Famous Celebrity Stories: Chen Yi Eats Ink

Comrade Chen Yi loved reading when he was young, and he always brought books with him and read a few pages when he had time. If he found a good book, it was simply happier than anything else.

Once, he went to a relative's home to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, a door to see a book they want to read, so forget the fatigue of walking dozens of miles, and immediately to the side of the book to concentrate on reading, while reading, while using the pen to critique points. He was completely immersed in the book, relatives several times to urge him to eat, he could not put the book down. When his relatives brought him some freshly steamed fried rice, he ate the fried rice (cí) in his mouth, but his attention was on the book. He should have dipped the bā in sugar, but he dipped it into the ink stone and brought it to his mouth. After a while, his relatives brought him noodles, only to see his mouth is full of ink, they called out to the friends and relatives, everyone looked, can not help but laugh. Chen Yi, however, calmly and wittily said: "It's okay to eat some ink, I am feeling too little ink in the stomach."

Note: This is a popular delicacy in some parts of southern China, where cooked glutinous rice is put into a stone trough and pounded into mud with a hammer.

This short story shows that Chen Yi was very dedicated to his studies.

Here is another story of Chen Yi eating ink:

Proletarian revolutionary Marshal Chen Yi loved to study very much when he was a teenager. Before he entered school, he had learned hundreds of characters and could recite some shallow poems. after entering school at the age of 5, he studied even more seriously, and ranked among the top in both recitation and arithmetic writing.

Once, Mr. Mao, a language instructor, came to Chen Yi's house for lunch and saw a book stapled with a stack of straw paper, each sheet of which was very thick. Chen Yi's father said to him, "This is Shijun's (Chen Yi's school name) exercise book." Mr. Mao was very surprised: "It's an exercise book, why don't you see a single word on it?" It turned out that Chen's family had long been bankrupt, and the family was so poor that they could not afford to buy paper and pens, but Chen Yi still made it a rule to write 50 large characters and 100 small characters every day. In order to save money for the family, Chen Yi used a pen dipped in rice soup to practice writing on grass paper. After writing for a long time, the stack of straw paper was pulped by the rice soup into a hard piece of paper. Mr. Mao was very touched when he found out about this, he stroked Chen Yi's head and said, "Son, practice well!" Chen Yi loved reading very much, often took the book with him, read a few pages when he had time, if he found a good book, he was simply as if he had been given a treasure, and he read it often without sleep or food. Excerpted from the children's fairy tale network

Another time, Chen Yi to a relative's home for the Dragon Boat Festival, after entering the door, saw the table there is a book on the table they have been looking for a long time have not found the book, so he forgot to walk dozens of miles of fatigue, immediately hiding to an empty room to concentrate on reading up. While reading, he excerpted important chapters with a pen, and when it was time to eat, he couldn't put the book down even though his relatives came to invite him several times. When the relatives saw him working so hard they could not bear to disturb him any longer, so they brought him sugar and rice dumplings. Chen Yi's whole attention was focused on the book and the excerpts. The rice dumplings were supposed to be dipped in sugar, but he went so far as to dip the rice dumplings into the ink stone on the desk and brought them to his mouth, eating two rice dumplings in a row without tasting any off-flavors. After a while, his relatives brought him noodles, and when they saw that his mouth was full of ink, they summoned his family to look at it, and everyone could not help laughing. Chen Yi at first did not know what the crowd was laughing at, he wiped his mouth with his hand, see his hand stained with a lot of ink, only to realize that he mistakenly ate ink, he said wittily to everyone: "Eat the ink does not matter, I'm thinking that the ink in my stomach is too little it!"