I Want Idiom Stories

During the Western Han dynasty, there was a scholar named Kuang Heng. His family was poor, and he could not even afford oil for a lamp. During the day Kuang Heng had to work in the fields, and only at night did he have time to read, but once night came the room was pitch black, and there was no way to read at all. Kuang Heng's neighbor was better off, and every evening the house was brightly lit. Kuang Heng looked carefully and saw that there was a small crack in the wall between the two houses, and a little of the neighbor's light leaked through it. He had an idea, found some tools, and chiseled a small hole in the wall. The lamplight shone through the hole into his own room, and Kuang Heng leaned close under that beam of faint light and read by it. He treasured this hard-won chance to study, reading diligently day and night and carefully studying the principles in the books. Because he was diligent and eager to learn, even when conditions were hard he never gave up reading. Day after day of accumulation made Kuang Heng's learning ever deeper, and later he rose to the office of chancellor and became a famous great scholar in history. The idiom "boring a hole in the wall to steal light" comes from this story. It describes people who, even in difficult and harsh circumstances, still study hard and eagerly and try every possible way to read and seek knowledge; it is used to encourage later generations not to fear poor conditions but to keep on learning. — Description from novelcodex.orgFull novel: I Want Idiom Stories — read the rest free on N​o⁠v​e⁠l​C⁠o​d⁠e​x⁠.​o⁠r​g⁠