懸梁刺股

This idiom comes from Intrigues of the Warring States·Intrigues of Qin I. During the Warring States Period， the representative figure of the Political Strategists， Su Qin canvassed the King of Qin on conquering another six states one by one. But the King of Qin declined his idea graciously. Later， Su went around and was rebuffed everywhere. He thought it was very hard for him to sneak into the official circle if he was short of real ability and learning. Since then， he studied hard day and night， especially on the art of war.

Whenever he was tired at night， he used an awl to prick his thigh so as to continue his studies. Sometimes he only bent over the desk for a nap for a little while. He took a string to tie his hair to a beam， so whenever he fall asleep， the painful yank of his hair invariably woke him up. So night after night， he learned a lot about the art of war， the geographical positions of all the states Central Plains and their force equipments， etc.

A year later， Su went to the King of Zhao again and he was successful instantly. The King not only recognized the worth of his knowledge and ability but also appointed him as the prime minister and also offered him Marquis Wuan. The King gave him a lot of money and goods to contact the other five states against the menace of Qin.

Now we usually use it to encourage people to study assiduously.

此語出自《戰(zhàn)國策·秦策一》。戰(zhàn)國時(shí)代，縱橫派代表人物蘇秦曾游說秦王，希望秦國用武力把六國各個(gè)擊破，被秦王婉言謝絕。后蘇秦四處奔走，到處碰壁，就感到自己沒有真實(shí)的本領(lǐng)是混不上官職的。于是他發(fā)憤日夜苦讀，研究兵法。

每當(dāng)深夜犯困時(shí)他就拿錐子在大腿上刺一下，接著繼續(xù)看書，實(shí)在太困時(shí)就趴在桌了打個(gè)盹。為了不讓自己睡著，他用一根繩子，一頭吊在房梁上，另一頭系在自己頭發(fā)上，疼醒了繼續(xù)讀書。

這樣，日復(fù)一日，他熟讀了兵法和中原列國的地理位置、兵力裝備等。一年后，蘇秦又去游說趙王，這次一舉成功。趙王非常賞識(shí)他的才干，拜他為相，封他為武安君，供給他大量的財(cái)物去聯(lián)絡(luò)其他五國，共同對(duì)付秦國的武力威脅。

后用此典來激勵(lì)人們發(fā)憤刻苦學(xué)習(xí)。