Content of the couplet: The Spring Palace speaks calmly, and the sealing stone of the family mountain is there for twenty years; the river flows day and night, and the children of the eight states eagerly return home.

Story introduction:

In 1832, 20-year-old Zuo Zongtang passed the provincial examination and was called the Juren. However, when he took the "national-level examination" after that, he was repeatedly frustrated.

In 1833 (the thirteenth year of Daoguang), Zuo Zongtang went to Beijing for the second time to take the examination and failed again. In the next three years, there were still "repeated battles and defeats." In 1836, a somewhat discouraged Zuo Zongtang came to Liling and found a job at Lujiang Academy in Xishan, where he became a private school teacher, equivalent to "Private teachers". Zuo Zongtang was 24 years old at this time.

Although he has repeatedly experienced the blow of failure in the general examination, young Zuo Zongtang is still full of expectations for the future. After a period of time, the shadow of Zuo Zongtang's failure in the "college entrance examination" was instantly wiped away, and his "lofty ambitions" were revealed from time to time, sometimes even reaching the point of "arrogance". He calls himself "Jin Liang", the contemporary Zhuge Liang, and boasts that "two Sima in the Western Han Dynasty for articles, and one Wolong in Nanyang for economics"; "I don't have half an acre, and I worry about the world." It is his perseverance despite repeated setbacks that This gave him a turning point in his future life.

Zuo Zongtang's "talent and arrogance" immediately became known to everyone in Liling City, and soon Zuo Zongtang became the headmaster (principal) of Lujiang Academy. The county magistrate of Liling also looked at him with admiration and admired him very much. Therefore, every time a superior official came to the county, the county magistrate would ask Zuo Zongtang to come out and write poems as a reward to decorate the appearance.

Finally, Zuo Zongtang waited for a chance. What he met was Tao Shu, the governor of Liangjiang and a favorite of Emperor Daoguang, one of the nine most senior feudal ministers in the Qing Dynasty. After Tao Shu inspected the army from Jiangxi, he went to Anhua, Hunan to visit his relatives. On the way, he had to pass through Liling and stay overnight.

When the magistrate of Liling heard the news, he was both happy and sad. The happy thing was that important officials from the imperial court came to Liling, which was worth celebrating; the sad thing was that in order to receive Tao Shu well, all aspects had to be thought of. After the county magistrate arranged the building, he still felt that a couplet was missing, so he naturally thought of Zuo Zongtang, the director of Lujiang Academy. Ask him to write a couplet to express his welcome and admiration.

Zuo Zongtang did it with a wave of his hand without saying a word. But the county magistrate was not sure what would happen after Master Tao saw it. Unexpectedly, as soon as Tao Shu arrived at the library, he was immediately attracted by this couplet: Spring Palace speaks calmly, Twenty-year family mountain seals the heart stone; the river flows day and night, and the children of the eight states return eagerly. After reading it, Tao Shu screamed in admiration and asked the magistrate who wrote this couplet, and asked to see the person who wrote this couplet.

So, the magistrate called Zuo Zongtang, and after a meeting with Zuo Zongtang, Tao Shu felt that this young man behaved with dignity and spoke in an extraordinary way. Tao Shu was supposed to return to Anhua the next day, but in order to chat with Zuo Zongtang about world affairs, he stayed in Liling for seven more days.

When leaving, Tao Shu told Zuo Zongtang to continue taking part in the examination next year, and specifically told him that if he did not win, he must go to Jiangning (Nanjing) to find him.

Zuo Zongtang's move is very powerful. There is no naked slyness in the couplet, but it closely follows the theme of "nostalgia". It not only writes Emperor Daoguang's homely dialogue with Tao Shula, It also expresses the eagerness of the folks to see Tao Shu.