八股文是那八股
《明朝那些事儿》（二十一）
一、八股文分为破题、承题、起讲、入题、起股、中股、后股、束股几个部分，其中精华部分是起股、中股、后股、束股，这四个部分你不能随便写的，必须用排比对偶句，共有八股，所以叫八股文。
1. The eight-legged essay is divided into sections: breaking the topic, receiving the topic, introductory remarks, entering the topic, initial leg, middle leg, later leg, and tying the leg. The essence lies in the initial leg, middle leg, later leg, and tying the leg. These four sections cannot be written arbitrarily; they must use parallel and antithetical couplets, totaling eight "legs," hence the name "eight-legged essay."
二、痛苦的不仅是考生，还有出题的老师，四书五经只有那么多字，各级考试都从里面出题，而出过的题一般是不能再用的，于是老师们奇计百出，把四书五经上下句割裂开，单独拿来出题，如把一句话斩头去尾，只用中间的几个字拿来考人，这种语句不通、张冠李戴的词句，连老师都不知道是什么意思，何况学生呢？
2. The suffering extended not only to the candidates but also to the examiners. The Four Books and Five Classics contain only a limited number of characters, and all levels of examinations drew questions from them. Since used topics generally couldn't be reused, teachers resorted to various tricks—splitting sentences from the classics and using them separately as questions. For example, they would truncate a sentence, using only a few middle characters to test students. These incoherent, mismatched phrases were incomprehensible even to the teachers, let alone the students.
三、结果就是糊涂考糊涂，出题的人不知道是什么意思，考试的人也不知道，这样考出来的是什么人才？
3. The result was confusion testing confusion: neither the examiners nor the candidates understood the meaning. What kind of talent could such examinations possibly produce?
四、朱熹曾经给四书写过注，也就是标注他自己的理解，然而这些理解被统治者看上，要求所有的学子必须按照朱圣人当年的思维来答题。
4. Zhu Xi once annotated the Four Books, expressing his own interpretations. However, these interpretations were favored by the rulers, who demanded that all scholars answer examination questions strictly according to Master Zhu's way of thinking.
五、八股考试的弊端是很多的，选出的人才很多都是书呆子。著名的明朝学者宋濂形容这些人就是一副白痴面孔。
5. The eight-legged examination had many drawbacks, often selecting pedantic scholars as "talents." The renowned Ming scholar Song Lian described these individuals as having "the face of an idiot."
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