ouyang xiu was posted to kaifeng four years after passing his "jinshi" examination in 1030. he began his association with fan from this time in kaifeng. like fan, he also was demoted. after fan’s demotion, ouyang criticized fan’s principle critic, resulting in being sent to a minor post in hubei. like fan, he was brought back to the capital in the 1040s where he was assigned to work on cataloguing the entire imperial library.