Zhou Shuren told about his beautiful life before the age of thirteen in "The True Story of Ah Q", with forty or fifty acres of paddy fields at home, and his life was worry-free.
However, after the age of thirteen, the family's situation deteriorated rapidly, and they had to live with relatives because they did not even have basic living support.
Zhou Shuren during this period was even jokingly called the "beggar", and this experience was undoubtedly a painful memory for him. So, what caused the Zhou family to suffer such a major change?
The answer may be hidden in Zhou Shuren's grandfather Zhou Fuqing.
The fraud incident in Zhou Fuqing's field shocked the people of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the Qing Dynasty attached great importance to it. You must know that fraud in the field has always been regarded as the top priority of the country, and some people have even ruined their future because of it.
For example, Tang Bohu of the Ming Dynasty, although he did not cheat, was sentenced to sit together because of the cheating of his companion Xu Jing; In the eighth year of Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty, the chief examiner of the Shuntian Mansion, Wenyuange University, Bai Ye, was also beheaded for being involved in fraud in the field.
Even these well-known figures cannot escape the punishment of the law, which shows the seriousness of fraud in the field. Therefore, Emperor Guangxu specially issued a decree to demand a thorough investigation of the matter, and dismissed Zhou Fuqing and dealt with it strictly.
Although the fraud led by Zhou Fuqing seems serious on the surface, it is actually very interesting.
Zhou Fuqing was a jinshi in Tongzhi for ten years, and his performance in the imperial examination was very good, ranking fifteenth in the top three, and he was the best among the jinshi.
Therefore, he was not directly assigned to the local government, but stayed in the Hanlin Academy to study. After three years, he will take the exam again, and if he does well, he may stay in the Hanlin Academy as an editor or reviewer, and his future is bright.
After all, in the Ming Dynasty, there was a saying that "if you are not a Hanlin, you will not enter the cabinet", and this concept is still applicable in the Qing Dynasty.
Although the cabinet of the Qing Dynasty has been replaced by the Military Aircraft Department, it is still possible for the ** from Hanlin to serve as a scholar and a squire in the six ministries, or as a local governor.
However, unfortunately, three years later, Zhou Fuqing failed the list and could only become the county magistrate of Jinxi County, Jiangxi. However, for Zhou Fuqing, this is not necessarily a loss.
After all, his family was able to rise because of his sixth ancestor, Zhou Yunshan, and Zhou Yunshan was only a person in the Qianlong Dynasty, and his achievements cannot be compared with Zhou Fuqing.
After all, although lifting people can go on to become jinshi, there are a large number of people who are unable to cross this step in their lifetime.
Zhou Fuqing, who served as county magistrate for three years, attracted the attention of Shen Baozhen, the governor of Liangjiang, but this attention was not positive. Shen Baozhen wrote to Zhou Fuqing, thinking that although he was knowledgeable, he lacked the ability to handle official affairs.
As a result, Zhou Fuqing's position as a county magistrate was revoked and he was reappointed as an instructor, but his official position was not as good as before.
In order to change this situation, Zhou Fuqing took advantage of his wealthy family to buy the official position of the cabinet secretary, although there were only seven grades, but the cabinet in the capital was more developed than a small instructor.
However, fate took a turn at this point. Zhou Fuqing died due to his mother and needed to go home to keep filial piety for three years. In the past three years, there was a fraud incident in the science field, which directly changed the fate of Zhou Fuqing.
Zhou Fuqing's son Zhou Boyi has already been admitted to Xiucai before the Zhejiang Township Examination, and if he succeeds in the examination again this time, he will be able to become a lifter. And the chief examiner of the township examination happened to be Zhou Fuqing's classmate, and Yin Ruzhang, the general political envoy.
In order to allow his son to pass the exam successfully, Zhou Fuqing waited for Yin Ruzhang's official ship at the Suzhou dock in advance. He had prepared a name card and a letter, which contained two pieces of paper, one for the joint (the mark agreed between the examinee and the examiner), the mark for Zhou Fuqing as "Chenzhong Maoyu", and the other for the honorarium of 10,000 silver yuan.
However, the 10,000 silver yuan will be given afterwards. Zhou Fuqing knew that the examiner was not allowed to meet anyone on the way to the examination room, so he asked his servant Tao Ashun to meet Yin Ruzhang.
However, this Tao Ashun messed things up, which is why Shen Baozhen, the governor of Liangjiang, said that Zhou Fuqing's ability to do things was not good.
When Tao Ashun delivered the letter to the official ship, Yin Ruzhang was talking with the deputy chief examiner Zhou Xien. He rashly sent the name sticker along with the letter, and although Yin Ruzhang did not know the content of the letter, he guessed that it might be a fraud in the field.
Although the punishment for fraud in the field is severe, there are still a large number of people who take risks due to the huge profits. During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, there was a candidate named Shen Tonghe, although he couldn't recite the "Four Books and Five Classics", but he was able to take the first place in the examination.
At this time, someone forcibly sent the letter, and Yin Ruzhang was already frightened, because Zhou Xien was at the scene, and the letter could not be opened, so he had to put the letter aside. However, Tao Ah Shun urged loudly outside, saying that it was about money and there should be a reply.
This directly pushed Yin Ruzhang into a desperate situation, if he didn't open the letter, once Zhou Xien reported it, he would be unable to escape death. So, he had to open the letter. As the letter was opened, Tao Ashun was immediately controlled.
At that time, the deputy examiner was chatting on the examiner's ship, and when the examiner learned about this, he had to believe that he would not immediately dismantle it, and the attendant was a countryman, so he was in a hurry, so he urged loudly outside.
This was the case with that.
Tao Ashun's honesty contrasted sharply with Zhou Fuqing's escape. Tao Ashun's honesty led to his quick interrogation, and Zhou Fuqing chose to flee to Shanghai without Tao Ashun returning.
The reason why Zhou Fuqing chose to flee was because he knew that Shanghai was a concession and the Qing Dynasty could not interfere. However, due to the suddenness of the incident, Zhou Fuqing was unable to take his son Zhou Boyi away, resulting in Zhou Boyi being arrested and stripped of his reputation for Xiucai.
Zhou Fuqing knew that if he did not go back and turn himself in, his son's life might be in danger. Therefore, Zhou Fuqing chose to surrender himself, even though it meant that he would face his own guilt.
Fraud in the field has always been a major event, and no one in the Zhou family is an official, and as soon as the matter is made public, it will be reported to Guangxu by Songjun, the governor of Zhejiang, and there is no room for recovery. Zhou Fuqing originally thought that he would definitely die, but because he surrendered himself, did not make the cheat, had a problem with the 10,000 silver yuan, and only wrote the 10,000 silver yuan on paper and did not cash it, the criminal department decided to only sentence him to exile.
Generally speaking, the criminal department discussed the crime severely, and then the emperor reduced it to show the emperor's favor, but this time Guangxu increased the punishment, directly from exile to death, which is also in line with his style of trying to prosper, after all, there is also a "Wuxu change".
The emperor had convicted Zhou Fuqing of the death penalty, but fortunately, it was not carried out immediately, but until the following year. It coincided with the Empress Dowager Cixi's birthday celebrations, and the execution was carried out later that year.
However, during the autumn trial, the imperial court unanimously decided to change Zhou Fuqing's death sentence to imprisonment, probably because the Zhou family had dredged up the relationship. Emperor Guangxu had a busy schedule every day, and he probably didn't have much memory of a condemned prisoner named Zhou Fuqing.
During his time in prison, Zhou Fuqing's life was not boring, he could read, write, and even read newspapers, and sometimes people would visit him.
When the Eight-Nation Coalition captured Beijing, Zhou Fuqing took advantage of the chaos to escape from prison, and the Hangzhou government issued an order that gave him the opportunity to be exempted from light punishment and return to his family. However, the Zhou family had declined at this time, and among his two sons, Zhou Boyi died of depression due to the ruined future, and Zhou Bosheng was still young and could not support the family business.
During his sentence, Zhou Fuqing needed to take care of his wife and concubines and Zhou Boyi's wife, and had no time to take care of other affairs. He died just three years after his release from prison, leaving his children and grandchildren with untold suffering.
Suffering is not always bad, because it is suffering that has shaped Zhou Shuren's strength and passion, making him a literary giant. Just like Cao Xueqin, if it weren't for the middle of the family, she might not have been able to create a masterpiece like "Dream of Red Mansions".
Although history cannot be repeated, suffering has become a catalyst for their creation.