廢寢忘食 Story

 

 Be so absorbed as to forget food and sleep

 

 This idiom comes from) Yan Zitui's(顔之推

"Yan Family Instructions: Encouraging Learning" in the Northern Qi Dynasty. 

 

 Confucius, named Qiu, courtesy name Zhongni(仲尼), was an educator in the late Spring and Autumn Period and the founder of Confucianism.

 

When Confucius was old, he began to travel around the world. When he was 64 years old, he came to Yeyi of Zhao State(趙國葉邑). Shen Zhuliang(沈諸梁), a senior official in Ye County, warmly received Confucius.

 

 

Shen Zhuliang, known as

Ye Gong(葉公)

, heard that Confucius was a

famous educator and taught many outstanding students. However, he did not know Confucius himself very well, 

so

 he asked Confucius's student

Zilu about Confucius'

 personality.

 Although Zilu had followed Confucius for many years, he didn't know how to answer and remained silent. 

Later, Confucius knew about this and said to Zilu, "Why don't you answer him: "Confucius is a man who studies hard and never gets tired of it. 

He even forgets to eat. He enjoys teaching and preaching, tirelessly. 

Never worrying about poverty and suffering, striving for self-improvement to the point of forgetting one's own age." 

What about this?"

(1)          absorbed

➊得過且過的 

➋開心的

➌專心一意的

(2)studies hard 

  
➊放鬆的玩

➋努力用功

➌淡泊名利

(3)Confucius 

 
➊孔夫子

➋孟夫子

     ➌老夫子

(4)educator

➊政治家

➋教育家

➌旅行家

 

Confucius devoted himself to education in his later years and founded the first private lecture school with 3,000 disciples 

and 72 famous people.