Translation:
Wang Mian is from Zhuji County. When he was seven or eight years old, his father asked him to herd cattle on the field. He secretly ran into the school to listen to the students reading. After listening, remember it silently. When he returned home in the evening, he forgot all about the cattle grazing. Wang Mian's father was furious and beat Wang Mian. Afterwards, he was still like this. His mother said: "This child is so obsessed with studying, why not let him do it?" Wang Mian then left home and stayed in a temple. As soon as night came, he would quietly come out and sit on the lap of the Buddha statue. He held a bamboo slip in his hand and read under the light of the lantern in front of the Buddha statue. The sound of the book was loud until dawn. Most of the Buddha statues are made of clay, and their faces are ferocious and scary. Although Wang Mian was a child, his expression was calm, as if he had not seen anything.
Anyang's Hanxing heard about him and felt that he was different. He became a student and became a master of Confucianism. After Han Xing's death, his disciples served Wang Mian as they did Han Xing. At that time, Wang Mian's father was dead, so Wang Mian took his mother to Yuecheng to support her. As time passed, his mother missed her hometown, so Wang Mian bought a white cow and drove her mother. He followed the car wearing an ancient hat and clothes. The children in the village gathered on both sides of the road and laughed, and Wang Mian laughed too.
"Wang Mian's Night Reading in Monk Temple" is an ancient article from Song Lian's "Collected Works of Song Scholars" in the early Ming Dynasty. It tells the story of Wang Mian's diligent study and eventually became a famous painter and poet.
Extended information
Poetry Appreciation
The article tells us: The fundamental reason why Wang Mian became a famous painter and poet in ancient times was that Wang Mian was a child. Read with concentration, be tireless in learning, and be fascinated by it. This firm ambition and tenacious learning spirit were the cornerstones of his later success.
We can be inspired by it and get the enlightenment of "If a young man does not work hard, an old man will be sad." We young people should cherish their youth, study scientific and cultural knowledge diligently, and lay a solid foundation for serving the motherland in the future.
The Story of Poetry Dictionary
Chinese scholars have a tradition, which is to study hard and study hard. This tradition has lasted for thousands of years, and there have been many widely circulated stories of "hard study".
The tradition of hard study originated from Confucius, the "sage teacher" of scholars. Confucius was a very diligent person, a great thinker and educator. He lived in the late Spring and Autumn Period, when the Zhou royal family was in decline, princes were competing for hegemony, the original social ruling order was broken, and rituals and music collapsed.
Confucius took the restoration of order in the world as his own responsibility, studied diligently, compiled and revised many classics, recorded and publicized Zhou rites and traditional culture, and used them as teaching materials to run schools and teach disciples, striving to re-implement Zhou rites. These classics were later regarded as "classics". In order to revise these classics, Confucius spent a lot of energy and effort. Confucius read, compiled, and studied knowledge very hard. He often forgot about food and sleep, and was happy and forgetful about worries.
There is a story about "Wei Bian's Three Wonders" that has been circulating in the world. It tells about Confucius's reading, researching and organizing "The Book of Changes" in his later years. Books at that time were all made of bamboo slips, with words written on them and cowhide strips used to thread the bamboo slips together in order. Confucius read so carefully that he scattered the books several times.
This beautiful talk about "Three Wonders of Wei Bian" has a profound influence, and thus formed the tradition of diligent reading among literati. Confucius not only studied and researched very hard himself, but also often asked and educated his disciples to study hard.
After Confucius, studying hard became a tradition, which has continued throughout more than two thousand years of history, and there have been many stories of studying hard. For example, Sun Jing studied hard and later became a great Confucian of his time; Sun Kang studied hard in Yingxue in the late Jin Dynasty and finally achieved great success; Che Yin studied hard in Juying in the Jin Dynasty and finally achieved success.