There is a system in Chinese history that is still in use today, and that is the imperial examination system. Although today's college entrance examination has little to do with the imperial examination system, we will put money on our faces and turn the college entrance examination into an extension of the imperial examination system.

In fact, the imperial examination is an extension of the imperial examination system, the levy system, and the nine-rank Zhongzheng system. It is a system for selecting officials for the country, which is the same as the current civil service examination. Of course, the civil service examination also depends on academic qualifications, so the college entrance examination is at most a minor imperial examination.

In ancient China, the imperial examination system was a major reform to achieve class mobility. As early as before the Sui Dynasty, if you wanted to be an official, you had to have a good teacher, because the wealthy gentry controlled knowledge and learning channels.

There was no printing technology in that era, and paper was very expensive. Ordinary people had no chance to learn. And those families with books will pass the books and scholarship from generation to generation, forming a monopoly, which is called "study of classics for generations".

Because you have knowledge, you are qualified to be an official, so you become "a minister for many generations".

After these powerful noble families had the power to elect officials, their power became more and more powerful and they became a monopoly.

However, the emergence of the imperial examination system broke the knowledge monopoly of the powerful families. Countless students studied hard in order to one day change their family and become an official in the court. After all, the lifelong belief of the Chinese people is: "Learning literature and martial arts will bring wealth to the emperor's family." Once the knowledge is realized, the rewards are astonishing.

From Li Yuan of the Tang Dynasty to Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty, there were 592 number one scholars in one period of Chinese history. But among these top picks, there was a female top pick named Fu Shanxiang.

Fu Shanxiang was born in the Qing Dynasty to an intellectual family in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. Since she was smart and sensitive in her youth, her father focused on her training.

It is a pity that her parents died young, and her brother and sister-in-law betrothed her to a family named Li. At that time, Fu Shanxiang was 13 years old and her husband was only 7 years old. Fu Shanxiang, who married into the Li family, was called the daughter-in-law, but she was actually a maid, Nizi, who had to do various housework every day. It took a lot of effort until my husband turned 18, but he got measles and died.

The Li family wanted to sell Fu Shanxiang, but when the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom broke out, Fu Shanxiang defected to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Since Hong Xiuquan, the founder of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was a scholar who failed to pass many examinations, and people were very disgusted with this, so a new imperial examination system was implemented.

At that time, none of the intellectuals in Nanjing participated, and Hong Xiuquan was a pioneer of women's rights. Not only did he set up a female section in the imperial examination, but he also took the same test for both men and women.

In the end, Fu Shanxiang became the number one scholar in that subject, and was the only female number one scholar in Chinese history.

Fu Shanxiang, who was supposed to make great achievements with his knowledge, was not reused. Instead, because of his talent and appearance, he was accepted by the Nine Thousand Years Old Dongwang Yang Xiuqing as a female maid, that is, his secretary.

But Fu Shanxiang’s job is certainly not as simple as a secretary, so he was forced to be Yang Xiuqing’s personal assistant. Because of Fu Shanxiang's outstanding appearance, he attracted the attention of Hong Xiuquan. He was often recruited to assist in state affairs, and he was also named "Prime Minister Enshang".

Poor Fu Shanxiang, who was counting on passing the imperial examination to change his destiny, unexpectedly became the number one female scholar, but was reduced to a "plaything" of power.

Everyone feels sorry for Fu Shanxiang’s tragic experience, but we feel even more sorry for the people of that era and wonder why such a tragedy happened.