Li Mi of the Tang Dynasty heard that Bao Kai was in Mount Gou and went to visit him. He rode an ox and hung a volume of the Book of Han on its horn, reading it as he walked. Yang Su, the Duke of Yue, saw him on the road and followed him from behind, pulling his horse's reins, and said, "What book has made you so diligent as this?" Li Mi said it was the Biography of Xiang Yu. Yang Su then talked with Li Mi and thought he was a genius (see New Book of Tang - Biography of Li Mi). Later, the idiom of "hanging a book on a cow's horn" was used as a metaphor for diligent study.

Wei Zhi San Jie

Wei Zhi: In ancient times, bamboo slips were used to write books, and the slips were woven together with ripe cowhide ropes, which was called "Wei Zhi"; San: the approximate number of slips, referring to many times; Jie: the end of the book. Confucius liked to study the "Zhouyi" in his later years, compiled the "Department of rhetoric", "Elephant Rhetoric", "say Gua", "Wenyan" and other interpretations of the "Zhouyi" of the "Yi Chuan". Due to the repeated reading of the Zhouyi, the strings of the compilation were broken many times (see Shiji - Confucius' Family). Later, it is widely used to describe diligent study.

Wang Coronation was a native of Zhuji County. When he was seven or eight years old, his father let him herd cows on the ridge, and he sneaked into the school to listen to the various students reading. After listening, he silently memorized it in his head. When he returned home in the evening, he forgot all about the cattle he was herding. Someone took the oxen and came to Wang Guan's house, blaming the unattended oxen for spoiling his family's fields. Wang Guan's father was furious and beat Wang Guan with a whip. Afterward, he remained as before. His mother said, "The boy is so enamored of reading, why don't you let him do it?" Wang Coronation then left home and came to live in a temple. At night he sneaked out of his lodgings and sat on the knees of the Buddha statues in the temple, holding a book and reciting it in the light of the lamps in front of the statues, and the sound of the book was loud and clear until dawn. The statues of Buddha are all earthen idols, most of them are fierce and vicious. Wang Coronation is a child, but the inner peace as if he did not see.　When Han Shi of Anyang heard about him, he was so surprised that he took him as a student and became a master of Confucianism. （After Han Shi died, his disciples treated Wang Coronation as if he were Han Shi. At that time, Wang Guan's father had already died, so Wang Guan welcomed his mother to Yue Cheng to support her. After a long time, his mother wanted to return to her hometown, so Wang Coronation bought oxen to carry his mother's cart, and he himself followed the cart in ancient clothes. All the children in the countryside gathered on both sides of the road and laughed, and Wang Coronation himself also laughed.