There have been many female generals, poets, and politicians in Chinese history, but there was only one female champion. It's not that women in ancient times didn't want to take part in the imperial examinations, but because the laws of all dynasties have stipulated the gender of the imperial examinations - men, and women who take the exams as scholars are breaking the law and will be prosecuted, and if they don't do it well, they will have their heads chopped off. Therefore, in the first 1,200 years that the imperial examination system ruled China, not a single female champion was produced. As for the so-called female champions such as Huang Chonggu in Ming Dynasty Xu Wei's "The Female Champion" and Meng Lijun written by Qing Dynasty female writer Chen Ruisheng, they can only be described in two words: nonsense. These stories that seem to have noses and eyes are just the result of the angry youth psychology of ancient feminists. Fortunately, history did not disappoint these angry young men. In the last 100 years before the death of the imperial examination system, under the derailed regime-the Tianping Heavenly Kingdom, history finally derailed the imperial examination and put the title of No. 1 Scholar on a On the head of a beautiful girl, thus filling a historical gap. The name of this beautiful girl is Fu Shanxiang. What is even more legendary is that she was able to win the first prize in the exam because she challenged the great sage Confucius.
It is said that after Hong Xiuquan, the leader of the Taiping Rebellion, conquered Nanjing, in order to change his image as a private enterprise boss, he established the capital and built the imperial palace. Then he promulgated a new set of land laws, openly communicating with the headquarters. The Qing Dynasty, a state-owned enterprise based in Beijing, fought against the emperor. After the large-scale confrontation was over, Hong Xiuquan began to engage in small-scale confrontation, and one of them was to open a subject to obtain scholars. In order to reflect the principle of gender equality advocated by the Taiping Rebellion, chairman Hong Xiuquan and CEO Yang Xiuqing decided to allow women to take exams and serve as civil servants after discussion. As soon as the news came out, the entire city of Nanjing was shocked. Women compatriots who had been suppressed by feudal ethics for thousands of years were so surprised that they signed up to take the exam one after another. Among them is Fu Shanxiang.
Fu Shanxiang was born in a scholarly family in Nanjing. His father took it as his mission to popularize education and eradicate illiteracy, and opened a library in the city to teach. Along with Fu Shanxiang, his sister Fu Luanxiang grew up in the fragrance of books. The two sisters have been reading poetry and books since they were young, and both of them are so beautiful that they become the targets of many men. When Hong Xiuquan led his group of Guangxi brothers into Nanjing, Fu Shanxiang was in the prime of 16 years old. Her sister was two years older than her, at 18 years old. After hearing the news that women could take the exam, the two sisters immediately signed up.
The exam was held at the Examination Yuan of Nanjing Confucius Temple (today's Jiangnan Gongyuan). As the first "college entrance examination" in the history of the Taiping Rebellion, Hong Xiuquan, who always paid attention to pomp and circumstance, certainly would not neglect it. According to records, the celebration equipment at that time included not only firecrackers, but also cannons. Amidst the rumbling sound of artillery, more than 200 women walked into the examination room. With the order of Hong Xuanjiao, the chief examiner, the examination officially began.
The women who were full of joy were dumbfounded when they opened the paper. According to the records of "Qingbaanleichao.Examination": There are two examination questions, one of which is taken from Confucius in "The Analects of Confucius" The Master's famous saying goes, "Only women and villains are difficult to raise." Here, I would like to add that although the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom always said that it was different from the previous feudal dynasties, in essence, it was still a change of soup without changing the medicine. For example, when Cixi went out, 16 people carried the sedan chair, Hong Xiuquan changed the standard to 64 people, and Emperor Tongzhi There is a carpet under Yang Xiuqing's sedan chair, and a fish tank under Yang Xiuqing's sedan chair. The same goes for the imperial examinations. The Qing government's examination questions came from the Four Books and the Five Classics, and their exam questions came from the Five Classics and the Four Books, but the format was copied from the Ming Dynasty. But this is no wonder. After all, under the historical environment at that time, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom did not have good channels to learn from advanced external examples.
Faced with this question, many people gave in to Confucius based on their inertial thinking. The content was that women must be as difficult to raise as villains. In ancient times, if the god in the hearts of calligraphy lovers was Wang Xizhi, and the god in the hearts of ink painting lovers was Yan Liben, then the god in the hearts of scholars was Confucius. Scholars at that time had to worship Confucius every day when they were in school, they also worshiped Confucius during the imperial examination, and they also worshiped Confucius after passing the examination. Even when they talked in sleep at night, it was "Confucius once said...".
Therefore, scholars can challenge their parents, their superiors, and even the emperor, but they will never dare to challenge the great sage Confucius in his grave, otherwise he will be the public enemy of scholars all over the world!
After the sage Kong Dasheng had been rampant for nearly two thousand years, Fu Shanxiang finally stood up. Two thousand years of resentment turned into an extremely hard brick and hit the sage Confucius. In her answer to the question, she openly pointed out that the "hard to raise" theory was nonsense and criticized the various shortcomings of feudal male chauvinism. Then he laid out the facts and reasoned, and listed how many virtuous and virtuous women in ancient times supported each other and raised their children, and how they raised them well. At that time, when "men were superior to women" was still the mainstream social thought, Fu Shanxiang dared to openly challenge Confucius, vigorously criticized Confucius, and criticized it to the end, describing a "truth" that had been rooted in people's thinking for nearly two thousand years as a fallacy. His courage is no less than that of a man who braves a hail of bullets like a wild boar on the battlefield. This stupid spirit of going to the Tiger Mountain despite knowing that there are tigers in the mountains finally convinced Hong Xiuquan, the leader of the God-worshipping sect. He greatly appreciated this and designated Fu Shanxiang as the number one scholar with a wave of his pen. Not only that, in addition to a piece of yellow satin and two pieces of red crepe, Master Hong also specially gave Fu Shanxiang a flower crown and brocade clothes, and asked the examiner Hong Xuanjiao to put the flowers on her personally. Fu Shanxiang, dressed in brocade and red, rode a horse through the streets of Nanjing for three days. He played gongs, drums, and shengxiao along the way, and the people lined the streets to watch, and he became a sensational news figure. The record in the history books is "On the streets and alleys, everyone shouted Fu Zhuangyuan."
Abstract of this article: Two thousand years of resentment turned into an extremely hard brick and hit the great sage Confucius. In her answer to the question, she openly pointed out that the "hard to raise" theory was nonsense and criticized the various shortcomings of feudal male chauvinism. Then he laid out the facts and reasoned, and listed how many virtuous and virtuous women in ancient times supported each other and raised their children, and how they raised them well.
What is worth mentioning here is that in addition to the excessive questions about Confucius's theory of difficulty in cultivating, there is also a question about writing poetry, which stipulates "Oh, the mountains and rivers are green." Fu Shanxiang's answer is also extremely subtle, describing the lines of the mountains and rivers. The scene of the boat is vividly described:
The sound of the boat is no longer heard, and the mountains and rivers send a solitary sail;
The opposite side is as green as a painting, and looking back is full of green rocks.
There are curling clouds in the sky, and the water is craggy;
The clear flow is at the stern of the boat, and the sun shines on the waist of the peak.
The green doubt remains on the ancient shore, and the green is about to climb up;
The sound of flowing water scares the geese, and the dense shade of juniper fir trees.
After passing the imperial examination, Fu Shanxiang was assigned to the Dongwang Palace, while her sister was sent to the Tianwang Palace, and then entered the political arena of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.