China's last champion in the imperial examination was Liu Chunlin or Zhang Jian?

The last imperial examination in the history of China was Chen Jia in the 30th year of Guangxu (1904), and the top scholar in this subject was Liu Chunlin, so Liu Chunlin was the last top scholar in the history of China. Zhang Jian was also the champion of the imperial examination in the late Qing Dynasty. He took the imperial examination in the 20th year of Guangxu (1894), and the imperial examination he took was different from the previous three years, which was specially opened because of the 60th birthday of Empress Dowager Cixi. It is worth mentioning that it is purely accidental that both Zhang Jian and Liu Chunlin can become top scholars.

Zhang Jian was only the 60th Gong Shi at that time, so it stands to reason that this achievement can only be ranked in the top three of palace examination Jinshi. However, because Weng Tonghe, the teacher of Guangxu at that time, admired Zhang Jian very much, so Zhang Jian won the first prize in high school, which was also under the control of Weng Tonghe, so Zhang Jian came as the first prize very accidentally.

Liu Chunlin's road to the championship is a different story. Liu Chunlin won the second place in the senior high school entrance examination, and the first place was Zhu Ruzhen of Guangdong. At that time, Empress Dowager Cixi presided over the court examination, and the examiner ranked Gong's papers and submitted them to Empress Dowager Cixi for review. Empress Dowager Cixi was satisfied with the contents of Zhu Ruzhen's paper after opening the first one, but there were three things that didn't suit Empress Dowager Cixi's taste.

The font and strokes of Zhu Ruzhen's answer sheet are relatively thick, which does not conform to the aesthetics of Cixi. Zhu Ruzhen's native place is Guangdong, which is quite disgusting to Empress Dowager Cixi, because the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the reformists and the anti-Wen are all Cantonese. Besides, in the name of Zhu Ruyun? Jane? This word reminds Cixi of the consort Zhen of Guangxu, and Cixi hates consort Zhen. For these reasons, Cixi did not make Zhu Ruzhen the top scholar.

When Empress Dowager Cixi opened the second answer sheet, she saw that the name Liu Chunlin was auspicious, and she was not from Guangdong. She was very happy and decided that Liu Chunlin was the top scholar and Zhu Ruzhen was the second.

The Qing court abolished the imperial examination system in 1905, so the imperial examination in 1904 was the last imperial examination in the history of China, and Liu Chunlin became the last champion in the history of China.