偷偷留存的手迹 secretly preserved manuscripts

明朝初年，在长洲（现在江苏吴县）有一个人叫 [[ Song Ke 宋克 ]]。他不仅能写得一手漂亮的小楷和草书，而且会画竹石小景，在当地很有名气。 At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, in a place called Changzhou (present-day Wu County in Jiangsu Province), there lived a man by the name of Song Ke. In addition to being an accomplished calligrapher, adept at regular and cursive scripts, he was also a skilled brush painter: most famous were his landscapes, full of bamboo and stones.

宋克从小喜爱书法。有一次老师在讲解元代大书法家 [[ Zhao Mengfu 赵孟頫 ]]【頫fǔ】的书法的时候，说赵孟頫的书法雄冠古今，再也不会有人超过他了。

Song Ke loved calligraphy from an early age. One day, his teacher showed him some calligraphy by the Yuan Dynasty master, Zhao Mengfu. The teacher explained that Zhao’s calligraphy was the best in the history of civilization and that no one would ever surpass him.

宋克听了很不服气，心想：这话也太绝了。我就要下决心超过他。

Song Ke was unconvinced. He thought to himself: ‘not necessarily. I’m gonna surpass him if it’s the last thing I do!’

为了集中精力练字，他叫人把自己反锁在书房里，只有一个书童作伴，替他磨墨铺纸。他每天天没有亮就起床练字，一直写到深夜。只是在吃过午饭的时候才休息一会儿。

To minimize distractions practising calligraphy, he asked to be locked in his room with no one but a servant boy to help him grind ink and put out sheets of paper. Every day, he’d wake at the crack of dawn and begin writing, practising late into the night. The only time he’d stop to rest would be for a short spell after lunch.

他还有一个习惯，平常练习写的字从不保留：每天睡觉前就叫书童拿去烧掉。书童舍不得烧，每次把写的比较好的字偷偷地留下来，只烧一部分。后来宋克成了名，书童才把这些手迹还给宋克。这些手迹足足堆了大半房子，可见他练习书法是多么勤奋！

He made a habit of destroying his daily calligraphy practice pieces. Every day before going to bed, he would order the little boy to burn them. The boy was reluctant to do so, and so every time he would secretly spare a few sheets of the best work from the flames, burning the rest. When Song Ke finally gained fame and prestige, the servant boy returned these pages to Song Ke. The manuscripts were enough to fill a small house, which just goes to show how hard he worked on honing his craft.

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