In the Tang Dynasty, there were two great poets who could never be ignored. They were Li Bai and Meng Haoran. Although these two men devoted their lives to serving the imperial court, they were unlucky and never succeeded. Li Bai is brilliant, but he has never been an official. But later, because of his talent, he was made a small official by Tang Xuanzong and wrote poems with Tang Xuanzong all day. But this is not Li Bai's life, so he made a decision: Oh, how can I seriously bow and scrape to those high officials and rich people? Meng Haoran, too, was finally introduced to Tang Xuanzong, but because his poems complained that there was no wise master to appreciate him, Tang Xuanzong was very angry and never let him be an official. In this way, Meng Haoran did not become an official.
Another is Lu You of the Song Dynasty, whose works we have all read. He was born at a bad time. When he took the imperial examination, it happened that the grandson of the traitor Qin Gui also took the imperial examination, because Qin Gui always wanted to have a better reputation. So I asked my grandson to take the imperial examination. Lu You has real talent and learning, but Qin Gui's grandson has a background. In the end, his talent can't compare with the background. Lu You failed in the list, but people at that time were very dissatisfied with this decision and decided that there was a shady situation, but what could be done? In this way, Lu You's career was ruined.
In fact, not all scholars and gifted scholars have failed in the list, but because of their talents, their stories are told in three ways. In fact, people like Bai Juyi and Wang Anshi all reached the peak of their lives because of the imperial examination.