The broadcast of "Qingping Le" is eye-catching, showing the grand scene of the early days of "Renzong's prosperity". With the development of the plot, lovers of history and literature have speculated whether there will be a scene about Ouyang Xiu, a "61 layman".
Sure enough, in the fourth episode, Ouyang Xiu came out after a long time, starting from his "failure" in the imperial examination. Today, let's talk about Ouyang Xiu in history, how he "fell off the list".
Ouyang Xiu didn't really fall off the list, but he dropped from 1st to 14th, and the title of champion was snatched away. Despite this, his status in the literary circle of the Northern Song Dynasty is still unparalleled, and he is respected as a "teacher", and he has influenced many literati and artists, including the eight masters of the Tang and Song dynasties.
Long before the imperial examination, Ouyang Xiu's talent had been widely recognized, and it was only a matter of time before he became the champion.
Ouyang Xiu, whose name is Uncle Yong, is originally from Luling, Jiangxi, and was born in Mianzhou, Sichuan. His father was over half a hundred years old, and at the age of 56, he was happy to have a noble son, and Ouyang Xiu studied diligently under the careful teaching of his mother Zheng and uncle Ouyang Ye, and eventually became a generation of talents.
When Song Renzong ascended the throne, Ouyang Xiu was only 16 years old, and he thought very highly of himself, thinking that he was a genius that was rare in a century. However, unfortunately, he failed to make the list in the next two imperial examinations, and he was 22 years old in a blink of an eye.
Xu Yan, who was the follower of the Hanyang Army at the time, admired Ouyang Xiu's talent very much. He recruited Ouyang Xiu under his command and married his beloved daughter to him, although he was not yet married.
According to the "History of the Song Dynasty: The Biography of Xu Yan": Ouyang Xiu first saw Xu Yan, and his literary talent was breathtaking, so Xu Yan introduced him to his door and married his beloved daughter to him. With the help of his future father-in-law, Xu Yan, Ouyang Xiu traveled to the capital, not only increasing his knowledge, but also gradually emerging to the fore.
On the one hand, Ouyang Xiu participated in the Guozijian examination in Kaifeng, successfully obtained the qualification of supervisor, and participated in the Guangwenguan examination of Guozixue, won the title of Xie Yuan, won two yuan in a row, and became famous.
On the other hand, Ouyang Xiu is good at writing words, and many beautiful words and sentences are widely circulated in the community, and even some words have spread to Qinglou, leaving people with the impression of "merry" and "frivolous", laying the groundwork for future things.
In 1029 AD, Ouyang Xiu, who was only 23 years old, won the first place in the provincial examination and became the provincial yuan. Prior to this, he had already passed the Jian Yuan and Xie Yuan examinations, and achieved the good results of three yuan in a row.
He is full of confidence in the upcoming palace examination and firmly believes that he can win the top prize. In order to show his best condition in the palace examination, he also specially prepared a bright red robe.
Ouyang Xiu is not only full of self-confidence, but his peers are also convinced that he will win the top prize. Ouyang Xiu has a classmate named Wang Gongshou, who is only 19 years old, looks dignified, and admires Ouyang Xiu very much.
Hearing that Ouyang Xiu had prepared the champion robe, Wang Gongshou asked Ouyang Xiu to borrow it and put it on, hoping to touch his good luck in order to get a good result in the palace examination.
In the palace examination, Ouyang Xiu relied on his talent to talk like a river, and a strategy was like a river, which made the young Song Renzong deeply impressed. As a result, in the list announced the next day, the champion became Wang Gongshou who tried on Ouyang Xiu's robe, Ouyang Xiu only ranked 14th, and Wang Gongshou was also named Wang Gongchen by Song Renzong.
Ouyang Xiu was deeply satisfied with his palace examination results and firmly believed that he would become the champion. However, he was confused when he learned that he had only finished 14th.
Many years later, Ouyang Xiu had the opportunity to communicate with Yan Shu, one of the ministers who participated in the palace examination that year, and only then did he realize that his performance was too good that year, but because of his romantic reputation, the champion not only valued talent, but also valued virtue.
Therefore, Song Renzong decided to lower Ouyang Xiu's ranking in order to frustrate his sharpness and let him hone his talent in the setbacks.
Ouyang Xiu"Down"Behind it, there is actually an interesting story hidden. Although the plot of the play is slightly different from history, the aftermath of this incident is quite fascinating.
In the era of the heyday of the Song Dynasty's literary style, many ministers paid more attention to talent than appearance when choosing sons-in-law. Therefore, Xue Kui, a scholar of Longtuge University at that time, decided to take the initiative and chose Ouyang Xiu and Wang Gongchen, two talented and good-looking young people, as his sons-in-law.
Xue Kui immediately found Wang Gongchen and Ouyang Xiu after the list was revealed, because Ouyang Xiu was three years older than Wang Gongchen, Xue Kui originally planned to marry the eldest daughter to Ouyang Xiu, and the second daughter to marry Wang Gongchen.
However, Ouyang Xiu was unable to accept this proposal because he already had a marriage contract with Xu Yan's daughter, which made Xue Kui feel very disappointed, and finally decided to marry his eldest daughter to Wang Gongchen.
However, such a thing did not end, when Wang Gongchen's wife died, Xue Kui acted again and married his third daughter to him, making Wang Gongchen Ouyang Xiu's brother-in-law.
Ouyang Xiu was very interested in this and wrote a couplet, the upper one is "the old son-in-law is the new son-in-law", and the lower one is "the eldest aunt is the little uncle". Despite all the twists and turns, Ouyang Xiu's life is still full of fun and laughter, and his wisdom and humor make his life full of color.