Ancient scholar-officials paid attention to "lofty" and were ashamed to talk about money. When they have to talk about it, they call it a "blockage", which means "that thing".

Contribution fee is a new word in the past hundred years. There used to be a nickname called Runbi. There is a story in Zheng Zhuan: Zheng translated into imperial edict, and someone joked that his pen was dry. Zheng replied: "You can't run a pen for a penny. How can you run? " In the future, writing fees and painting fees will be called "running pens".

At that time, Sima Xiangru wrote "Longmen Fu" for Empress Chen who fell out of favor. Emperor Wu was very moved. Empress Chen regained favor and got 100 Jin of gold. At that time, there seemed to be no rule to moisten pens. Empress Chen bought wine and sent gold to Zhuo Wenjun, which people had to say was a "bribe". The word "bribe" may not be as heavy as it is now. Otherwise, Sima Xiangru would be disgraced.

The wind of polishing spread to Tang Dasheng, and the most famous one was Han Yu, who wrote an inscription for Minggong and Daqing, "The word price is like Jinshan"; Mutu wrote Dan Wei Jiangxi Love Monument, and he collected 300 silks. Where there are benefits, there are people vying for them. In Cai Bo's collection, there are some inscriptions written for people who are only fifteen or seventeen years old.

According to the Records of the Historical Garden of Song Dynasty, Song Taizong set up a special fund to reward court poets, namely, "set up a sum of money" and "send a letter to carve stones in Sheren Garden".

In the Song Dynasty, the official salary was thin and the royal family set up the office, which really benefited the literati.

There are generally two forms of remuneration for writing ancient Chinese characters. One is to draw sketches for the living and write inscriptions for the dead. For example, Han Yu, a great essayist in the Tang Dynasty, benefited a lot from writing inscriptions. Wang Yucheng, a poet in the Northern Song Dynasty, wrote many inscriptions when he was demoted to the official and commercial state, and wrote a poem himself: "The adjutant is not disappointed when he is free, and he still has money to write the inscription." Second, emperors, ministers, imperial courts and government offices were rewarded for drafting official documents. This kind of official document can be called official document. Zhao Yi said in the textual research of the ruins: In the seventh year of Song Xuanhe (1 125), Wang Yu wrote four articles in one night, giving him generous rewards and many priceless objects.

According to the records of Shan Ye, Hunan Province, Sun Jian, a bachelor of Hanlin, wrote an amnesty in Li Taihou. After reading it, Song Renzong "cried for the moon". Besides the Ming Dynasty, I also learned to play the Old East Palace. "The emperor asked the minister to write official documents or give gifts, but it goes without saying that giving gifts to liegeman. For example, when Kou Zhun, a famous minister in the Northern Song Dynasty, paid a visit to the Prime Minister, Yang Yi wrote a book, which said that Kou Zhun "can break big things and not stick to small things", and Kou Zhun thought that "everything is in his heart", so he gave the author "an exceptional gift of one hundred gold". "