Lv Mengzheng was born in 944. His grandfather, Lu, was an assistant minister in the late Tang Dynasty and a minister-level official. His father, Tortoise Rabbit, was Lang who was alive in the Zhou Dynasty. His daily job is to record the emperor's daily words and deeds. His work is easy and his status is not low. Supposedly, Lv Mengzheng, who was born in such a family, should be very relaxed and happy to be an official for three generations. However, he lived a very difficult life for a long time.
The reason is also very simple. Lv Mengzheng's father heard the abuse of his little wife and drove Lv Mengzheng and his mother out of the house. Mother and son have nowhere to go and no financial resources. In desperation, they can only live in a broken cave by the river. Lv Mengzheng himself gives people some short-term jobs and collects firewood, while his mother helps people make a living.
While working, Lv Mengzheng still studied very hard, which attracted a lot of ridicule and was regarded by many villagers as a toad who wanted to eat swan meat. Also let his own life for a long time, struggling on the poverty line, and even one year on New Year's Eve, Lv Mengzheng's family not only couldn't buy new year's goods, but even lost their meals.
Lv Mengzheng borrowed money from friends, neighbors and relatives, but no one wanted to lend it to him. Monroe was sad and disappointed and had to go back to the cave. Soon after, he posted a strange couplet in front of the door: 2345; 6789, the horizontal batch is: North and South.
Many relatives and neighbors came to see his couplets, but they didn't know what they meant. After a long discussion, someone finally came back to taste. It originally means "lack of clothes and eat less (1) 10", not "things". In this couplet, Monroe not only expresses his difficulties in a difficult life, but also laughs at himself that no one wants to fund it.
After laughing at himself, he still wants to move on with his life. In those difficult days, Lumeng never gave up his ideals and efforts. Finally won the first prize in the second year of Taiping Xingguo (AD 977). Seeing his outstanding talent, the emperor gave him 200,000 yuan to be the judge of Tuizhou.
When the news came back to my hometown, some of my relatives and neighbors heard that Lv Mengzheng had developed, and they went to visit their relatives with money and gifts. Lv Mengzheng looked at these smiling people with mixed feelings, so he wrote a pair of couplets on paper and asked them to watch:
"Old famine, daily necessities, out of the cross street, can not be on credit, can not be borrowed, many in-laws and consorts stood by and none of them helped in time;
Today, we are lucky and have hope for food and clothing. We won the first prize in the Five Classics, and our surnames and names were improved. No matter how Zhang San and Li Si celebrate, it is the icing on the cake. "
The situation when Lu Meng succeeded was very different from that when he was underdeveloped. He used these two couplets to make the world suddenly warm and cold, and made this contrast very sharp. Some relatives and neighbors left in shame after seeing it. Lv Mengzheng, however, has a smooth career and has been the prime minister. At the age of 68, his influence was far-reaching, and the motto "Be an official and be Lv Mengzheng" spread in later generations.
References:
Weichuan County Records and the History of Song Dynasty