Not sure yet: For readers of ancient flower explorers and top scorers, the following history encyclopedia editor will bring you a detailed introduction. Let’s continue reading~Why are ancient scholars happier than top scorers when they pass the flower exploration exam?
In Mr. Gu Long’s martial arts work “The Untamed Swordsman”, there is a well-known saying that goes, “Xiao Li Fei Dao has no false hair.” Here, Xiao Li Fei Dao refers to Li Xunhuan. He also has another name, “Xiao Li Tanhua,” because he came from a scholarly family and had been taking the imperial examination since his grandfather’s generation. Many outstanding children in his family passed the imperial examination and became officials.
However, in the family exam, Li Xunhuan’s elders achieved the best results with only one flower, and never won the top spot. They had hoped for Li Xunhuan, who was the youngest and most talented, but Li Xiuhuan only passed the exam with one flower. Although she gained the reputation of “Seven Jinshi, Father and Son Three Flowers”, it made several elders of Li Xunhuan feel depressed and even died of illness.
From this perspective, the topic of “Exploring Flowers” may not seem very important, but it is only for the Li Xunhuan family. For more ordinary scholars in ancient times, being able to explore flowers in an exam was a happier thing than being the top scholar. There is an unwritten rule here that “Exploring Flowers” is often more handsome than being the top scholar. Once selected as a “Exploring Flower”, it means that one’s appearance is affirmed, and it is also an opportunity to be noticed by the princess. Why is this?
In fact, the original meaning of the term ‘Canhua’ was more about viewing and picking flowers, and picking flowers also meant seeking a woman. It was not until the Song Dynasty that the third name in the imperial examination system was called ‘Canhua’, which originated from the Tang Dynasty’s’ Canhua ‘.
The Tang Dynasty was a prosperous era and also an era of poetry. People of that era usually had a very strong poetic heart, which was particularly evident in the imperial examinations. In the Tang Dynasty, there was a so-called “Lu Ming Banquet”, which was a grand banquet held by students who successfully passed the imperial examination and became new jinshi. At the banquet, everyone drank and played together, and wrote poetry.
At this banquet, the new jinshi need to sing the poem “Lu Ming” from the Book of Songs, Xiaoya, so they call it the Lu Ming Banquet. It is a “beautiful” event with literati, wine, and poetry. How can there be no flowers at such a grand event? So the newly recruited scholars will be selected from the two youngest and most handsome scholars to go to the garden to pick flowers, and they will jokingly call these two “flower envoys” or “flower boys”.
These two factors may not necessarily be related to the third. For example, in the third year of the Qianning reign of Emperor Zhaozong of Tang (896 AD), Hualang was the fourth to Weng Chengzan, but he was selected as the envoy Hualang because he was young and handsome. By the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, with the increasingly perfect imperial examination system, Hualang had become a specialized term for the third. However, the old practice of selecting flowers based on their beauty has also been followed to a certain extent, so being able to become a flower girl basically means that he has the highest beauty value among the fellow jinshi.
At the same time, it is precisely because the value of flower exploration is often high that it is most likely to win the favor of princesses. As long as one becomes a flower exploration, the chance of becoming a son-in-law who has been striving for twenty years greatly increases. Therefore, for ordinary readers, being able to become a flower exploration is really a beautiful thing. Li Xunhuan’s family, who are not interested in being a son-in-law, will be unhappy because their family is always searching for flowers and willows.
