First, Ouyang Xiu won the favor with his outstanding talent.
Since the Tang and Song Dynasties, talented and ambitious scholars who have not yet become famous often visit dignitaries or famous scholars before and after the Imperial Examination, paving the way for their future careers, and those famous scholars do not hesitate to introduce them, such as Wang Wei's visit to the princess in the Tang Dynasty and Meng Haoran's visit to Zhang Jiuling. The famous "eight masters in the Tang and Song Dynasties" in the Song Dynasty include Su San, Ceng Gong and Wang Anshi. It can be seen that real talents love talents very much.
Yan Shu is a talented person. He once trained Fan Zhongyan and Mei Raochen. This time, he waited for Ouyang Xiu. In the eighth year of Tiansheng, Ouyang Xiu just took the first place in the last exam and came to take the Jinshi exam. Yan Shu is the examiner. He criticized that the imperial examination at that time only recited, did not integrate what he had learned, did not give questions, and could not screen out outstanding talents. At the beginning of the exam, I saw Yan Shu take out a map, which all the students couldn't understand. Only the allusion of "a thin boy" Chen is common. This person is naturally Ouyang Xiu. Yan Shu praised him as the first scholar.
The teacher-student relationship between them may begin after this exam.
Second, the "Snow in Xiyuan" incident and Yan Shu's strike.
Yan Shu had a smooth life, a prosperous official career and excellent poems, while Ouyang Xiu had a rough life and was once demoted. He was demoted for supporting Fan Zhongyan's innovation, and finally returned to Beijing to gather talents and operate. On this day, with beautiful scenery and snow-covered, Yan Shu bought wine and drank poetry in the West Garden, but Ouyang Xiu wrote a poem with irony at this time, thinking that Yan Shu should consider the warmth and coldness of frontier officers and soldiers. Yan Shu is spoiled and unhappy.
Yan Shu, after all, is a cultured master and has not really alienated Ouyang Xiu. So the second thing. Why did Yan Shu go to photograph? Because of Ouyang Xiu. The court wants to send Ouyang Xiu to Hebei as a transshipment ambassador. Some people think that Ouyang Xiu's role in state affairs can not be ignored, nor can it be diverted, but Yan Shu insisted on diverting, so the two sides were torn apart and Yan Shu was jointly impeached. So they stopped talking and met Yingzhou. This time, Yan Shu was really cold and even disgusted with Ouyang Xiu.
Later, even though Ouyang Xiu wrote a letter to Yan Shu, it was sincere between the lines, but Yan Shu didn't want to be sincere about it. His answer was rather hasty. When someone asked him what he was writing, Yan Shu looked calm. "Is it over when he answers the question?" .