From: Preface to Send Ma Sheng to Dongyang by Song Lian in Ming Dynasty.
Original text:
All the students are all embroidered, wearing hats decorated with treasures, white jade rings on their waists, swords on their left and smelly faces on their right. In the meantime, I have no desire for beauty. I don't know if my mouth and body are not as good as people. My efforts and efforts are probably like this.
Translation:
Everyone in the classmate's family is dressed in gorgeous clothes, wearing a hat decorated with red hair bands and jewels, with a white jade ring hanging around the waist, a treasure knife on the left and a sachet on the right, which is bright and dazzling, just like a fairy; I am in rags among them, but I am not jealous. Because there are enough happy things in my heart, I don't feel that the enjoyment of food and clothing is not as good as others. I just study hard.
Extended data:
Preface to Farewell to Dongyang is taken from Selected Works of Song Dynasty. That was in 1378 (the eleventh year of Ming Hongwu). In the second year of Song Lian's retirement, when he went from his hometown Pujiang to Yingtian (now Nanjing, Jiangsu Province) to meet Zhu Yuanzhang, Ma Junze, a fellow student in imperial academy, visited him. Song Lian wrote this preface to introduce his learning experience and attitude and encourage others to be diligent.
In this preface, the author describes his early experience of seeking advice with an open mind and studying hard, vividly and concretely describes the difficulty of borrowing books and seeking teachers, and the pain of running around in cold and hunger, and compares it with the superior conditions of the students in the business school, which strongly shows that whether or not academic achievements depend mainly on subjective efforts, rather than the level of talent and the advantages and disadvantages of conditions, so as to encourage young people to cherish a good reading environment and concentrate on their studies.