Astonished at the skill of Su's essay, he was inclined to rank Su's paper first, and award it the zhuangyuan. However, despite having read the essay over and over, Ouyang Xiu mistakenly believed the work was that of his student, Zeng Gong, and ranked it second to prevent any suspicion of favoritism.
當時主考官歐陽修看到蘇東坡的文章大為驚喜，想要點此人為狀元，然而因為試卷是密封的，歐陽修反覆閱看，以為是自己學生曾鞏的文筆，於是評為第二。