One year, the imperial examination was held as usual, and two scholars from Hangzhou West Lake won the first prize at the same time, with equal results. This once-in-a-century coincidence makes it difficult for the examiner to tell who is the first. At this time, Emperor Qianlong visited Jiangnan. When he heard about it, he was curious and ordered the examiner to show the papers of two scholars for him to watch. Gan Long carefully studied the poems of these two men, and after some consideration, it was difficult to draw a conclusion. Therefore, he decided to test them with a couplet. After the order was issued, the examiner did not dare to neglect it and conveyed it to two college entrance examination candidates one by one.
The next day, the shore of the West Lake was crowded, and many people put down their work and watched the excitement. At this time, the emperor calmly stepped onto the stage, and he read a sentence: Yan Suochi Liu Tang? Let two candidates make a couplet. Everyone else marveled at Qianlong's talent, but this seemingly simple five-character poem almost stumped everyone on the scene.
The pool willows in the smoke lock pool correspond to the unique beauty of the light smoke around the water surface of the West Lake, while the willows on the shore of the lake seem to be locked by smoke. From the perspective of geomantic omen, this sentence contains the saying that smoke is fire, lock is gold, pond is water, pond is soil and willow is wood. It seems that the five elements are complete and poetic, and more importantly, it reflects the situation of the West Lake.
As soon as this poem was spoken by the emperor, two scholars immediately got a glimpse of its connotation. Because of this, the first scholar pondered for a moment and asked for a refund automatically when he knew that he could not make the bottom line. At this time, the second scholar pulled a long face and racked his brains to think of it. After walking back and forth for dozens of steps, I still couldn't touch the bottom line and resigned.
Afterwards, Gan Long appointed the first scholar who excused himself as the champion of this year's new subject.
When questioned by officials, Gan Long replied? This is a quatrain, no bottom line? . Anyone who finds this is an unsolvable quatrain for the first time will be willing to give up and resign as soon as possible, and the second scholar thought for a long time before he realized that this is a quatrain without lines, which shows that his knowledge is not as good as that of the first scholar. After hearing Gan Long's explanation, the official suddenly realized that he was very happy and nodded.
Later generations think this sentence is:? Yan Suochi in Liu Tang? It's not a quatrain, but it's extremely difficult. Maybe no one was right at that time, but China was full of talents. As the long river of history moves forward, I believe that one day it will be completely connected.
Let's look at various versions of this sentence. At the turn of the Millennium, during 1999, a poetry column was held in Chengdu, Sichuan, China, with the editor's tape:? Yan Suochi in Liu Tang? I asked the people of China for the title, and as a result, hundreds of letters were sent from all directions at once. The couplets given are different and colorful, such as the wind blowing the banner of Marxism-Leninism, the wind blowing the fragrance of rice, and the moon setting in the mirror in the river. Unfortunately, the exquisite five elements were not integrated, so there was no winner in this activity.
Through understanding, there are also many literati in the past dynasties, such as Chen Zisheng, a scholar in the Ming Dynasty, who made three consecutive sentences, namely:
The lamp hangs down the brocade threshold wave, the lamp pin is extremely congested, and the bell sinks the balcony lamp.
Soon Chen Zisheng was still dissatisfied with this triple, so he came up with the fourth sentence:? Smoke locks the pond willow, peach burns the Jinjiang embankment? At that time, people thought this sentence was the most appropriate bottom line, and there was no one.
However, as far as the connotation of the five elements is concerned, there are obviously shortcomings in burning peach Jinjiang embankment. Finally, we found that Tsui Hark of the Ming Dynasty also laid the bottom line for this sentence. He wrote:? Smoke locks the pond willow, cannon town tower? Having said that, I personally feel that if we really want to take Jin Mu seriously, there is still no perfect secular life.