The first champion: the origin of "Xiang" Taxis who took the exam in the Tang Dynasty were sent to Beijing through the tributes of various States, and "Xiang" needed to be delivered before taking the exam, just like the situation of filling in information in the modern college entrance examination. The "Yuan" in ancient Chinese characters in China is "Yuan, the beginning is also". According to the understanding method of ancient Chinese characters in China, Yuan means head. Together, the two words are "the first person to vote in this exam", which is the origin of the champion.

Second place on the list: "list" means "showing the ranking of scholars". At that time, it was announced that the top three in the imperial examination were on the yellow list, and the second and third places stood on both sides of the champion, just like the eyes of the champion, so everyone called the second and third places the list.

The third place is Flower Exploration: Flower Exploration Lang first appeared in the Tang Dynasty, which is his custom of raising money for parties. At the flower viewing meeting in the apricot garden (spring exam, flowers viewing in the apricot garden in the middle and late period), two youngest scholars were selected as flower-exploring lang and asked him to write poems. Song dynasty followed this custom of Tang dynasty, and also held a banquet to select the flower-exploring lang.