When are the "three-watch lights and five-watch chickens"?

Night light refers to the light from 1 1 to 1 at midnight, which is the unit for calculating time at night in ancient times. There are five classes in one night, each class is two hours. At night, it is 1 1 to 1. The fifth watch refers to dawn, and when the chicken crows, the fifth watch refers to 3 am to 5 am. The night lights are on at five o'clock. This is a poem written by Yan Zhenqing in the Tang Dynasty. The original text of the whole poem is:

Every day when the cock crows, it is the best time for boys to read.

Teenagers only know how to play, but don't know how to study hard. When they are old, they regret why they didn't know how to study hard when they were young.

The vernacular means that midnight is the best time for boys to read books every day. When I was a teenager, I only knew how to play and didn't know how to study hard. When I was old, I regretted why I didn't know how to study hard when I was young.

Extended data

The first sentence of this poem, "The cock crows in the middle of the night", refers to hardworking people and diligent students, who are still working and studying in the middle of the night, and the midnight lights are still on. After turning off the lights and lying down for a short rest, chickens crow in the middle of the night, and these hardworking people have to get up and be busy again. The first sentence was written early, which is an objective phenomenon, which leads to the second sentence: study hard and get up early.

The second sentence is a supplement to the first sentence, expressing that young people should study day and night, and only by studying hard can they serve the country and make contributions. The third and fourth sentences say that if you don't study hard when you are young, it's too late to study now when you are old. In the sentence, "black hair" and "white head" refer to youth and old age. By means of comparison, it is emphasized that learning should be early.

The core of this poem is "black hair studies hard early, white hair studies hard late". As ambitious people, we should pay attention to seize the time to study, study and cultivate self-cultivation. The best reading time is in the third and fifth watch, and you should read in the morning. Moreover, only by hard work year after year can we really learn the skills of serving our country and starting a family.