Li He, a very famous poet in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), was very gifted, and started writing articles at the age of seven. After he grew up, he hoped with the whole heart that the emperor would put him into an important position. However, he had never been successful in the political career. Feeling very depressed, he bent himself on creating poems to relieve the sorrow.
Every time he went out, he would ask his servant to carry a bag. As long as he had an inspiration and thought of a good poem, he would immediately write it down and put it in the bag. After returning home, he would sort up and refine his drafts. When his mother saw he had written so many poems, she would feel very distressed, “My son has spent all of his energies and emotions on writing poems. He won’t give up until he vomits his heart.”
Li He died at a young age of only twenty-six. During his life of twenty-six years, he had left more than two hundred and forty poems, all of which were created with his lifelong energies. Han Yu, a litterateur in the Tang Dynasty, had two sentences of the poem A Return to Pengcheng—Scoop the liver as paper, Shed blood as ink—which means removing the liver as paper, and shed blood to write articles. This story comes from Biographyof LiHe. The proverb originally meant excess energies on writing articles, and later is used to describe sparing no efforts.
