Because there are enough things in my heart to make me happy, I don't feel that the enjoyment of food and clothing is inferior to others.

Excerpt from the original:

After entering the room, my limbs were stiff and I couldn't move. The servant gave me hot water and covered me with a quilt. It took a long time to warm up. Stay in a hotel and eat two meals a day, without fresh fat and delicious enjoyment. 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. I look a little ugly in my robe. Because there are enough things in your heart to make you happy, don't feel that the enjoyment of food is not as good as others. My efforts and efforts are probably like this.

Vernacular translation:

When I arrived at the school house, my limbs were stiff and I couldn't move. The servant poured me hot water and covered me with a quilt. It took a long time to warm up. Staying in a hotel, eating two meals a day, no fresh, fat and delicious enjoyment.

The students' scholars are all well-dressed, wearing red scarves and jewels, with white jade rings around their waist, knives on the left and sachets on the right, which are as bright as gods; I'm wearing an old cotton gown and a rag, and I'm not jealous.

Because there are enough things in my heart to make me happy, I don't feel that the enjoyment of food and clothing is inferior to others. My efforts and hardships are probably like this.

Source: From Song Lian's Preface to Sending Ma Sheng to Dongyang.

Extended data:

About the author:

Song Lian (1310165438+1October 4th-13865438+June 20th), whose real name is Shou, whose real name is Jinglian, whose real name is Qianxi, whose real name is Longmenzi. Originally from Jinhua, he moved to the west (now Yiwu, Zhejiang) and later moved to Pujiang, Jinhua (now Pujiang, Zhejiang).

Famous politicians, writers, historians and thinkers in the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty were called "the great poets in the third day of Ming Dynasty" with Gao Qi and Liu Ji, and "the four gentlemen in eastern Zhejiang" with Zhang Yi, Liu Ji and Ye Chen. Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, praised him as "the head of the founding civil servants", and scholars called him Taishigong and Song Longmen. ?

Song Lian was ill since childhood, and his family was poor, but he was smart and studious, so he was known as a "child prodigy". He was employed by Ji Meng, Wu Lai, Liu Guan, Huang Cheng and others. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, he resigned from the imperial court and ordered monks to write books. In the early Ming Dynasty, he was hired by Zhu Yuanzhang and was honored as a teacher of the Five Classics, giving lectures for Prince Zhu Biao. In the second year of Hongwu (1369), he was ordered to major in Yuan history.

Most of the court etiquette was formulated for him when he was tired of being an official and learned the imperial edict from the Hanlin bachelor. Hongwu ten years (1377), resigned as an old man and returned to his hometown. Later, because his eldest grandson was involved in the Hu case, he was demoted to Maozhou and died in Kuizhou at the age of 72. Ming Wuzong pursued "Wen Xian", so he called it "Song Wenxian".

Both Song Lian and Liu Ji are famous for their prose creation, and they are called "the Sect of a Generation". His prose is either concise or graceful and elegant, each with its own characteristics. He admired Taige literature, and his style was honest and elegant, which provided a model for the literary creation of later "Taige style" writers. Most of his works were carved into seventy-five volumes of The Complete Works of Song and Shi Xue.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Song Lian