He Zhan, whose courtesy name was Shucun, was a man of Kuocang, a great-grandson of the Prince of Qingyuan.
In the dingwei year of Chunxi he went up to the metropolitan examination and lodged at an inn by the Three Bridges. On the night the pass list was to be posted he sent his servant to watch for it. The servant was gone a long while, and Zhan grew anxious; so he took his fellows up onto the bridge to listen for an omen.
They had hardly come to a stop when they heard a woman by the riverbank shrieking: “Posi — you’ll get it!”
Now this is the form of words used in the Wu country when a person is angry and about to beat or curse someone; the common people call it “being given a reckoning.” It is no lucky omen.
Zhan alone was delighted, and hurried back. “Congratulate me,” he said.
“Shucun,” said his fellows, “you went out on purpose to listen for an omen, and you got the word get four times running. What doubt can there be?”
“It is not only that,” said Zhan. “My childhood name is exactly Posi.”
They were all delighted. They were just buying wine to drink when the servant arrived: he had indeed passed high on the list.
