Nowadays, the development of the Internet has brought unprecedented appearance anxiety to people, which has led to the unprecedented development of beauty, medical beauty and other industries. Coupled with the highly developed entertainment industry, people's requirements for appearance are getting higher and higher.
So in ancient times, without the interference of social networks and the Internet, would people still be as concerned about appearance as they are today? The answer varies from person to person, but in the Qing Dynasty, when selecting people to be officials, the requirements for appearance were very strict.
For example, there are these requirements in the "big pick" system, there can be no asymmetrical skew in the appearance, the head cannot be larger than the body, the head cannot be small and the body is too fat, the head and feet cannot be small, and the middle torso is very thick.
And the historical figure Liu Fenghe to introduce today is a person with a "missing" face, and he was even pointed out by the emperor on the spot, but he still entered the rank and got the title of Tanhua.
First, the court tried to be embarrassed, and did the right to solve the crisis
At that time, when Liu Fenghe came to the last exam, he was a little nervous, after all, he was facing the supreme ruler - Qianlong, but he didn't expect Qianlong to give him a "dismount" directly.
From the ancient cultural relics that have been handed down to this day, it can be found that Qianlong's aesthetics are relatively advanced, which leads to his extremely high requirements for beauty, so he is naturally very concerned about Liu Fenghe's uncoordinated eyes.
At that time, Qianlong directly released cruel words, if Liu Fenghe was a talented person, then he would definitely be hit today. If Qianlong is not satisfied, there may be punishment.
Encountering such a situation, Liu Fenghe, relying on his outstanding psychological quality, understood that Qianlong was giving him a chance to show his talents at this time.
Immediately Qianlong came up with a couplet, and I have to say that the irony of cultural people is even more to the point.
Qianlong actually gave a tribute born with a "sick" face in front of the world's geniuses that "one-eyed can't be on the gold list", if Liu Fenghe can't come out, of course, he will be embarrassed, and Qianlong will also cancel his qualification.
But Liu Fenghe just used "Half Moon is still the same thing", and the artistic conception of this couplet is far-reaching, it can be seen that Liu Fenghe is knowledgeable and has a fast reaction speed.
After passing Qianlong's test, Qianlong's attitude softened significantly, and gave Liu Fenghe another opportunity to use the stars in the sky to compare the talents above the palace, "East Qiming, West Changgung, South Ji Beidou, who is the star picker?"
And Liu Fenghe's lower couplet uses plants as a guide to lead to his own ambitions - the lower couplet: "Spring peony, summer peony, autumn chrysanthemum and winter plum, Chenben Tanhualang." Of course, Qianlong, who is only ambitious, does not like it, since he can answer him fluently, Qianlong gave Liu Fenghe a "Tanhua".
Second, Liu Fenghe has an extraordinary ability to pair pairs
Liu Fenghe's wonderful performance in the palace test was by no means just a flash of inspiration, he contributed many wonderful pairs in his life.
Liu Fenghe has left many pairs on many stages, one of which is: "The hammer is iron, the anvil is also iron, the hammer hits the anvil, or the iron strikes the iron." And he used the crowd watching the play as a counterpoint: "It is people who do the play, and it is also people who watch the play, and people watch the people in the stands under the stage." ”
On another stage, Liu Fenghe felt that the good and evil in the drama were rewarded, and made a pair: "Gather to watch the predecessors, good and evil are not happy; ”
In addition to the stage, he also made a statement for the oil mill - "Business is colliding; ”
The local people and literati were able to appreciate his couplets, and Liu Fenghe's couplets were extremely neat in structure, and the words used in the couplets were both simple and logical.
After Liu Fenghe became an official, he also produced many wonderful couplets.
At Qianlong's birthday banquet, Jiaqing gave Liu Fenghe a test, and he wanted to use the name of the Five Dynasties, starting with Shunzhi.
This kind of couplet is extremely demanding, and it is easy to make taboos, it is really not easy to think of it, and Liu Fenghe really made it. He used Shuntian to govern the country, Kangmin to Xiwu, Yongran to Zheng, Qianjian to Longen, and Jiaqiangu to celebrate Wannian, which fully met the requirements of Jiaqing.
It is difficult to guarantee that this kind of couplet will have the logical meaning of connecting up and down, but Liu Fenghe has done it, and his ability to connect them is first-class.
3. Liu Fenghe's life
Liu Fenghe was born in the 26th year of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty in Pingxiang, the birthplace of Jiangxi's famous fireworks and firecrackers.
The emperor lived up to his wishes, Liu Fenghe with his own efforts to study, at the age of eighteen he became a person in 1779, and in 1789 passed the palace examination and the court examination, the imperial gift of Jinshi and the first.
Two years later, Liu Fenghe finally started his official career, starting from a bachelor's degree. A year later, he was again awarded the academic administration of Guangxi Admiralty College, in charge of the "annual examination" and "scientific examination" of candidates in the province.
Time came to Jiaqing for a year, Liu Fenghe's father died, and he returned to his hometown to serve three years of mourning.
In the fourth year of Jiaqing, Liu Fenghe returned to the imperial court and returned to study as a bachelor. Two years later, Liu Fenghe was promoted to the top leader of the Guozijian - sacrificial wine. Liu Fenghe was promoted again in the seventh year of Jiaqing, and was awarded the position of a cabinet bachelor and concurrently served as a waiter in the Ministry of Rites.
Fourth, the official career has gone through several twists and turns
In the following years, Liu Fenghe's official fortunes fluctuated, and even fell to the point of exile.
In the ninth year of Jiaqing, Liu Fenghe returned to Beijing after his term of office and was promoted to vice president of the compilation of the "Records of the Qianlong Emperor" to inspect the original manuscript. In November of the same year, Liu Fenghe suspected that some of them were abusing power for personal gain because of personnel appointments, and went to impeach, but after investigation, the officials found that his impeachment was not true, and the emperor naturally did not like him to make something out of nothing, and demoted him to the chief editor and cabinet bachelor of the Records Museum.
Unexpectedly, a year later, Liu Fenghe was demoted to one level and retained due to improper deletion in the compilation of the actual record.
In the eleventh year of Jiaqing, Liu Fenghe was activated again, and at this time he had become the right attendant of the Ministry of War, and he was the vice president of the compilation of real records.
In the twelfth year of Jiaqing, the record was completed, and Liu Fenghe rewarded the crown prince Shaobao. It's a pity that he disagreed with the officials of the university scholars because of the issue of vacation, and finally the emperor thought that what Liu Fenghe said was inappropriate, so he was demoted to four levels and retained.
In the fourteenth year of Jiaqing, Liu Fenghe was reported for violating regulations to escort candidates, and the emperor demoted him to three levels to retain him.
In June of the same year, Yushi impeached Liu Fenghe. criticized him for his improper behavior and untidy clothes during the invigilation process, and also impeached him for explaining the topics to the familiar scholars in last year's township examination, helping them to consider the language, and giving them wine and food.
and because the scholar reported that Liu Fenghe arranged the number room next door for the familiar scholar and the substitute examiner, he also let the lifter Zhang Kunzhu break into the examination room in violation of regulations. In the end, it was found out that Liu Fenghe did not accept bribes, and the emperor thanked him for his contribution to the compilation of the "Qianlong Record" and sent it to Heilongjiang.
In the first year of Daoguang, Liu Fenghe was transferred back and died ten years later.
5. The works left by Liu Fenghe
Liu Fenghe's surviving works are considered to be the most famous for the annotations of the "History of the New Five Dynasties", and the annotation of the "History of the New Five Dynasties" was originally supplemented and corrected by Liu Fenghe's teacher Peng Yuanrui on the basis of his predecessors Ouyang Xiu and Xu Wudang.
For any civil official, revising historical books is a heavy task, and Liu Fenghe has been repairing for more than 20 years, and 58 of them were completed without his teacher Peng Yuanrui.
In order to be perfect, Liu Fenghe typed three drafts, striving to be more detailed on the basis of not changing what his predecessor Ouyang Xiu did.
In addition to the grand historical supplement, Liu Fenghe did not forget his hometown, wrote four volumes, and finally bound it into "Jiangxi Classics Chronicles".
Of course, he also loves to write poetry, and after sorting out some poems, he left the work "Du Gongbu Poems".
epilogue
Liu Fenghe's deeds give those who pay too much attention to appearance a slap in the face, appearance can always only be the icing on the cake, only a strong inner is the sharp blade to break doubts and solve difficulties.
Resources
"Qing History" National History Curator
"Qing Dynasty Imperial Examination Records and Related Works" Shang Yanliu
The surging news "New Five Dynasties History Revision Group: Why Ouyang Xiu Wants to Write a New "History of the Five Dynasties"" points to the school-based New Five Dynasties History Revision Group