History can't bear to look at the complete collection

chapter 104
The superb cheating skills of ancient candidates

The imperial examination system is an official selection system in the history of our country. It began in the Sui Dynasty and ended in the late Qing Dynasty.

Surprisingly, cheating is not unique to modern times.In ancient times, there were many ancient students who couldn't resist the temptation of "no one asked for ten years, and became famous all over the world in one fell swoop", and researched various cheating methods in the examination room.Compared with today's high-tech, these cheating methods are not inferior at all.

The creativity of the ancients often surpassed that of modern people, and the most serious cheating phenomenon was in the Tang Dynasty.At that time, whether it was the children of high-ranking cadres or ordinary people, they were all in the army of cheating.Among them, the famous great poet Wen Tingyun is the best. Even under the guard of the chief examiner, he can still finish writing the test papers for several people, and then retreat. In the cheating world at that time, no one can compare with him. contend.

His cheating skills are superb.How superb is it?

First of all, his writing speed is very fast, and the means of cheating are very concealed, making it impossible for people to see.Wen Tingyun has been famous all over the world for his talent in poetry.He signed up for the imperial examination in 858 AD. In order to prevent him from helping others to cheat, several examiners watched him, and even reserved his seat separately.

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Wen Tingyun finished answering the exam questions, got up and left.But what people didn't expect was that he actually finished writing papers for eight candidates at the same time.In a short period of time, he could quickly answer eight exam questions, which made the examiners very puzzled, and it became a topic that people talked about.

With the continuation of the imperial examination, new methods and methods of cheating are constantly emerging. From the many cultural relics unearthed now, it can be seen that the cheating skills of ancient people are no less than that of modern people.

For example, a young man in Tianjin collected a complete set of cheating tools during the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty.This set of cheating tools consists of 9 volumes, all of which are 4.5 cm long, 3.8 cm wide, and 0.5 cm thick.There are more than 10 articles in each volume, with a total of more than 10 words, and a pair of thick-soled men's cloth shoes that can hide the volume in the inner bottom of the shoe.What is amazing is that the text in the volume is about 1 mm square, and it was printed by ox horn engraving, which shows that the cheating methods at that time were superb and formed a large scale.

In addition, at an auction, a "cheating vest" from the late Qing Dynasty appeared. On the vest, there were four books and five classics copied with a brush.

The waistcoat seems to be made of linen and is not big in size. It can be inferred that the owner of the waistcoat is not fat, and his height is only about 1.7 meters.But one thing is for sure, his eyes must be very good.The characters on the vest are only three to four millimeters wide at most. Some viewers tried to identify them, but they read two characters and they were serialized.

There were also two other "carrying items" on the scene, both of which were one foot square silk, and the words were also copied all over them, and one of them had words on the front and back, and the font was even smaller.According to relevant experts, this kind of "carrying belt" has been heard before, but it is extremely rare to make the "carrying belt" into the style of a waistcoat, and it is even rarer in the world.It can be seen from these three "carrying belts" that the political corruption in the last years of the Qing Dynasty took great pains to raise people for official careers.

These cheating tools have surprised people today. The craftsmanship and ingenuity are amazing.But today, when the imperial examination system is dead, cheating is still active as long as there are exams, and there is always a relationship between them that is difficult to sort out.

(End of this chapter)