Cold Idioms

The cold idiom stories are as follows: Hanging a book on a bull's horn, Wei Zhi San Jie, and Reflecting snow on a bag of fireflies.

One, the ox horn hanging book

Sui-Dynasty, there is a man named Li Mi, is a son of the family, his father is a great official in the Sui Dynasty Li Kuan. Li Mi dipped his father's light, when he was a teenager to do the guards of Emperor Yang of Sui, but soon resigned from his post to go home, he was determined to concentrate on reading, so as to make a difference.

On one occasion, Li Mi heard that there was a high priest named Bao Kai in Mount Gou, and he intended to study with him. It was more difficult to walk on foot, so he took one of his family's oxen by hand and rode it to catch the road. He couldn't let time go to waste on such a long journey, so he hung a copy of the Book of Han on the horn of the ox, so that he could read on the ox's back while hurrying.

Halfway there, he ran into Yang Su, a powerful nobleman at the time, who, seeing Li Mi reading seriously on the back of an ox and the book hanging on the ox's horns, both found it interesting and was impressed by his diligence, so he went up to him and asked, "Where is this scholar from? So diligent?"

Li Mi looked back and recognized Yang Su, who was often in and out of the imperial court, so he hastily jumped off the back of the ox, made a bow to Yang Su, reported his name and family lineage, and told Yang Su the title of the book. Yang Su nodded and asked, "Where are you reading?" Li Mi replied, "I am reading Xiang Yu's biography."

Yang Su talked cordially with Li Mi all the way, and felt that the young man was very thoughtful and ambitious. When he returned home, he told his son Yang Xuan Gan, "I met a young man named Li Mi on the road, and this boy's talent and learning are going to far exceed that of you brothers. In the future, if you have any important matters, you can go to him for consultation." Since then, Yang Xuan Gan made friends with Li Mi.

Because Li Mi was well read in poetry and books, his talent was superior. At the end of the Sui Dynasty, he was invited by Yang Su's son, Yang Xuan Gan, to rebel against Emperor Yang's tyranny, and then he joined the Wagang Army and personally drafted and issued a diatribe against Emperor Yang, counting Yang Guang's ten major sins. There is a sentence in the diatribe: "Exhausting the bamboo of Nanshan Mountain, the book of sins has not yet been exhausted; deciding the waves of the East Sea, the flow of evil is difficult to be exhausted."

Meaning, exhausting the bamboo of the South Mountain for bamboo slips can not write his crimes, and the water of the East China Sea can not wash away his sins, thus leaving for future generations "exhaustion of the bamboo is difficult to book" this exquisite idiom, and the bullhorn hanging the book is also as a model for the study of ancient and modern readers to study hard to motivate, and passed on from mouth to mouth.

Two: Wei Zhi San Jie

When Confucius was very young, his father died. He came from a poor family and could not receive a good education like the children of rich families, but he loved learning, so he gained knowledge through self-study. He studied hard since he was fifteen years old, and since he had no one to teach him, when he encountered problems in his studies, he asked for advice from all those who knew something about the subject.

He consulted officials as well as ordinary people, old men with gray hair as well as children with pigtails on their heads. Confucius was devoted to learning, and although he had no regular teacher, he became a famous scholar in his region by the time he was thirty.

In those days, paper did not exist, and bamboo became the main material for making books. People usually cut the bamboo into pieces of bamboo sticks, gently scraped off the top of the green skin, and dried them over a fire before writing on them, which they called "bamboo slips". Bamboo slips have a certain length and width, a bamboo slip only allows to write a line of words, up to write dozens, less write eight or nine.

The completion of a book requires many bamboo slips, the contents of the book all fall to the bamboo slips, but also with extremely strong cowhide rope will be these bamboo pieces in a certain order, so that it is easy to read, such a process is known as the "wei wei".

The completion of a book, often need dozens of pounds or even hundreds of pounds of bamboo. A book such as the I Ching was naturally made up of many bamboo slips, so it was quite heavy.

Confucius did not begin to study the I Ching until his later years. The I Ching, an ancient book, was difficult to read and understand, and it took Confucius a great deal of effort to read it completely, and only just to understand its contents. Then he read it a second time before he grasped the basic points of the I Ching. Later, he read it a third time, and only then did he gain a more thorough understanding of its spiritual essence.

From then on, in order to study the book in depth, but also in order to facilitate the disciples to explain clearly, he did not know how many times the "I Ching", so that, string bamboo bamboo belt was broken several times, had to be replaced with a new one and then read.

Even after reading it to such an extent, Confucius humbly said, "If I could live a few more years, I would be able to understand the words and contents of the I Ching clearly."

Three, the bag of fireflies reflecting the snow

"The bag of fireflies," tells the story of Che Yin.

In the Jin Dynasty, Che Yin was a good learner from childhood, but because of the family's poverty, his father could not provide him with good learning conditions, in order to maintain food and clothing, there is no extra money to buy lamp oil for him to read at night. And he could only take advantage of this environment, time to recite poetry.

One night in the summer, he was memorizing articles in the yard when he suddenly saw many fireflies flying in the low sky. The flickering points of light looked a little dazzling in the darkness. He thought to himself, "If we gather all the fireflies together, it will be a light!

So he went to find a white silk pocket, then grabbed dozens of fireflies and put them inside, then tied the mouth of the pocket and hung it up. It wasn't very bright, but it could barely be used for reading. From then on, as long as there are fireflies, he went to catch a handful to use as a lamp.

Che Yin, because of his diligent study and hard work, later finally became an official in a very high position.

"Reflecting Snow" tells the story of Sun Kang.

Sun Kang was also from the Jin Dynasty, and his situation was similar to that of Che Yin. With no money to buy lamp oil, he could not read at night and had to go to bed early. He felt it was a great pity to let time run away like this.

One night in the middle of the night, he woke up from his sleep, and when he turned his head sideways to the window, he found a light coming in through the window crack. It turned out that it was reflected by the snow. Why don't you borrow the light from the snow to read a book? Sun Kang lost his tiredness, immediately put on his clothes, took out his books, and went outside the house.

The snowy light reflected on the broad ground was much brighter than inside the house. Ignoring the cold, Sun Kang immediately read the book, and when his hands and feet froze, he got up and ran while rubbing his fingers. Thereafter, whenever there was a snowy night, he did not miss this good opportunity to read tirelessly.

This spirit of painstaking study prompted Sun Kang to make rapid progress in his studies and become a learned man. Later, he also became a high official.