明朝灭亡,爱国学者顾炎武志不仕清,专事著述。顾炎武隐居后,生活十分艰难,住房破旧多鼠,衣物、书籍常被鼠毁。这时他正在写《音学五书》,其中《诗本音》一书刚完成就被鼠啮毁。但他毫不泄气,再易其稿。不料他每易一稿,都被鼠啮,以至四易四毁,直至第五稿才得以保全。有人知道他的书稿几次被鼠啮毁时,劝他在家中彻底灭鼠,以除后患。他却笑着说:‘鼠啮我书稿,实为勉我,不然,我焉能五易书稿,使书稿精益求精呢?’ The Ming Dynasty perish, patriotic scholar Gu Yan Wu Zhi Shi Shi Qing, writing the book. Gu Yanwu seclusion, life is very difficult, dilapidated housing rats, clothing, books are often rat destroy. At this moment, he is writing “five books of phonetics,” in which “Book of Poems” was just scratched by mice after the book was finished. But he is not discouraged, then easy to draft. Unexpectedly, he is a manuscript every easy, were rat-toed, and even four easy to destroy until the fifth draft was preserved. When someone knew how many times his manuscript had been scratched by a rat, he was advised to thoroughly eradicate the rat at home to eliminate any troubles. He laughed and said: ’The rat got me a manuscript, which actually encouraged me. Otherwise, how can I make the manuscript better and better?