The origin of Zheng Banqiao's "rarely confused"
Zheng Banqiao's four-character "rarely confused" is full of wit and charm. This is Zheng Banqiao's original creation of integrating real grass, official script and seal script into one. A strange way of writing.
As for the four words "rarely confused", it is said that there is an interesting origin.
One year, Zheng Banqiao went to Yunfeng Mountain in Laizhou, Shandong Province to observe the monument of Zheng Gong. He stayed overnight in the house of an old Confucian at the foot of the mountain. There was a very large inkstone in the old man's home. The stone was of fine quality and the carvings were exquisite. Zheng Banqiao admired it greatly when he saw it. The old man asked Zheng Banqiao to leave a calligraphy treasure so that he could be engraved on the back of the inkstone. Zheng Banqiao felt that the confused old man must have an origin, so he wrote the four words "rarely confused" and stamped his name seal "Kangxi scholar, Yongzheng, candidate, Qianlong Jinshi". The inkstone was the size of a square table, with a large space left. Zheng Banqiao also asked the old man to write a postscript. The old man did not refuse and wrote casually: "It is difficult to obtain beautiful stones, and it is especially difficult to obtain hard stones. It is more difficult to turn from beautiful stones to hard stones." Difficult. The beauty is in the middle. It is hidden in the savage's house outside the hard stone. It cannot enter the gate of wealth." After writing, he also stamped the square seal. The seal read: "First in the college examination, second in the provincial examination, third in the imperial examination." Zheng Banqiao. After reading it, I realized that he was a retired official with elegant sentiments, and I immediately felt admiration for him. Seeing that there was still a gap in the inkstone, he picked up his pen and wrote another paragraph: "It is difficult to be smart, and it is even more difficult to be confused. It is even more difficult to turn from being smart to being confused. Let it go, take a step back, and feel at ease now. You are not planning to repay it later."
Later this passage was spread, and people were impressed by the rich philosophy in it, so they wrote it in horizontal couplets and hung them up. The word "rarely confused" became more and more widely spread