Silkworms eat mulberry leaves and spin silk, not mulberry leaves; Bees pick flowers to make honey, not honey made from flowers; Reading is like eating. People who are good at digestion (here, eating should be translated into understanding, and reading can digest and understand) increase energy and reason, while those who are not good at digestion and understanding increase dregs such as venom and cancer.

This is a passage from Yuan Mei, a famous litterateur in Qing Dynasty.

Extended data:

Yuan Mei lived in the so-called "golden age" and his academic thoughts were very active. The struggle to advocate Neo-Confucianism and anti-Neo-Confucianism, and to emphasize Sinology and anti-Sinology is fierce. Yuan Mei firmly stands in the position of anti-Neo-Confucianism and anti-Sinology. Corresponding to the struggle in academic thought, the struggle between literary retro and repeated retro, re-education and subjective spirit has never stopped.

Yuan Mei is an outstanding representative of Qianlong's poetry circle. He repeated the thoughts and subjective spirit of the ancients. Yuan Mei advocated "the theory of soul" and "the theory of poetic quality" to oppose Shen Deqian's tone theory, which was popular in Qianlong's poetic circles, advocated restoring ancient ways and teaching poetry, and criticized Weng Fanggang's bad atmosphere of writing poetry based on Sinology. The poetics of mind advocated by him promoted the healthy development of poetry in Qing Dynasty, which is of great significance in the history of poetry in Qing Dynasty.

Jiang Xiangnan's "Entertainment" said: "Yuan Jianzhai advocated the theory of spirituality alone, and Jiangnan Jiangbei followed it. Mao Sui recommended himself to Mr. Shen to win a sentence for him, which is more glorious than climbing the dragon and different from the altar. " Visible Yuan Mei's extensive influence.