As the leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, Hong Xiuquan once hoped to change his destiny by passing the imperial examination and becoming an official before the rebellion. However, until he was 30 years old, Hong Xiuquan took the examination four times in a row, and he was not even a scholar. After failing to pass the exam, Hong Xiuquan became disheartened about the exam and thought of rebellion. Part of the reason why he failed to pass the exam four times in a row was because the exam questions were very uncomfortable for him. It happened to not be to his liking, but there was another very important reason. It was also because Hong Xiuquan's calligraphy was incompatible with the popular fonts at the time, so the score given to him during the marking was relatively low.
At that time, the imperial examination was the only way for students from poor families to become officials. However, there were many complicated rules and a lot of stress in the imperial examination. Students must be able to memorize all the four books and five classics. At that time, Hong Xiuquan was still very famous in his village. His private school teacher at the time praised him very much, so he decided to have the courage to go to Guangzhou for the college examination. But he failed to pass the exam.
But he did not give up, and continued to take the exams until he was 30 years old, but he failed to become a scholar. This also made him frustrated, and left behind in the historical relics. In the edicts written in similar handwriting to Hong Xiuquan's, we can see that Hong Xiuquan's handwriting was crooked and not neat, and it was very different from the beautiful and elegant Guange style at that time. In fact, it is equivalent to our current italics. Compared with As far as block letters are concerned, this font is very uncomfortable to read.
So this is why his score is relatively low and he fails every year. It can be seen that in ancient times at that time, great emphasis was placed on handwriting. It cannot be said that Hong Xiuquan was not smart, but he had poor luck, and Coupled with the rigidity and limitations of the imperial examinations at that time, he eventually took the path of rebellion. In the end, Hong Xiuquan also used his own abilities to prove that he could still do it, and it also brought us a long-lasting historical impact.