It is an idiom story
Original text Hejian Xian Wangde (1) was established two years ago in Xiaojing, who studied ancient times well and sought truth from facts. If you get a good book from the people (2), you must write it down for the good, keep its authenticity (3), and add gold and silk (4) to give it a call. Yao (5) is a Taoist from all over the world who has traveled thousands of miles, or has old books from his ancestors, and many of them are presented to the king. Therefore, he has many books, which are equal to those of the Han Dynasty. ("Book of Han. Volume 53. Biography of the Thirteen Kings of Jing. Liu De, King of Hejian")
Annotations (1) King De of Hejian: Liu De, the third son of Emperor Jing of the Western Han Dynasty. (2) Good books: good books. (3) Authentic: original. (4) Gold and silk: a general name for property. Jin refers to gold; 帛, yinbo, is the general name for silk fabrics. (5) Yao: Yinyou, connected with "you".
Story description Liu De, the third son of Emperor Jing of the Western Han Dynasty and the second son of Li Ji. In the first two years of Emperor Jing's reign, he was granted the title of King of Hejian. After his death, he was given the posthumous title of Xian, also known as the King of Hejian Xian. Liu De is good at studying knowledge, likes ancient things, works pragmatically, and strives for truth. Whenever he asked for a good book from the people, he would carefully write a copy and return it to the other person, leaving the original copy and rewarding him with more money. Therefore, educated people from all over the world often traveled thousands of miles to dedicate old books left by their ancestors to Liu De. Therefore, the number of books he collected was equivalent to the number of books in the royal library of the Han Dynasty. At that time, Liu An, the king of Huainan, also liked to collect books, but the books he collected were all exaggerated, clever and not practical. The books collected by King Xian are all ancient texts and old pre-Qin books, such as "Zhou Guan", "Shang Shu", "Li", "Book of Rites", "Mencius", "Laozi", etc., which are Confucian classics and interpretations of classics. The writings are all the expositions of Confucius and his disciples. It is reported that since the burning of books by the First Emperor of Qin, almost all ancient books have been annihilated. Due to Liu De's efforts in collecting and collecting, he obtained many ancient books from the pre-Qin era, and carried out serious and serious research on them, so that these precious ancient books can be passed down to future generations. Therefore, Liu De was highly praised by later generations. When Ban Gu, a historian of the Eastern Han Dynasty, compiled the "Book of Han", he wrote a biography for him and praised him: "Study the ancients, love learning, and seek truth from facts." The general idea is that Liu De respects Confucianism, practices rituals and music, and pursues academic studies. Rigorous. When doing research, you must have sufficient factual basis before you can draw correct and reliable conclusions. "Seek truth from facts" in the original text is quoted as an idiom, which means to do things factually and strive to be true.
Seeking truth from facts [shí shì qiú shì]
Basic definition
It refers to starting from the actual object, exploring the internal connections of things and the regularity of their development, and understanding things the essence of. Usually refers to acting according to the actual situation of things.
Source
"Book of Han·The Biography of Liu De, King of Hejian Xian": "Study the ancients well and seek truth from facts.
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