In the Liang Dynasty in the Southern Dynasties, the powerful families dominated the sky. Under the nine-rank Zhongzheng system, "there were no poor families in the upper ranks, and no noble families in the lower ranks." Chen Zhongwen, a young man from a poor family, studied poetry and books diligently under the instructions of his father, a teacher, on his deathbed, and resolutely entered the imperial examination room monopolized by the gentry. After being wantonly humiliated by the examiner and having his paper thrown away five times, he said loudly: "I am not changing my own destiny - I want to let the poor people all over the world know that reading is useful."
After that, although he won the exam, he was assigned as a local official. However, he opened a school with a humble status and passed on the hope to the next generation. After ten years of hard work, the students were admitted to high school; decades later, the imperial examination system in the Southern Dynasties finally opened a ray of light for poor families. This is a story about "reading changes destiny", and it is also a legend of a lonely man who single-handedly resists the tide of the times and opens the way for thousands of children from poor families.
