According to historical records, Li Dongyang's ancestral home is Chaling, Hunan. Because his father, Li Liang, was a sergeant in Jinwei, the capital, his family moved to Beijing. According to the system of the Ming Dynasty at that time, the descendants of people who moved their hukou to the army because they were soldiers also wanted to be soldiers, but Li Dongyang later became a generation of prime ministers.
Although Li Dongyang was born in a military family, his father and mother are both literate people. His mother, in particular, can not only write poetry, but also write a good hand.
Once, Li Dongyang's mother was practicing calligraphy. Li Dongyang, who was only two years old, went up and grabbed a pen. Compared with her mother's handwriting, she wrote a word "big". This surprised the mother. She thought her son was brilliant and would succeed in the future, so she taught him to read and practice calligraphy at the same time. Because of his mother's example, Li Dongyang has developed the habit of loving learning since he was two or three years old. He also practices calligraphy when his mother practices calligraphy, and he also recites poems when his mother recites them. He never goes out to play with other children. So by the time he was four years old, he had memorized 200 to 300 poems, especially calligraphy, and he had practiced very well.
On this day, my father and several comrades-in-arms gathered at home to enjoy the poetry writing competition. Xiao Dongyang also ran over to help.
During the dinner, Li Dongyang recited several Tang poems, which everyone found fluent and accurate and liked very much. Someone asked him again, "How is your handwriting? Can you write a few words for us? "
Li Dongyang generously replied: "Of course!"
Because others have short arms and small arms, they carried him to the table and spread paper on him. He picked up a pen and wrote the word "Tian" on a piece of paper.
Everyone was surprised after reading it and praised him for being really good. As a result, you pass me, I pass him, and Li Dongyang can write one foot square at the age of four. The news spread and he was crowned as a "child prodigy". Later, when the news reached the palace, Ming Daizong was surprised, but also puzzled, so he personally summoned him for an interview. When Xiao Dongyang came down to the hall to cross the threshold under the guidance of eunuchs, he was struggling because he was young and short. I saw him swaying from side to side and almost fell down. Dai always looked at it and felt funny. The accompanying eunuch also took the opportunity to ridicule him: "The prodigy has short feet."
Yoichi Higashi Jr. frowned slightly, and then took the next couplet: "Tian Zi Gate is high".
Dai always laughed when he saw Xiao Dongyang so clever, so he left his seat, stepped forward, picked him up and sat him on his lap. At this time, because Li Dongyang's father could not enter the temple, he stood outside the main hall and waited. After reading it, Dai Zong also wrote a sentence: Is the son sitting at the father's ceremony?
Hearing this, Li Dongyang immediately remembered an allusion in Mencius and blurted out: Sister-in-law drowned her uncle to help her!
This means: Sister-in-law fell into the water, and it is an expedient measure to be a brother-in-law to save her.
Dai Zong was very happy to hear this, and immediately had the precious fruit in the grove brought to him. When he left, Dai always gave him some money, and also gave him a special favor, ordering Li Dongyang to study Chinese studies.
Since then, Dai Zong summoned him twice when he was six and eight years old, and ordered him to speak the meaning of Shangshu. Li Dongyang is young, but because of his hard work, profound understanding and clear speech, he is appreciated by several generations.
Once, Dai Zong summoned him and made another couplet: crab armor,
Li Dongyang immediately pointed out that spiders know everything.