The correct couplet is: work hard to know all the words in the world, and determine to read all the books in the world.
It comes from a couplet written by Su Shi, a poet from the Song Dynasty, which means to work hard to know all the characters in the world and to make a resolution to read all the books in the world.
Allusion
It is said that when Su Dongpo was young, he was proud of his talent and loved reading. Once, he wrote a couplet by himself and wrote it on the door: "Know all the words in the world, "Read all the books in the world." Although this couplet expresses his love for reading, the words "know everything" and "read all" in the couplet are too loud.
One day an old man came and took out a few books and said to him: "I heard that you want to know all the characters in the world and read all the books in the world. I am here today to ask for advice." Su Dongpo took it. When he read the book, he was immediately stunned because he didn't recognize any of the words in the book! The old man smiled slightly and drifted away.
Su Dongpo was greatly inspired and realized that the knowledge in the world is endless, so he changed the couplet to: "Strive to know all the words in the world, and determine to read all the books in the world."
Extended information
Su Shi's main achievements include
1. Literary achievements
Su Shi's moral articles are crowned the world. Throughout his life, he has never left literature. His articles are diverse in genre, distinctive in personality, unrestrained and natural. Some of them are philosophical, short and concise, while others are eloquent and full of twists and turns. Su Shi, along with Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan and Ouyang Xiu, are known as "the four great writers of the ages".
Together with his father Su Xun and his younger brother Su Zhe, he is collectively known as the "Three Sus", "Su Wen is good at the world", and they are both among the "Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties". His representative works such as "Pre-Chibi Ode" and "Post-Chibi Ode" embody the sense of urgency and humanistic spirit of Chinese literati.
2. Achievements in calligraphy
Su Shi integrated the strengths of hundreds of schools of thought, developed his own unique approach, and formed a body of his own, forming a calligraphy style that is plump, generous, beautiful, innocent, and romantic. His style, together with Huang Tingjian, Mi Fu and Cai Xiang, is known as the "Four Masters of Song Dynasty". His calligraphy style is of its own, known as "Su style". The representative work "Han Shi Tie" is known as "the third running script in the world", and is as famous as Wang Xizhi's "Preface to the Lanting Collection" and Yan Zhenqing's "Manuscript for Nephew Memorials".
3. Achievements in painting
Su Shi advocated that there should be emotion outside the painting, and that the painting should have sustenance, opposed to similarity in form, and opposed to the constraints of procedures, and advocated "poetry and painting should be consistent, natural and fresh", Moreover, he clearly put forward the concept of "literati painting" and laid a certain theoretical foundation for the future development of "literati painting". Su Shi created a new trend of combining poetry, calligraphy and painting among literati.
4. Achievements in music and dance
Su Shi had a close connection with Chinese folk music culture throughout his life. Folk music nourished his creative inspiration, and his interest in folk music activities appeared in many of his works. sketch. When he was appointed as the prefect of Dingzhou, he used folk songs to create many Yangge dances, which later developed into a local opera - "Dingzhou Yangge", which is still performed today.
5. Water conservancy achievements
Su Shi built the Su Embankment. When Su Shi was demoted to Yingzhou, he also dredged and built embankments on Yingzhou West Lake. In the first year of Shaosheng's reign, Su Shi was demoted to Huizhou. When he was nearly 60 years old, he took out the gold rewarded by the emperor and donated it to dredging the West Lake. In the fourth year of Yuanyou's reign, Su Shi knew Hangzhou.
Because the West Lake has not been dredged for a long time, the lake has gradually dried up and the lake has grown overgrown with weeds, which has seriously affected agricultural production. Su Shi led the people to dredge, mobilized more than 200,000 migrant workers, restored the old view, and built three towers in the deepest part of the lake. The silt was gathered together to build a long dike that runs through the West Lake, named "Su Causeway". It is one of the famous ten sceneries of the West Lake, "Su Causeway at Spring Dawn".
Baidu Encyclopedia--Su Shi