手不釋卷
Never Without a Book in Hand
Meaning
Never letting the book leave one’s hand — studying at every spare moment. High praise for a devoted reader or lifelong learner.
Origin story
When Sun Quan urged Lü Meng to study, the general demurred: army life left no time for books. Sun Quan pressed him with his own example: "I don’t ask you to become a classics scholar. I have read since childhood, and even ruling a kingdom I never let a book leave my hand. Emperor Guangwu kept reading in the midst of war; Cao Cao says he still delights in learning as he grows old." Busyness, in other words, is no excuse. Lü Meng took it to heart and became the hero of the rub-your-eyes story — and the phrase for a hand never empty of books was born.
Source: Jiangbiao Zhuan (Pei Songzhi’s annotations to Lü Meng’s biography)
People
Modern examples
- Book in hand even on the subway, she gets through a hundred a year.
- The new hire who never stopped studying became the team’s tech lead in three years.