韦编三绝(韋編三絕)

Prononciation: wéi biān sān jué Signification littérale: Leather binding breaks three times

Origine et Usage

Books in Confucius's day were bamboo slips strung together with leather (韦) thongs. The Records of the Grand Historian says that in his later years he so loved the Book of Changes that the thongs binding (编) his copy wore through and snapped (绝) three (三) separate times, and that he remarked he would master the book if granted a few more years. The image is precise about what devotion looked like before paper: not a note in a margin but a volume physically destroyed by rereading. It is reserved for study pursued to that depth, and stays closer to high praise than to an everyday compliment.

Exemples

Anglais: "His copy of the textbook had lost its spine from constant rereading"

Chinois: 他那本教科书翻得书脊都散了