The third watch of lights refers to the lights from 11 o'clock to 1 o'clock in the middle of the night. It is also the unit of calculating time at night in ancient times. There are five shifts in a night, and each change is two hours. From 11 o'clock to 1 o'clock in the middle of the night, Three updates. The fifth watch of the rooster refers to the time when the rooster crows at dawn. The fifth watch of the rooster refers to the time from 3 to 5 in the morning. This is a poem from "Encouragement to Learning" written by Yan Zhenqing in the Tang Dynasty. The original text of the poem is:
The lights are on at three o'clock and the chicken is on the fifth o'clock, which is when men are studying.
Black-haired people don’t know how to study early, and white-haired people regret studying late.
The vernacular means that every day from midnight to the time when the rooster crows, it is the best time for boys to study. When I was young, I only knew how to play and didn't know how to study hard. When I get older, I regret why I didn't know how to study hard when I was young.
Extended information
The first line of this poem "The lights are bright at the third watch and the chickens are at the fifth watch" refers to the hard-working people and diligent students who are still working and studying in the middle of the night. The lights were still on during the watch. Not long after I turned off the lights and lay down to rest for a while, the rooster crowed at the fifth watch, and these hard-working people had to get up and get busy again. The first sentence uses an objective phenomenon to write that it is early, which leads to the second sentence of studying diligently and getting up early.
The second sentence supplements the first sentence, expressing that young people should study day and night, and only by studying hard can they serve their family, the country, and make contributions. The third and fourth sentences are about not studying well when you are young, and when you are older, it will be too late for you to learn. In the sentence, "black hair" and "white head" refer to youth and old age. Through the method of comparison, it is highlighted that reading and learning should be done as early as possible.
The core of this poem is "Black-haired people study early, white-haired people study late." As an ambitious person, you must seize the time to study, study and cultivate your character. The best time to study is between three and five o'clock, and read in the morning. And only by persevering hard year after month, can you truly learn the skills to serve the country and build a family. .