Doctor buys donkey (bó shì mǎi lǘ), which is a metaphor for writing articles with redundant words and sentences, nonsense, and can't grasp the essentials. The idiom comes from the Northern Qi Yan Zhitui's "Yan's Family Motto · Mianxue", "Ye Xia proverb: The doctor buys a donkey, and the book coupon is three papers, and there is no donkey word." ”
After Qin Shi Huang unified the world, he adopted the military merit system and governed the country with Legalist doctrine, which caused the scholars of other schools to lose their upward path, causing strong dissatisfaction among the scholars. Therefore, Qin Shi Huang followed the Six Kingdoms system and set up a doctorate position, responsible for taking charge of books and dictionaries, and participating in national decision-making, which was followed by the Western Han Dynasty.
During the reign of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, he set up a doctor of "books" and "poems", and established a doctor of biography of Zhuzi. During the reign of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, Dr. "Spring and Autumn" was added. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, he adopted Dong Zhongshu's suggestion to "depose the hundred schools of thought and respect Confucianism alone", dismissed the doctor of biographies, and added doctors to the "Yi" and "Li", so that the doctors of "books", "poems" and "spring and autumn" since Wenjing were collectively called "doctors of the Five Classics".
After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, in addition to being in charge of books and dictionaries and participating in national decision-making, doctors also assumed the responsibility of teaching their children and imparting scriptures. Later, people praised those who were familiar with the Confucian classics and were knowledgeable, as doctors.
At that time, there was a scholar in Yecheng, who was familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics, and his stomach was full of scriptures, and he was often proud of it. In order to praise his knowledge, no matter what he does, he has to chew on the words, thinking that he is talented and profound, and no one in the world can compare, everyone thinks that he is really talented, so they all call him "doctor".
Once, the Doctor went to the bazaar to buy a donkey. The Doctor was a strict man, and after choosing a donkey and paying for it, he asked the donkey seller to write a note for himself and keep it as proof of the transaction. However, the donkey seller was illiterate, so he had to ask the doctor to write it on his behalf, and the doctor felt that the opportunity to show off his talent had come, so he readily agreed.
The doctor brought pen and paper, pondered for a moment, and then began to write, and soon filled a whole sheet of paper. The donkey seller thought that the note had been written, so he hurriedly stepped forward and thanked him, "Great, I'm really sorry for you!" ”
But the doctor held on to the paper, took out another piece of paper, and said as he wrote, "Don't worry, I just wrote a piece of paper, and I haven't written about you selling donkeys yet!" When the donkey seller heard this, he didn't dare to squeak, thinking that this learned man was different, and he wrote a note so carefully, so he had to continue to wait.
Soon after, the doctor filled another whole piece of paper, but he still didn't want to stop, only to see him take out another piece of paper and continue to write. The donkey seller waited anxiously, but he didn't dare to come forward to urge, so he had to watch him write patiently on the sidelines.
After a long time, the doctor filled the third piece of paper, and then put down his pen. Looking at his masterpiece, the doctor was very satisfied, and on a whim he stood up, shook his head and read it, and when the people around him heard it, they all gathered around him, and watched the doctor read aloud there.
After a long time, the doctor finished reading the notes he had written, glanced at the people around him, raised his hand and flicked the paper in his hand, and said smugly, "How is it?" It's an eye-opener! ”
After hearing this, the donkey seller burst out laughing and said, "Sir, you have written three whole pieces of paper, why don't you even have the word 'donkey'?" In fact, as long as this note says that on a certain day in a certain month, I sold a donkey to you, and how much money I received from you, isn't it over? Why bother. ”
After the donkey seller finished speaking, all the onlookers burst into laughter, and the doctor was also dumbfounded by the donkey seller's words, and hurriedly led the donkey and walked away. After the news spread, Yecheng began to spread such a proverb, "The doctor buys a donkey, and the book coupon is three papers, but there is no donkey word." ”
Yan Zhitui believes that learning should be like Luoyang's Cui Hao, Zhang Wei, Liu Fang and Ye Xing Zicai and other four people, not only to be familiar with the scriptures, but also to be knowledgeable, only in this way can they be called wise men, and most of the other people are like idlers in the countryside, the language is ugly, there is no ethics, only know how to argue about some useless details, ask a question and answer hundreds of sentences, but if you want to ask what the meaning is, but most of them do not know the essentials, not the right way to learn.