手不释卷

Pronunciation: shǒu bù shì juàn Literal meaning: Hand not release scroll

Origin & Usage

The hand (手) that does not put down (不释) the scroll (卷). Cao Pi used it of his father Cao Cao, who went on reading through the campaigns — 虽在军旅，手不释卷 — and who liked to say that of men still able to study hard once grown there were only himself and Yuan Yi. The story usually told alongside it is Lü Meng's: a Wu general dismissed as illiterate muscle, told by his sovereign to read, who did, and startled a visiting colleague so thoroughly that the man said he was no longer the Lü Meng of the old days. The phrase praises reading fitted into a life that does not obviously allow for it.

Examples

English: "She was so engrossed in her studies that she hardly noticed the time passing."

Chinese: 他手不释卷，沉浸在书本中。