Ming Dynasty politician Zhang Juzheng, whose courtesy name was Shuda and whose name was Taiyue, was from Jiangling, Huguang (now part of Shashi, Hubei). The name Ju Zheng was given later. His original name was Bai Gui. Zhang Juzheng's grandfather heard people say that all the top scholars in the world are Wenqu stars from the sky. When he was about to have his great-grandson, he thought about it day and night, hoping that the stars in the sky would visit his family and give his family a promising offspring. One day, when he was lying in bed again thinking about this idea, he suddenly saw many bright stars shaking in front of his eyes, and a bright moon fell from the sky, fell into the water tank at his house, and turned into a bright moon. white turtle. At this moment, a baby's cry woke him up from his sleep. His great-grandson arrived. The old man named him "Bai Gui" based on this dream.
Zhang Baigui was born with beautiful features, lively, intelligent, and cute. When he was babbling at the age of two, he could recognize the two characters "王曰" in "Mencius". He entered school at the age of five, mastered the Six Classics at the age of ten, and became a scholar at the age of twelve. He immediately caused a sensation in the ancient city of Jingzhou and was praised as the "Jianling Prodigy".
On one occasion, a wizard was invited to the Zhang family ancestral hall. He danced around, pretended to be a ghost, and claimed to be "possessed by Manjushri Bodhisattva." Only Bai Gui didn't believe this and looked on with cold eyes. The wizard was very angry and pretended to be a bodhisattva, saying: "What a bold naughty boy, how dare you offend my god! Your future destiny must be: wealth without ambition, fame and fame."
Bai Gui's The father quickly apologized for his son and said: "Blessed by Bodhisattva, children's words are unbridled." Bai Gui didn't care, laughed loudly, and said to the wizard: "You guy told the truth. The word "thinking" is Wuxin, which means "xiang". "Wealth without thinking" means that I will be extremely rich and powerful in the future, and will be the prime minister; "Wuxu" is not the word "cheng", and "accomplishment and fame cannot be achieved" means that I will be admitted to the imperial examination and gain fame in the year of Wuxu."
The wizard was so angry that he opened his mouth and cursed:
How can you be a disciple of the Holy Sect, you slut?
Without thinking, Bai Gui blurted out:
Daredevil, pretending to be a god in the sky.
The wizard couldn't defeat the young Bai Gui, so he had to sneak away dejectedly.
Zhang Baigui was praised as a "prodigy" by everyone, but he always said: "The folks have praised me, but the students are not prodigies." Originally, genius comes from hard work, and prodigy lies in hard work. There is no such thing as innateness in the world. Prodigy?
Zhang Baigui studied hard and took the Jingzhou Prefecture examination when he was twelve years old. The examination room is located at the Confucian Temple Academy near the south gate of Jingzhou City, which is the highest institution of learning in Jingzhou. On the day of the exam, Bai Gui carried the exam basket and the four treasures of the study, and walked to the exam room with a large group of scholars. When they were about to enter the examination room through the three small bluestone bridges in front of the Confucian Temple Academy, they suddenly heard a burst of shouting. It turned out that Li Shi'ao, the prefect of Jingzhou, was invigilating the examination in an eight-carriage sedan. All the candidates quickly scattered to make way and lowered their heads to avoid it. Bai Gui followed several bearded candidates, taking small steps in a leisurely manner, as if nothing happened. Li Shi'ao saw it at a glance in the sedan chair, and felt a little strange: he had never seen such a young candidate before; looking at his expression, he was also different from others. Li Shi'ao stopped the sedan chair and asked his entourage to call him to him. He looked him up and down and said in a disdainful tone: "You, a little kid, also come to my house to take the exam? Wait for me to tell you something." If you are right, I will let you cross this small bluestone bridge. If you are not right, please go home quickly." Bai Gui flashed his smart eyes and looked back at the candidates who were watching from a distance. Looking at Magistrate Li who was staring with squinted eyes, he said casually: "Your Excellency, please." Li Shi'ao pointed at the two tall and towering ancient trees in the academy and read out the first couplet:
The Great Confucian Temple, two trees The tree stands tall against the sky;
Bai Gui lifted the test basket and wrote the second line:
Primary school students, with a pen, can govern the country and bring peace to the country.
When Li Shi'ao heard this, his eyes suddenly flashed, and all the candidates were stunned with their eyes wide open. Magistrate Li thought to himself that this kid is quite famous, so he nodded and said in an official tone: "Primary school students are very impressive. I'll see you in the examination hall."
When it was time to open the book, Magistrate Li shook his head and thought. Holding a test paper, he couldn't help but praise him, and ordered his subordinates to find out the name of the candidate according to the test paper number and come for an interview. When the examinee stood in front of him, he was stunned for a moment, then immediately put on a smile and said in surprise: "It turns out Zhang Baigui is you! I don't think it's rare to have a literary master." In this way, Zhang Baigui won with distinction The result is that he passed the examination as a scholar.
Gu Yinglin, the governor of Huguang, was very fond of talents. Hearing that a child prodigy had emerged from Jiangling, he came to Jingzhou Prefecture to inspect. It was the weather in June at this time, and Gu Yinglin and his party were dusty and sweaty. Not far from the south gate of Jingzhou City, he saw a small temple by the roadside with three characters "Dongsi Temple" written on the lintel. There was a big tree in front of the temple with green shade like a canopy, so Gu Yinglin ordered him to rest here. At this time, there was a sound of reading from the temple. Gu Yinglin couldn't help but look for the sound and walked away. When she walked into the temple, she saw a dozen children sitting in the side hall, reading. As soon as the teacher saw the governor arriving, he quickly came forward to see him and asked him to sit down. The monks in the temple heard that the governor was coming in person, so they quickly picked several large watermelons from the watermelon field behind the temple and presented them to the officials to quench their thirst and relieve the heat.
Gu Yinglin fell in love with the scenery and became very elegant. She casually recited the first couplet:
Monk Dongsi gave watermelons and some small gifts;
After reading, he asked the teacher to respond to the second couplet. . The teacher was caught off guard, speechless, and sweating profusely. One of his students quickly came to his rescue and said:
The immortal from Antarctica is facing the Beidou, it is a great kindness.
When Governor Gu heard this, he was very happy. He called the student to his side and asked: "What is your name?" The primary school student replied: "The student's name is Zhang Baigui."
Governor Gu was overjoyed. The primary school student in front of him was the "Jiangling Prodigy" he was looking for. When he was excited, he unconsciously chanted another couplet:
The young phoenix learns to fly, and the storm of thousands of miles begins;
Zhang Baigui responded casually:
Qianlong Get up, the nine-day thunderstorm will come in time.
Governor Gu was overjoyed and casually took off the gold belt from his waist and gave it to Zhang Baigui, and stayed with him to ask questions. When asked why he had such an unusual name, Bai Gui replied: "The name student was given by the grandfather of the family." Then he told the story of how his great-grandfather named him. Read it again.
After hearing this, Governor Gu smiled and said, "The old man must be very eager to ask for his grandson. How could the moon turn into a white turtle?" Bai Gui said: "Students have been enlightened since childhood, that is, reading the books of sages. I know very well that you don't talk about "strangeness, strength, chaos, and gods". The success or failure of the world depends on human beings; the words of dreams are not trustworthy. My grandfather has been helping the poor in times of crisis, and he is willing to use himself as a straw mat to make people sleep. Lying on it. It shows that the grandpa’s original intention is to hope that the students will be able to benefit the country and the people in the future, and not forget the kindness of the ancestors.”
Seeing that he spoke so eloquently, Governor Gu was even more impressed by the child. Lovely, so he said: "The governor sees that you have outstanding talents and extraordinary ambitions, and you are expected to become a pillar of the country in the future. However, when it comes to the way of being an official and a person, the most important thing is to be impartial and upright. You must not be like a wall. The grass sways with the wind, so that you can live up to your talent and ambition, and it will also benefit the people of the country. What do you think of changing 'Bai Gui' to 'Ju Zheng'?" Zhang Baigui felt that these words spoke to his heart, and he nodded repeatedly. From then on, the name Zhang Juzheng replaced Zhang Baigui.