that time. Many Japanese scholars dragged a Japanese to Qu Yuan and asked him to compile a collection of Japanese China poems for them. He is also a great calligrapher, and the present Tang poem "Suzhou Qiao Feng a night-mooring near maple bridge" was written shortly before his death. "Flowers are still in spring", Yu Yue's life is intertwined with this poem. Because of this poem, he entered the center of the empire and relied on this poem to comfort and encourage himself when he suffered setbacks. Finally, Sang Yu, who was lost in the East Corner, won a scholarship in the spring. De Botton said in The Implication of Philosophy: "If we let all setbacks go unchecked, there will be few great achievements of mankind. The driving force of our cleverness lies in constantly asking: Is this really what we have? As a result, political reform, scientific progress, improved relations, and outstanding works emerged. " Just like the season in Grain Rain, flowers fall at the end of spring. Even if spring is about to leave, after a curtain of quiet rain, we will usher in a vibrant and fiery summer. "Seven-character Poetry" says: "NO FENG フウカ is sunny when it doesn't rain, and the bamboo is graceful. Favorite guests who are cool at night, a pot of new tea soaked in pineapple. A few new bamboo trees and a few looming mountains. It happens that Qingming is even in Grain Rain, and a cup of fragrant tea is sitting in it. " It is really the best season, with the best and latest tea, light-colored mountains, new fragrant bamboo and just the right wind and rain. Moreover, in the Grain Rain season, "the peony blooms and the cherry is red and ripe". Look at peonies and taste cherries.
2. Qu Jun, a young researcher at China Institute of Modern Thought and Culture, East China Normal University, an associate professor in the Department of History, and a visiting scholar at Oxford University and the Institute of History and Language, Academia Sinica, Taiwan Province Province.