To Be Behind Sun Shan

Sun Shan, of the Sung dynasty, was a very intelligent scholar. He liked to tell jokes, and so his friends gave him the nickname, "the comical genius". When Sun Shan was on his way to take the government service exam, a neighbor came and asked if he would take his son along too, as the son was also interested in serving as a government official. Sun Shan readily agreed.

When the test results were posted, Sun Shan found that his neighbor's son had not passed, and that he himself was the last on the list. As soon as he arrived at home, his neighbor came to ask how his son had done. Sun Shan read the neighbor two lines from a poem, the meaning of which was, "The last name on the list was Sun Shan; your son's name is behind Sun Shan!"

Today, this idiom can be used to describe a person who has not passed an exam, or who has been unsuccessful at some kind of competition.

名落孫山

宋朝時候有個才子，名叫孫山，說話幽默，表情豐富，加上長相詼諧，當地
的人便給他取了個「滑稽才子」的綽號。
有一次，他和一個同鄉子一起上京考試，結果雖然考中了，卻是榜上的最後一名。和他去的那個同鄉的兒子，並沒有考上，不久，孫山先回到家裏，鄉人急急的跑來問道：「我兒子考上了沒有？」
孫山說話向來滑稽，又不想讓同鄉傷心，便隨口唸出兩句不成詩的詩句來：「解名盡處是孫山，賢郎更在孫山外。」
科舉制度中考中舉人第一名的，叫做「解元」。詩裏說的「解名」，是指一般考取舉人的名字。全詩的意思「舉人榜上的最後一名是我孫山，至於令郎的名字還在我孫山之後呢！」
同鄉聽後楞了一會兒,自言自語的說：「孫山是最後一名，我兒子的名字還在他後面，哇！那豈不是落榜了嗎？」

此後，凡是那些考試沒有上榜的人，我們都說「名落孫山」。