..續本文上一頁ies had no access to schooling and no opportunity to improve their lot. However, people can determine their own destinies, and there have also been examples of people who underwent hardships and achieved success, such as Lincoln and the black educator, Booker T. Washington. In ancient China, there were also many great scholars who overcame the hardship of the dearth of books by determination and intelligence.

　　《叁字經》說﹕「披蒲編，削竹簡；彼無書，且知勉。」就說的漢朝的路溫舒和公孫弘。

　　A line in the Three Character Classic goes, "They wove rushes and shaved bamboo slips. Though they had no books, they pushed themselves to study." That line alludes to Lu Wenshu and Gong Sun Hong of the Han dynasty.

　　路溫舒自小家貧，替人放羊；他就把寬寬的幹蒲草編在一起，然後向人借書來抄在上面，以便反複研讀，後來終成有名的文學家和政治家。公孫弘家境也很窮，一直到五十歲，還爲人放豬度日。他爲了想讀書，就利用在林中放豬的時候，把竹子削成片，去掉青皮，再把借來的《春秋》刻寫在竹片上；如此苦讀，終于當到了宰相。

　　Lu Wenshu came from a poor family and worked as a shepherd for others. He would copy books borrowed from others onto sheets of dried rushes that he had woven, so that he could read and study them over and over. Thus he became an eminent writer and statesman. Gongsun Hong also came from a poor family. Even at age fifty, he still herded pigs for others to support himself. Wishing to study, he whittled bamboo into slips, shaving off the green skin, then carved theSpring and Autumn Annals onto it from a book he had borrowed. Studying under such difficult circumstances, he eventually became the prime minister.

　　又宋朝的大文豪歐陽修，自小喪父家貧，母親歐陽夫人就在地上鋪了沙子，用荻草爲筆，教子識字，給了歐陽修很好的啓蒙教育。這些故事，都是沒有書而仍能苦學成功的典範。我們現在印刷業發達，教育普及，人人可以讀書受基本教育；可是卻有越來越多的孩子不但不珍惜書籍，甚至逃學去做荒唐事，糟蹋了個人的大好青春時光，更成爲妨害國家社會的寄生蟲和害蟲，真是可惜可惜之至啊！

　　The great writer Ouyang Xiu of the Song dynasty also came from a poor family and lost his father at a young age. His mother, Mrs. Ouyang, taught her son to read by spreading sand on the ground and using a reed as a brush. She gave Ouyang Xiu an excellent primary education. Those are all stories of people who studied hard and succeeded despite the lack of books. Nowadays, with advanced publishing techniques and universal public education, everyone can get a basic education. However, not only are more and more children unappreciative of books, they even skip school to engage in improper activities, wasting their precious youth and becoming parasites and scoundrels of society. What a terrible pity!

《弟子規淺釋 Standards for Students 第八章﹕余力學文 Chapter Eight ﹕ON LEARNING - 5》全文閱讀結束。