Chapter 8 "Records of Li Bai" Why Li Bai Didn't Take the Imperial Examination

Why didn't Li Bai take the imperial examination? In Li Bai's life, there is one thing that is very suspicious-he never took the imperial examination in his life.Why is this? Of course, Li Bai himself said: I am a genius, how can a genius take the exam?Is it true? It is unimaginable that a scholar in the Tang Dynasty would not take the imperial examination.People in the Tang Dynasty usually had two ways to get ahead: you were a descendant of princes and aristocrats, and you could enjoy special care; The Jinshi culture in the Tang Dynasty had a great influence on the poet's personality.Who writes poems gracefully and luxuriously, and who writes poems bitterly and bitterly, are all related to the Jinshi examination.Those who passed the exam like Wang Wei must write graceful and luxurious poems.Those who write poems with bitter hatred and deep hatred either did not pass the exam, or at least did not pass the exam after the "eight years of the War of Resistance".Why are Du Fu's poems bitter and bitter?I failed the exam twice.Meng Jiao was even worse, and his mentality was distorted in the exam.In order to be admitted to Jinshi, he went bankrupt and pawned all the furniture. "Borrowing furniture in a car, the furniture is less than the car" ("Borrowing a Car"), how sad!At the age of 46, Meng Jiao was finally admitted to Jinshi. He wrote a poem "After Enrollment" with great enthusiasm: "In the past, it was so dirty that it was unbelievable to boast, but now there is no limit to debauchery. The spring breeze is proud of the horseshoe disease, and I can see all the flowers in Chang'an in one day." I was an unknown person before. Seniors, you should look down on me, but now that I am a Jinshi in the new science department, I want to visit all the brothels in Chang'an, and call all the top names in brothels to drink with me.

After being admitted to Jinshi in the Tang Dynasty, there were two most glorious things: one was the inscription on the Pagoda of Mercy.Bai Juyi once wrote "The place where the title is inscribed on the Ci'en Pagoda is the youngest among the seventeen people."Another one is street parades.After the announcement of the rankings, all the brothels were decorated with lanterns and festoons, singing and dancing every night, and it was the new champions who came to visit.Meng Jiao can throw a lot of money here, and I guess there are many manufacturers behind it.At that time, when the rich families chose their sons-in-law, they all aimed at new scholars.Because if a person can obtain Jinshi in the Tang Dynasty, if he can also be a Hanlin, he has a 50% chance of becoming a prime minister.

The background at that time was like this, and scholars had to take the imperial examination.Why doesn't Li Bai leave?Of course he has his own saying: I am a genius, I am too lazy to take the Jinshi exam.But this is an excuse, in fact Li Bai has something to hide.He is not eligible to take the imperial examination at all, which has something to do with his life experience. In the Tang Dynasty, not everyone could take the imperial examination. When Bai Juyi was young, he wrote a series of articles called "Hundred Dao Judgments".In the imperial examinations of the Tang Dynasty, there was a custom in the middle of the Tang Dynasty that the ability to judge cases was tested in the examination of Jinshi.Bai Juyi was very clever. He did the simulation questions by himself, compiled 100 cases, and then prepared the answers in advance.Among them was a "judgment", which discussed: Can the merchant's son take the Jinshi examination?Bai Juyi said yes, he hoped that the policy could be more enlightened.Bai Juyi specially made such a simulation question, explaining that according to the practice of the Tang Dynasty, the sons of merchants were not allowed to take the imperial examination.

In the Tang Dynasty, Jinshi examinations had to pass the qualification examination first.When reviewing, it is necessary to indicate: 1. "Name and register of county, county and township", which means to indicate where you are from?2. "Father and grandfather's official name" refers to your father and your grandfather. What was their name and what did they do?In addition, it is also stipulated that if the family is in business, or if the relatives who are close to the family are in business, they cannot come to take the Jinshi examination.Of course, the descendants of criminals are even less qualified.

Li Bai's life experience happens to be both: one is the son of a sinner, and the other is the son of a merchant.If you want to take the Jinshi exam, you don't even have the door.You have deprived me of all my qualifications, will I still beg you servilely?The genius Li Bai would never do that.He said: You don't let me take the exam, I still look down on your Jinshi exam!I don't take the imperial examination, so I rely on self-hype to become famous, and let your emperor invite me in person.This is Li Bai's complex.