People attach great importance to the beauty of handwriting, and even think that you can tell some of this person's personality by seeing his handwriting, if you see how his own handwriting is written. After the emergence of the imperial examination system in the Sui Dynasty, there was a requirement for neat and beautiful calligraphy in the imperial examination requirements, just like our current examination. What we are going to talk about today is the only top-ranked examination paper handed down from generation to generation in the Ming Dynasty. The handwriting in it makes us feel ashamed to read it now.
The hero of this story is Zhao, who won the top prize at the age of 25, fully explaining the idiom "spring breeze is proud", and the top prize winner of the new subject, Guangzong Yaozu, is the glory that many people dream of. Zhao was born in a.d. 1573, and is now from Jingzhou, Shandong province. 1598, he was admitted by A- 1 the first scholar, which surprised many people because he won the first prize at the age of 25.
Therefore, his official position in the Ming dynasty was also relatively large, and he was a minister's gift. This is because he is deeply loved by the people for his honesty, but he still has not resisted the darkness of officialdom. A.D. 1622 was impeached and resigned. Although it didn't get a good ending, it can be remembered by future generations, and it is not a waste of this life.
In order to be remembered by future generations and to remain immortal, Zhao began to work hard from a very young age. When he was young, he worked hard for many years before he could write a good hand. We can see that his handwriting is neatly written on his top test paper, just like it is printed by a printer.
Such handwriting can't compare with Hengshui, which is famous for its neatness now. After all, you can use a ballpoint pen to write Hengshui, but at that time only a brush can write. As a soft pen, the writing requirement of brush is higher than that of ballpoint pen. It is also an interesting story to talk about the origin of this champion paper, because the champion paper has been a confidential file in past dynasties and will not be easily passed on to the people.
However, this number one test paper was actually donated to the country by Zhao Huanbin, the thirteenth generation grandson of Zhao, in the 1980s. Therefore, we can think about how this top-ranked examination paper was revealed to the Zhao family, because he was deeply loved and rewarded by the emperor, or because of other reasons. According to the historical records and the narration of Zhao Huanbin, the grandson of Zhao 13 generations, we can know that this top test paper was stolen by our story hero Zhao.
Steal your own top test paper. Why? After all, in ancient China, people like thieves were very looked down upon. Zhao is a person with traditional culture education. This kind of stealing is very despised, so why did he make an exception and steal it himself? This is mainly because the government at that time was dominated by eunuchs, and he was impeached and dismissed from office. In order not to ruin his reputation in others' hands, he stole his own test paper as a souvenir.