The imperial examination was undoubtedly a major event in the lives of ancient scholars. Those top picks on the gold medal list even used this exam to complete the feat of jumping over the dragon's gate, thus changing their life's destiny.
However, after jumping over the dragon gate, some people became successful, while others fell to pieces. In the late Qing Dynasty, there was a champion who became rich and powerful because of the imperial examination, but he also lost the lives of his family. So, who is this champion? What kind of story does he have?
1. Bannerman Number One Scholar
In 1864, a Mongolian official named Chongqi from the Zhenglan Banner became a sensation in the imperial examination and successfully entered the final blind selection process. .
Portrait of Chongqi.
In this link, the ministers will select the ten best test papers, and then seal them and give them to the Empress Dowager of the Two Palaces and Emperor Tongzhi, who will select the top candidates for that year.
During the grading process, Cixi found that one of the test papers was not only brilliant in literary talent, but also had very neat handwriting. The more she looked at it, the more she liked it, so Yubi selected it as the top candidate.
After the first-class test papers were selected, the ministers opened the test papers and prepared to publish the list. Unexpectedly, an accident happened at this time. It turned out that the No. 1 Scholar article that Cixi couldn't put down was written by Chongqi, a Mongolian bannerman.
After the Qing army entered the customs, in order to win over the Han scholars, they set the rule that the flag should not be counted in the imperial examination. It stands to reason that the rules set by the ancestors cannot be violated, but the Empress Dowager Cixi has already selected the number one candidate. For a while, the ministers looked at each other, not knowing what to do.
Cixi also discovered the issue of the identity of the number one scholar. After hesitating for a moment, she handed over the issue to the Minister of Military and Aircraft and the Minister of Examination for discussion.
Although it was a discussion, which minister would dare to openly ask the Queen Mother to take back her life? As a result, the ministers had a brief discussion and came to the conclusion: "But based on words, how can we say Manchu and Han?"
Chongqi calligraphy.
In this way, Chongqi became the only banner scholar in the Qing Dynasty for hundreds of years. As soon as this news came out, it immediately detonated the literary world of that year. Chongqi has also become a rising star in the officialdom by virtue of her strong strength in breaking the tradition of "the flag does not point to the yuan".
2. The situation in the harem
After Chongqi became the number one scholar, she successively served as minister, daily minister and official, and became an important figure accompanying the dragon.
At that time, Emperor Tongzhi had reached marriage age and needed to choose a gentle and dignified woman from a good family background as his queen. However, Chongqi's daughter was very suitable for the royal family in terms of age and appearance, and with the blessing of the title of "Daughter of the Number One Scholar", she quickly gained the favor of Empress Dowager Ci'an.
Back then, when Chongqi took part in the imperial examination, she might not have thought that winning the top prize would not only change her own career, but also change her daughter's entire life.
Emperor and Empress Tongzhi in film and television dramas.
After Chongqi’s daughter Alute entered the palace, she quickly won the favor of Emperor Tongzhi. However, all this caused Cixi's dissatisfaction. After all, the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law has been a family problem since ancient times.
Cixi forced Emperor Tongzhi to alienate Queen Alut and favor the concubine Hui she chose for him. This interference in private life made Emperor Tongzhi very dissatisfied. In protest, he simply refused to favor anyone.
After Emperor Tongzhi suffered setbacks in his marriage, there were rumors that he left the palace incognito and went to the brothels in the capital to have fun. Over and over again, he contracted syphilis.
Of course, this rumor is nonsense. Emperor Tongzhi was indeed infected with the disease, but it was smallpox.
Once infected with smallpox, the mortality rate was extremely high under the conditions at that time. Emperor Tongzhi, who was only 19 years old, soon passed away with regret, leaving Queen Arute in tears all day long, struggling to survive in the harem.