The idiom "Famous in Sun Mountain" occurred during the Song Dynasty and was a story recorded in "Guo Ting Lu" by Fan Gongyan of the Song Dynasty.
The protagonist of this allusion, Sun Shan, took the imperial examination with his son from his hometown. When the results came out, he found that Sun Shan was at the bottom of the list, but his hometown was not on the list. When his fellow villagers inquired about the son's name, there were verses like "Sun Shan is the one who knows the name, and the virtuous man is outside Sun Shan."
The literal meaning of this poem is "I, Sun Shan, am at the bottom of the list, and your son is after me." This answer is still very euphemistic, not direct. It is said that the son of a fellow countryman has failed the examination, which shows that Sun Shan's nickname of "funny genius" is not just for superficial reasons. Later, this story spread out for some reason, and people praised Sun Shan for his eloquence and high emotional intelligence. So people began to use the idiom "Sun Shan lost his reputation" to euphemistically express the person who failed.
Although this incident left a good reputation for Sun Shan, many people felt that Sun Shan was too "frivolous" to tell his fellow villagers in this way, especially himself. After the son of a fellow villager failed the exam, Sun Shan not only did not comfort and sympathize with him, but told them in this way that he was "seeking fun". As a result, many people thought that Sun Shan was not worthy of the nickname "Funny Talent".
But I just feel that this method is a manifestation of maintaining the self-esteem of fellow villagers. Using this slightly humorous and tactful method is the most eloquent, and failing in the imperial examination was also very common in ancient times. As it happened, the fellow countryman was not angry at Sun Shan who informed the news because his son failed the exam. I have to admit that "funny talent" Sun Shan is still very humorous. Telling his fellow villagers in this way is indeed easier for people to accept than telling him directly. This kind of humorous way of speaking without hurting other people's self-esteem is indeed worth learning.