Sun Jing was a man from Xindu (present-day Ji County, Henan Province) during the Western Han Dynasty, who had an insatiable thirst for learning from a young age. Too poor to attend school, he taught himself at home.
Sun Jing was so engrossed in his studies that he read from dawn till night without leaving his home. People could hear his clear reading voice but rarely saw him, earning him the nickname "Mr. Closed-Door."
Sun Jing found that reading at night in the quiet environment was far more effective than during the day, so he would study until the dead of night. However, reading from day to night was exhausting, and he inevitably grew drowsy. He devised a method: he tied one end of a long rope to a beam and the other end to his hair, keeping it taut. Whenever his head drooped in sleep, the rope yanked his hair, causing a sharp pain at the roots. Jolted awake, he could refocus and continue his studies.
Sun Jing used such grueling methods to force himself to study, persisting day after day for over a decade. His knowledge advanced by leaps and bounds, far surpassing ordinary scholars, and he eventually became a great learned authority of his time.
During the Warring States period, the famed strategist Su Qin studied abroad in Qi as a young man, apprenticing himself to the esteemed Master Guigu. Master Guigu was profoundly learned, and Su Qin learned the cutting-edge art of political maneuvering from him. After several grueling years of study, Su Qin bid his teacher farewell and set out into the world.
Su Qin first traveled to the State of Qin to persuade King Huiwen of Qin to adopt the strategy of horizontal alliances, but he failed. Upon returning home, he endured endless ridicule and mockery, yet he refused to be discouraged. Determined to start anew, he resolved to meticulously study Jiang Ziya's military treatise, the *Tai Gong Yin Fu*.
Su Qin studied day and night, reading and reflecting without rest. When exhaustion made him drowsy, he would jab an awl into his own thigh. The bright red blood would trickle down to his feet. He used the pain to force himself awake and continue his studies.
At the same time, Su Qin meticulously studied each state's geography, historical development, political conditions, and military strength, gaining an intimate knowledge of every aspect of their affairs.
After more than a year of intense study, Su Qin's knowledge advanced by leaps and bounds, so he set out again to persuade the rulers of six states—Yan, Zhao, Qi, Chu, Han, and Wei—to form a united front against the powerful Qin state, and they all agreed to sign a vertical alliance pact.
In 333 BCE, the rulers and generals of six warring states gathered at the Huan River (modern Anyang River in Henan Province) for a grand alliance. They unanimously elected Su Qin to preside over the pact, naming him Chief of the Vertical Alliance and Chancellor of all six states, making him the most celebrated strategist of his era—a fitting reward for the years he had spent studying tirelessly, even stabbing his own thigh to stay awake.
Later, people used the idiom "Hanging from a Beam and Piercing the Thigh" to describe studying with intense determination and diligence.
Source: *Taiping Imperial Reader*, *Strategies of the Warring States*, Chapter "Strategies of Qin I"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "悬梁刺股" came to describe how studying with intense determination and diligence.