Visit the Champion Culture Museum

It has been more than half a year since China Champion Culture Museum settled in Jining (Qufu). Although the museum is adjacent to Confucius, it does not attract many tourists. According to Liu Xiao, the person in charge of the museum, he came to Qufu, a cultural treasure, from other places with ardent hopes. He believes that as a side of history and culture, the top scholar culture should be integrated with Confucian culture and complement each other. A few days ago, the reporter was invited to Qufu to visit this emerging cultural gathering place.

Unique cultural value

This museum is located at the back door of Confucius House, and then at the east end of the street. The exhibition area is about 1 1,000 square meters. * * It is divided into four exhibition areas: "Plum Blossoms Come from Bitter Cold", "See Chang 'an Flowers in One Day", "Confucius Will Live for a Thousand Years" and "Fly into the Home of Ordinary People", and more than 0/000 precious cultural relics are exhibited/kloc. What impressed the reporter was the treasure of the town hall.

There is an ancient plaque in the first exhibition hall, with a width of 7 1 cm and a length of 17 1 cm, and the bottom plate is pine. In the Ming dynasty, it was covered with gray, and the whole was dark purple, with two lines of ink on it. The first paragraph is "Little Prince Bao's official and minister, East Ge University's Xia", and the second paragraph is "Daming Tianshun Ding Chouchun Jinshi Fang". Liu Xiao, the owner of the museum, explained that he was actually the champion, and he was awarded the Jinshi tablet because the official did not regard the champion as an appropriate title in the early Ming Dynasty. So far, China has not found the second similar ancient monument, which is a national treasure. Hong Jun's champion and tablet in Tongzhi of Qing Dynasty, Zhu Ruzhen's champion and tablet in Guangxu 30 years, and Liu Tanhua and tablet in Qianlong 54 years are also of great cultural value. The first, second and third places in palace examination are the champion, runner-up and runner-up. Hong Jun's champion and plaque were originally hung on the door of the "Champion House" in Hong Jun, Suzhou, and disappeared. When it reappeared, it was already in Tokyo, Japan. With the help of local overseas Chinese and overseas students, curator Liu Xiao saved this national treasure at a cost of 50,000 US dollars.

In addition, the ancient champion's 18 pieces of cultural relics and paintings also impressed the reporter deeply: all the provinces that have won the champion's original paintings can be preserved here, which is enough to illustrate the weight of the museum.

The other is the imperial edict of Emperor Hongxi in Qing Dynasty. Because of his short reign, his ink is the most rare, and it is even more rare for the imperial edict to spread to the people. Such a unique book is certainly the treasure of the town hall.

There are also Chen Hao's family instructions, boys' test papers, examination papers after the township entrance examination, home plaques, Zhu Juan after the township entrance examination, a book basket for candidates, a kettle, a patent lady's aristocratic suit, a yellow jacket, a waist tag for entering and leaving imperial academy, six cool hats, a 5 cm square Zhu Bailu housekeeping record engraved with 506 words, etc. In addition, Ji Xiaolan also gave Zhu Chong, an award-winning scholar at that time, a plaque inlaid with gold foil. The word "Kui" on the plaque lacks the apostrophe above, which is said to be related to Confucius' belief in ghosts and gods.

"Showing the things and cultural relics used by these champions is actually a kind of protection for our cultural relics in China, so that people can really understand the meaning of' champion'." Liu Xiao, curator of the museum, said: "It is of unique significance to show the world the combination of champion culture and Confucius culture, because Confucius culture is the root of champion culture."

Top scholars and science exams in China.

The imperial examination system in China feudal society began in the second year of Sui Dynasty (606) and ended in the thirty-first year of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty (1905), which lasted more than 1,300 years. During this period, * * * produced 504 top scholars, including 139 in the Tang Dynasty, 1 1 in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period,1/in the Song Dynasty,18 in the Yuan Dynasty, 90 in the Ming Dynasty and1in the Qing Dynasty. In addition, the champion in Liao and Jin Dynasties was also the champion, Liao Dynasty 18 and Jin Dynasty 15. Zhang's Dashun regime and Taiping Heavenly Kingdom have a total of 14 people. If these champions are counted together with the champions of Tang and Five Dynasties, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, there are 552 champions in China.

In China, the name of "number one scholar" began in the Tang Dynasty. At that time, people had to hand in their papers before taking the imperial examination in Shi Jing University, and the first one was the "champion". "Shape" means "shape" and "Yuan" means "first" and "champion". The first scholar in China calendar was the grandson of Wude in the 5th year (662), and the last scholar was in the 30th year of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty (1904). In this long imperial examination era, only some top scholars are well known. Such as He, Wang Wei and Yan Zhenqing in the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Xiaoxiang and Wen Tianxiang in the Song Dynasty, Yang Shen in the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Jian in the Qing Dynasty and so on. They are industrialists, politicians, militarists, writers and artists.

Among the top scholars, Wen Tianxiang in the Song Dynasty and Weng in the Qing Dynasty were quite influential politically. At the age of 2 1, Wen Tianxiang won the top prize in the exam and later became prime minister. After the Song Dynasty was destroyed by the Yuan Dynasty, Wen Tianxiang continued to organize armed resistance, was captured by the Yuan Dynasty, and remained indomitable in prison. He wrote the famous sentence "No one died in life since ancient times, leaving a heart to shine on history", which showed lofty national integrity and has always been admired by people. Weng Yitong is called "the champion of political reform". For the Sino-French War and the Sino-Japanese War, he strongly advocated the war of resistance and opposed compromise and surrender. After the signing of treaty of shimonoseki, he rebuked Li Hongzhang face to face as "the number one traitor in China".

It is very difficult to win the first prize. For example, in the Song Dynasty, about 400,000 candidates took the exam every year, and one of the 400,000 candidates won the top prize, which is rare. There is also "three yuan in the league" among the top scholars, which means winning the first place in the provincial, public and palace examinations. According to statistics, 1000 years of imperial examinations, only 17 champions were selected.

The official position won by the champion in the exam is not high, and generally only one official position with six or seven grades is awarded. Even if the emperor takes a fancy to it and chooses it as a captain with a horse, it is just a third-grade official.

Imperial Examination is an important system for selecting officials in ancient China, and it is also the main way to promote talents. Although the imperial examination contains some feudal dross, it has made great progress compared with the previous Shi Qing Shi Lu. The appearance of the imperial examination gave people from all walks of life, especially the lower literati, the opportunity to enter the official career, ending the hereditary monopoly of aristocratic families since Wei and Jin Dynasties. Since the Sui Dynasty, the general examination from 1904 has prevailed for more than 0/000 years, which has become an important humanistic basis for influencing the political, economic and social outlook of the late feudal society in China.

The essence of the examination system in past dynasties is to select a certain number of candidates in accordance with the prescribed examination forms and subjects, within a basically fixed time period and geographical scope, according to the proportion of candidates and the merits of their achievements. The contents, forms and subjects of the examination are mainly the interpretation of Confucian classics, the writing of poems and essays and the questioning of national policies. A person who takes the imperial examination as a scholar or even a scholar must have profound attainments in Confucian classics and literature, and have keen observation and unique opinions on national policies and the general plan of governing the country and the people.

The premise of imperial examination is education. The formation of the concept of attaching importance to education and investing in education needs a certain social background, and the local social politics, economy and customs are all related to the success or failure of education. Liu Xiao, director of the museum, said: "We are now paying attention to these things, that is, paying attention to culture and education, so that future generations can enjoy more advanced culture and more scientific education on the basis of taking history as a mirror. All museums in China are designed to show ancient craft civilization and scientific and technological civilization, while the Champion Museum aims to show spiritual civilization. "

Ten years of hard work is unusual.

Speaking of the Champion Cultural Museum, it can't be said that the curator Liu Xiao, because of his years of hard work, opened this flower of culture. From the beginning of his interest in the collection of cultural relics of the champion to the opening of the official cultural center of the champion, Liu Xiao took an unusual road of collection at 13, and also tasted the ups and downs.

Liu Xiao is actually not from Jining, but from Xuzhou, Jiangsu. Because he was born in an intellectual family, he loved and respected culture since he was a child and developed a pair of eyes to appreciate ancient calligraphy and painting. He has one. If there are fakes and fakes in the calligraphy and painting he appraises, he will pay 20,000 yuan. Follow this road, he can eat and drink, and even get rich. However, the cultural background of three generations of teachers' families made him obsessed with education and culture, especially interested in the champion culture in ancient scientific research. He believes that the champion is the peak and model of ancient education. Taking this as a starting point, we can have a more thorough understanding of ancient educational culture and provide some reference and enlightenment for contemporary education.

Liu Xiao 1987 graduated from high school, and failed in math and English in the college entrance examination, so he missed out on the university. Later, under the guidance of grandpa, he engaged in painting and calligraphy appreciation and collected a lot of Qi Baishi's paintings, which became the basis of his later career development. Since 1993, he has traveled all over the country. I used a box of plane tickets, totaling tens of thousands of dollars. It was he who bought the plaque of Li Chun's champion in Ming Dynasty in Jiangxi. It was the Spring Festival in 2002. He took his wife and children to travel to Wuyuan, Jiangxi. In this county, he visited the bookstore selling used books, took a fancy to the plaque on the bookcase and bought it without hesitation. After returning home, he checked the list of scholars in the Ming Dynasty, only to know that Li Chun later won the top prize. This is a unique plaque in China. Experts estimate that10 million is worthwhile.

Zhao, the top scholar in Ming Dynasty, was bought by a friend of Beijing Guardian Company. It was first collected by Chen Banding, president of Beijing Painting and Calligraphy Institute, and later by a friend from Zhejiang. Liu Xiao wanted it very much after learning about it. After eight consultations, I bought it in 2000, and now it has appreciated by 400,000 yuan. The official sedan chair, originally made by Hong Jun, was purchased from the descendants of Hong Jun, and the aforementioned champion and plaque of Hong Jun were also painstakingly obtained by Liu Xiao.

In 2000, the idea of allowing individuals to build museums and build a top-ranked museum quietly sprouted in his mind. He first used 165438+ 10,000 yuan to supplement the decorations such as booths, and then transported the exhibits worth about100,000 yuan from Xuzhou to Qufu.

With the increasing collection of cultural relics, Liu Xiao is becoming more and more famous internationally. Some people want to buy his collection at a high price, and friends in Hong Kong want to buy a museum for 50 million yuan. Some places also want to ask him to build a local museum; But Liu Xiao finally chose Qufu and the ancient and profound hometown of Confucius and Mencius culture. Liu Xiao said that the source of champion culture comes from education, and the source of education comes from Confucius. Located in Qufu, Jining, the museum is a real "home".

As the "home" of this culture, Liu Xiao, who has settled down and is ready to do a big job, is still working hard and facing unprecedented difficulties and challenges. For example, economically, museums cost more than 200,000 a year. How to subsidize these expenses, Liu Xiao has to earn money through other industries, otherwise it will be difficult to continue. Many objects in the museum are priceless, "but we can't sell them!" " "Liu Xiao said. Among all the collections in the country, the champion is unparalleled, but he still has a feeling of "being kept in the inner room and no one knows her". He wants to let more people know and see, and get lessons and enlightenment from the top scholar culture.