The initial folk "draft" in the Qing Dynasty: the selected * * * can be worth twice.

There is a roster in Shanghai, and Wang Tao, known as the "early reform thinker", is the initiator. In addition to spreading reform ideas, Wang Tao is also a cool old guest who likes taste and taste.

According to Chen Boxi's Anecdotes in Shanghai, during Guangxu period, Lierenwu (1882), Guiwei (1883) and Wuzi (1888) were listed. In the year of Renwu, he singled out Su Zhen, Zhu Qing and Qin Yue, three prostitutes he befriended, and was criticized by the flower industry.

Under the operation of Li Boyuan, Wang Tao's Personal Topic has become a popular cultural product in Shanghai for more than ten years.

Li Boyuan was a famous scholar in the late Qing Dynasty, and his novel "Officialdom in the Sky" was handed down by Lu Xun. He joined the Shanghai press in his early years and co-founded Game Newspaper with Yuan Zuzhi, calling himself "the owner of the game". This newspaper does not involve politics in a new way, but is devoted to the leisure of the scribes. Therefore, the game news is the first in Shanghai tabloid, combining tabloid and roster.

Game Newspaper was founded in Shen Bing during Guangxu period (1896). At the beginning of its publication, Li Boyuan put "the roster first", and in less than a year, it sorted out the first roster. To this end, he also formulated "Six Cases of Game Newspaper List", with color art and talent as the selection criteria. According to the results of the selection, the winners were awarded the titles of three subjects in the imperial examination, namely, champion, champion and flower exploration.

The way Li Boyuan chose the flower list was quite novel at that time. With Game as the carrier, he first published the news of the roster in the first newspaper, invited readers to send letters to sponsor their favorite candidates, and then selected the rankings according to the number of letters of recommendation. Li Boyuan boasts that this is "an example of imitating Tessie's sponsorship of democracy". After the news was announced, there was a strong response from gentlemen with this hobby in Shanghai, and letters of recommendation poured in. "I received letters of recommendation in more than ten days, counting hundreds and dozens."

In addition to sponsoring "famous flowers", there are also special letters from readers, commenting on the process and standards of flower list selection in detail and putting forward various opinions. In the letter, Game News selected the Chinese words that could attract readers' attention most, and even attracted the opposition of foreigners. American Yate wrote to the newspaper, saying that he didn't understand its practice of "putting ugliness in the best and putting beauty behind", probably because foreigners' aesthetic tastes were different from those of China people.

Some people don't want to sit passively and wait for the election. They really want to be the first among the "3,000 immigrants" in Shanghai, and they will think of some ways to improve their social status. For example, Jin Baoxian, a famous prostitute in Shanghai, publicly declared that she was ashamed to associate with "a prostitute and a groom" by playing hard to get, and asked the organizer to delete her name from the roster.

On the contrary, it was highly praised by Li Boyuan, who was "willing to keep a low profile, but Dont Ask For Help knew it". His natural chastity and inner bitterness are actually higher than ordinary people. "Jin Baoxian didn't withdraw from the election, but because his name was deleted, he was among the best in Ding You's roster.

After many days of collection and selection, the flower list was published in Ding Younian (1897) in June. On the day of the opening of the list, the streets of Shanghai competed for the game newspaper, and Luoyang paper was expensive for some time.

On that day, 5000 copies of the newspaper were sold out before noon, but buyers still came in and had to pay for manual printing, and more than 3000 sheets of paper were printed, accounting for * * * 8000. From the third day, buyers are still in an endless stream. "

This roster is modeled after the titles of the imperial examinations. * * * selected 3 from Grade A, 30 from Grade B and 85 from Grade A, accounting for 1 18 "flower country scholars". People rushed to tell each other about the results of the selection, which was an unprecedented scene. For the "Huaxiangshi", the newspaper sent a plaque with drum music as a sign of hospitality. The famous * * * "one product title, the price is ten times higher", and the business is booming. Ding You's flower list has greatly increased the sales of game newspapers. Taking this flower list as an opportunity, Li Boyuan not only achieved fame and fortune, but also created a win-win business model of reporting prostitutes.

"Wubang" and "Yebang" add value to "Huabang"

Shortly after Ding You's roster ended, Li Boyuan planned to organize a "Fang Linhui" to see the candidates intuitively. The reason is that there are too many false words in the recommendation, so don't believe it too much.

Although the origin of Fang Linhui is impressive, a group of tabloid reporters who travel for a living met a group of * * *, saying that it was just to "test their true feelings and then rank them separately". The result is really unclear, and it is doubtful whether there will be bribery.

In a word, the effect of forest is not good, and its influence is far less than that of the previous flower list. Probably because the so-called "Lin" is just a group of literati and a few * * * amuse themselves, and there is no popularity and entertainment in choosing flowers at all, so naturally few people are interested.

After this defeat, Li Boyuan returned to the deep excavation of mature products "flower selection". Creative, he also developed two new names: Wubang, which is used to evaluate people who are good at Quyi in * * *, and Yebang, which is used to select outstanding sisters (sisters refer to older people in * * *, meaning "leaves" and "leaves" meaning "flowers"), greatly improving the value of "Flower List".

Since the opening of the first flower list, the flower selection has been held for four consecutive sessions, and if the names of Wu list and Ye list are counted, there will be more than ten sessions. Li Boyuan's final choice coincided with the boxer's fist confusion, which is why he chose a special one.

The flower list of Gengzi is specially designed for the residual flower warbler who take refuge in the south of Beijing and Tianjin. Li Boyuan wrote an article entitled "Drawing up Flowers for Robbery in Kinmen", saying: "The flowers in Kinmen are very lush ... A mother's drums are quite shocking, pitiful and burning. The birds in the nest were separated, and the adjacent songbirds were separated from the group ... but I heard the wild cry. Sad husband! "

The prosperity and rapid decline of the roster

After the year of Gengzi, Li Boyuan stopped the roster, and the roster continued unabated. On the contrary, because of its huge commercial interests, talents from all walks of life have followed suit.

The carnival and * * of Shanghai newspaper people in the late Qing Dynasty entered the * * era after Li Boyuan. Many tabloids follow the example of the game newspaper and devote themselves to the news of prostitutes in brothels: 190 1' s Chunjiang Huayue newspaper, 1902' s entertainment daily newspaper and flower daily newspaper, 1903' s flower world newspaper, as well as leisure.

These tabloids followed Li Boyuan's model of "Flower List-Military List (Art List)-Leaf List" almost intact. In order to make money, some tabloids even publish two lists in summer and autumn of the year. However, after all, the roster is a boring after-school program for scholars, which will not last long, and it will take several years from the peak to the end. However, the more flowers are opened, the more flowers are selected. It has been flooded, and the princes in Shanghai have gradually lost their freshness.

In order to make a living, tabloids privately open the door for prostitutes, which also encourages the wind of bribery in selecting rosters. When Li Boyuan started making the roster, he was very wary of bribery. He once heard that a newspaper was going to publish a list. First, a visitor was sent to each alley to copy the name of * * *, and the visitor took the opportunity to ask for bribes from * * *, ranging from one or two yuan to dozens of yuan per family. Li Boyuan expressed deep contempt for this behavior: "It has no bad reputation, and it also bears the heart of the newspaper owner's life."

In order to show fairness, he particularly emphasized in the roster: "Before and after the ranking, we all regard this (submission letter) as a balance, and our host does not participate in private decisions." Sure enough, several of his rosters were praised by the old Shanghai literati as strict rules. Years after the Boxer Rebellion, the newspaper took bribes from * * * in the name of choosing flowers, which was close to the usual practice and was not ashamed at all.

In this situation, the flower list has become a disguised advertisement, and the tabloid of the flower list has also become a guide to guide consumption. Because the gold content of flowers has dropped greatly, some * * * also disdain the name of "flowers as the basis".

19 19, when a similar flower contest was held again, a * * refused the title of "President of Flower Country" because of the cost. This move should be a sincere withdrawal from the election, not the way Jin Xianbao 10 years ago.

Although the early flower list was a shrewd interest calculation between journalists and * * *, it did not lose the traditional game interest of literati, wine, elegance and poetry, but it became a naked commercial behavior after the year of Gengzi. Scholars are no longer scholars in the traditional sense They rely on the market to maintain their careers and use their brains to serve all walks of life.

Therefore, in the short ten years when the flower list flourished, Shanghai literati gradually became equal business partners with Shanghai * * * to make a living. The draft of Shanghai Flower List in Qing Dynasty was not only a collective carnival in the entertainment circle, but also witnessed the identity change of China traditional literati.