By Vibrant Dot Staff
Dizi Gui (Standards for Being a Good Student and Child) is a traditional Chinese classic for children that teaches morals and proper etiquette.
One of the values expounded by Dizi Gui (弟子规) is to spend one’s time wisely. Our time in life is limited; we should thus endeavour to wake up early and go to bed late. When we realise that time is passing us by and cannot be turned back, and that we are getting older year by year, we should especially treasure the present moment.
A good example of treasuring time in your youth is Che Yin (車胤), who served as a military general and later the Minister of Personnel (one of the nine ministries under the emperor in ancient China) during the Jin Dynasty.
When we realise that time is passing us by and cannot be turned back, and that we are getting older year by year, we should especially treasure the present moment.
Che Yin Studies Under the Light of Fireflies
Che Yin was one of the best-known scholars of the Eastern Jin dynasty, being remarkably well-read in various fields. He also had great character and strong language abilities, often making sharp observations and witty comments.
As such, he was well-respected in the academic field, and also extremely popular. Che was often the life of the party, and people would lament his absence in any gathering.
Che’s knowledge and language abilities weren’t acquired overnight; as a young boy, he studied with complete dedication from day to night. Here is the story of how he studied under the light of fireflies, to extend his study time well into the night.
Che was born in Nanping, Fujian Province to a family of noble background. His grandfather had been the Prefect of Huiji, and his father served as secretary to one of the princesses.
From the young age of three, Che already showed himself to be thoughtful and polite, earning the praise of relatives who visited the family.
When Che turned five, his father taught him to read and write. Che was not only smart but extremely hardworking. He would be so absorbed in his studies that he would forget to eat or sleep, and not a day passed where he was not buried in a book. He would even stay up till midnight to study.
Che, of course, needed a light to study at night, but after his father resigned from his job, the family lapsed into poverty and could no longer afford to buy oil for their lamps. Although his father worked as secretary for the princess, he was a very honest man and did not earn very much.
So when night fell, Che would feel sad that he couldn’t continue studying. But despite his young age, Che was also quite wise. He realised that he could maximise his learning by reading more books in the day, and reciting the books from memory at night.
One night, Che was sitting in the backyard feeling sorry that he could not study, when he noticed many fireflies around him. As the fireflies twinkled and glowed in the darkness, Che’s heavy heart immediately brightened as he struck upon an idea.
He constructed a makeshift net from a piece of old cloth and a bamboo pole, and began catching fireflies. But there were only a few fireflies in the backyard, which was hardly enough to create enough light. He caught a few more in the front yard, but there still weren’t enough.
Although it was already pitch dark, Che bravely walked to a grass field outside his village, which was dotted with fireflies. Che had no difficulty catching a lot of them in a short time.
When he got home, Che placed all his fireflies into a makeshift bag of silk netting, and hung it from the ceiling. The light from the fireflies penetrated the holes in the bag, illuminating the entire room. It was even brighter than an oil lamp! Che happily continued with his studying.
In this way, Che studied well into the night every day, and became an extremely learned scholar. Since then, Che’s story of using fireflies to study at night has become a well-known Chinese tale, and gave rise to the Chinese idiom 囊萤夜读, which describe someone who studies very hard.
