Chapter 8 Young people showing signs of intelligence

When Chinese feudal society entered the last days, it was also the youth of the protagonist Li Hongzhang in this book.At that time, the Qing Dynasty was facing a profound political and economic crisis, and the Western colonialists extended their tentacles of aggression into the land of China.Influenced by the social environment, the influence of family background, and the shackles of feudal ideology, Li Hongzhang at this time pinned his future on his fame in the imperial examinations, hoping that one day he would be promoted to official career through the imperial examinations and squeezed into the ranks of the ruling class.

Li Hongzhang was gifted and intelligent when he was a child.When he was five or six years old, he played with a few children by the pond.Just in time, Mr. Zhou Ju from the private school came to take a bath by the pond.He took off his clothes and hung them on the branch of the tree, chanting casually: The thousand-year-old tree is a hanger.Li Hongzhang answered while playing: Wanli Yangtze River is used as a bathing pool.Mr. Zhou saw that the child was very eloquent, he liked it very much, and wanted to teach him to read.Mr. Zhou found out that the child was the grandson of his good friend Li Dianhua, so he found Li Dianhua's fourth son, Li Hongzhang's father Li Wen'an, and told him that Li Hongzhang was very intelligent and talented.So Li Wen'an called his boss Li Hanzhang and Li Hongzhang to his study for an exam.Li Wen'an saw the account book in the study, and casually said the first couplet: the annual cost is hundreds of gold, and it is not easy to pay; Li Hongzhang said casually: thousands of flowers bloom, and the colors are endless.Li Hanzhang didn't confront him.Li Wen'an published another couplet: The wind blows the horse's tail with thousands of lines, and Li Hanzhang is right: The rain sprinkled the sheepskin with a fishy smell.Li Wen'an shook his head and said, the artistic conception is not beautiful.Li Hongzhang said to him again: "Rizhao dragon scales are ten thousand points of gold."Li Wen'an was overjoyed after hearing this, and felt that this sentence was not only neat, but also full of courage.

Li Wen'an decided to let Li Hongzhang and his elder brother Li Hanzhang receive enlightenment education together.Li Hongzhang's original name was Zhang Tong, but Li Wen'an changed his name to Hongzhang.It means that I hope that he will make great achievements and his articles will be good for the country.Later, Li Hongzhang really realized Li Wen'an's wish.Li Hongzhang entered Dihua Bookstore to study at the age of six.He was young and intelligent, and successively worshiped his cousin Bo Fangxian and Hefei famous scholar Xu Ziling as teachers, studied classics and history, and laid a solid foundation in knowledge.

Li Hongzhang's studies when he was a child focused on coping with the imperial examinations.His knowledge of righteousness and economics has improved rapidly, and his crafting skills are also good.Although Li Hongzhang's father and later three of Li Hongzhang's teachers all advocated Song studies, from the works left by Li Hongzhang in his early years, people did not see that Li Hongzhang had any interest in Song studies, Sinology, and world management.He wrote good articles, and his main works in his early days were poems and fus, the content of which mostly reflected friendship and family affection, and the words and sentences were beautiful and gorgeous.Some researchers have found that Li Hongzhang's early poems have a vigorous style, which is a kind of handy handwriting that is not disturbed by any pedantic ideas and has perfect skills.

In 1840, eighteen-year-old Li Hongzhang passed the examination of scholar.At that time, Li Hongzhang was handsome, tall and outstanding. In the 23rd year of Daoguang (1843), Li Hongzhang was selected as Yougong in Luzhou Fuxue.The father, who was a Beijing official at the time, hoped that his son would become a dragon, and sent a letter to urge Hongzhang to enter Beijing to prepare for the provincial examination in Shuntianfu next year.Li Hongzhang, who was twenty years old at the time, was very excited after reading his father's letter.This is what he has been looking forward to, and it is also the goal he has been working hard for.Therefore, he wrote ten poems "Into the Capital".These works of his were widely circulated at that time.Here is one of them:

The husband holds the Wu hook with only one hand, and his spirit is higher than that of Baichilou. Whoever wrote the history for 10,000 years, wants to be a prince three thousand miles away. The ambition of leaving the mountain is to climb to the top of Ao, when will I enter Fengchi. If there is no four-horse high-car day, I vow not to return to my hometown car. That is to say, the day of Xucai in the pavilion is the year when I serve the country with my articles. The horse is out of the group to rest in love, and the Yan resigns from the old base to make a new one. The article is handed over to well-known people in the country, and I went to visit a Taoist in the capital.

In the future, Yantai looks south, and the end of the world must report Li Ling's book.