Journey to Nanjing

● Li Xiangjun's former residence

In the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, located east of the Qinhuai River was the examination room, where candidates from all over the country conducted the imperial examinations. On the other side of the river was the famous Qinhuai brothel Meixiang Building. The only remaining one left is Li Xiangju's former residence (Hui-style building). Li Xiangjun was one of the eight beauties of Qinhuai. She and the other seven beauties were in Meixiang Building. Although she was a brothel woman, in addition to her attainments in the literary world such as poetry, books, qin and painting, she also had patriotic feelings and certain political ambitions, leaving a certain influence in history. At that time, the residence was luxurious and elegant with carved corridors, peach blossoms in the courtyard, the rooms and attic were reasonably distributed, the piano, calligraphy and painting rooms were complete, and the living room was conveniently designed with special flower viewing windows and sewage outlets. I can clearly understand Li Xiangjun's life experience back then. The love story with Hou Fangyu took the overthrow of the Ming Dynasty as the historical background and ended with a tragic monk practice. Li Xiangjun lived in troubled times and guided Hou Fangyu not to be tempted by others. She also had a national solar term with a deep understanding of righteousness and a clear temperament of good and evil, so people were full of longing and admiration for her. The women I have seen in these brothel houses have gone through hardships in their life and growth processes, and they have come to this end. For example, Chen Yuanyuan, Dong Xiaowan, Liu Rushi, etc., who appear in TV dramas, are familiar with them. Most of them are diligent in learning and communicating, and discuss cooking skills with each other every time the full moon (Eight Records of Qinhuai). They do not receive guests. They learn from each other so that they can communicate with literati and politicians in the authorities. They are famous for their influence on history.

● China Imperial Examination Museum

In order to maintain political stability and recruit wise men, kings of various dynasties introduced the rise, improvement, prosperity and decline of the imperial examination system based on history. In the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty established the imperial examination system in order to break the monopoly of the valve clan on the bureaucratic system. In 605, he established the imperial examination system for Jinshi, laying the foundation for the subsequent fair and just improvement of the imperial examination system. In the Tang Dynasty, the institutionalization of imperial examinations was continuously improved and perfected, which affected the fate of scholars and also maintained the symbiosis of bureaucratic and scholar society in the culture of that time. In the Song Dynasty, the fair competition environment in examination rooms, the optimization of the system for establishing Jinshi palace examinations, and the idealization of written examination answers improved the fairness and justice of the imperial examination system. In the Liao, Jin and Yuan Dynasties, the rulers combined their own ethnic minority characteristics and divided the list into left and right, using Cheng and Zhu Neo-Confucianism to elaborate Confucian thoughts as the examination content to further improve the imperial examination system. In the Ming and Ming Dynasties, in the mature period, schools were admitted as talent storage bases, and the examination quotas were selected according to regions. Eight-part essays were fixed as the examination style. The imperial examination selection was finalized in the Qing Dynasty. During the heyday, official and civilian examinations were added, and the number of examinations increased, and cheating was severely punished. Education has been a top priority for the country since ancient times. The imperial examination system is part of the educational reform. The imperial examination system has historically served the ruler, stabilized the foundation of the court, and recruited talents. With the change of dynasties, it has been continuously optimized until now. For example, the current formal civil service examination still has five policy issues surrounding economic, current, political and educational talents. The articles of the imperial examination are equivalent to the current application, with requirements for the word format. It also has an impact on people's ideology today. For example, respect for people in the system has always existed since ancient times. The process of the imperial examination system is more complicated. Although it lasts for 9 days and 6 nights and is a physical test for people, the Ministry of Education still attaches great importance to it. During the prosperous times, local government affairs generally attached high importance to education. When the list is released, a banquet will be held (Lu Ming Banquet), and when the list is not approved, travel expenses will be given to remote areas to go home. This is worth learning. I remember that in high school, my impression was that the imperial examination system was mainly eight-part prose, and every exam was mainly about answering its negative impact. However, after watching the founding and rise of the imperial examination system this time and understanding the historical background at that time and its far-reaching influence to this day, I personally believe that the Imperial Examination Museum as a whole still objectively describes the true historical scene, allowing every visitor to have their own insights and opinions.

● Nanjing Museum

When browsing the Nanjing Museum, I was equipped with audio guide headphones, so I was a little lazy and took too many photos, and the tour was mainly about the History Museum. Prehistoric verve, Wu Yue Spring and Autumn Hall was mostly made of tiles during the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, which looked blunt, with only simple empty or sharp edges and corners, including the original bronzes, which were also simple weapons attached to sticks, and some stone knives and bronze spears, combined with the background of high instability between countries at that time, most of these pottery objects served the war, and some focused on daily appliances. They are all pottery pots with simple lines, and the original pottery pots do not even have a lid, and the design of the base is also lack of stability. With the popularity of the bronze age in the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn period, there were poured copper cans, carved with fine patterns, and lines gradually enriched. Life elements also gradually increased, especially ceramics with color and animal appearance, gradually become diversified, can not help but sigh for the Chinese civilization 3500 years ago. The cultural relics of the Qin and Han dynasties are mainly ceramic bronzes, on the basis of which gold, silver and metal objects are added. Judging from the discovery of large-scale tombs in the south of the Yangtze River, the princes and kings distributed in Jiangsu, and the history of the two Han dynasties reached unprecedented prosperity for more than 400 years. From the unearthed cultural relics, people's cultural life and spiritual style were significantly improved at that time, and the six dynasties were superimposed. Many years of war in the north of the Sui and Tang dynasties led to the southward migration of a large number of people, and the demographic dividend led to the economic development of the south of the Yangtze River. The relatively rich culture in the six dynasties laid the foundation for the cultural prosperity of the Sui and Tang dynasties. The Tang Dynasty opened up shipping and promoted the economic and cultural exchanges between the south and the north. Under the impact of Hu culture, many terracotta figures have different shapes, prominent body proportions, exotic collars, and women's formal chest clothes are also rare in history. It can be seen that the degree of inclusion is really high, ah, businessmen have a peaceful face, they can feel that it is very profitable to come to Han areas to do business, and the culture is compatible with economic prosperity. Handicrafts, commerce and the masses began to divide. The colorful cultural relics of the Song and Yuan dynasties are mainly white enamel, simple and elegant atmosphere, a bit like our Nordic modern style home style, smooth lines and delicate pictures and text, which should benefit from the great integration of north and south cultures at that time. The style of works formed by the influence of foreign religions. I was most shocked by the prosperity of Jiangnan and the splendor of the Ming and Qing dynasties. During this period, there was the predecessor of professional branches, such as landscape architecture, navigators, scientists, calligraphy and painting writers, purple sand embroidery textile and so on are as prosperous as our present light industry. Purple sand teapot, blue and white porcelain, cloth, bronze mirrors, women's decoration articles are basically as delicate as what we see now, and the works of art are also carefully carved, bright colors, smooth paint and glaze, and exclaim that European navigators discovered the new world at that time. The prosperity of Jiangsu Province has far exceeded that of the north, the representative of the heyday of scholars. Nanjing Museum is a national first-class museum with advanced facility planning. The headphone equipment I rent belongs to the kind of signal coverage. I come up to you like a tour guide to tell you the historical background and the meaning of the objects. But I personally think that the explanation is a little simple, unified explanation template, the same material of cultural relics in different periods, will be more comparable. Reading history makes people wise, poetry wise, calculus poets precise, philosophy profound, ethics self-cultivation, logic and rhetoric argumentative. In short, knowledge can shape people's character-Bacon's "theory of seeking knowledge". I used to travel in a fancy way, and my brain didn't absorb a lot of things but filled my stomach. After reading the history museum, there is already a grand and ups and downs in the mind of the exhibition, such a lifelike dynamic map of development, unexpectedly with my impression of rote memorization of the history topic has a completely different feeling. On the way back, I carefully recalled that the low score of history in the college entrance examination was a drag. Today, during the visit, I kept looking at the sequence of Chinese dynasties, determining the time node and then extending the real objects I saw in front of my eyes. It is equivalent to reviewing the knowledge points of high school again. If my children's history is not good in the future, I will guide him to explore history in several ways and help discover the interesting side of history. A little will help a lot.