Official Jiang Uses Up His Talent

Jiang Yan lived during the Liang dynasty of the Northern and Southern Dynasties Period, in the area now known as Henan province. Although he came from a poor family, he as extremely hard working, and so became a high-level civil official. Jiang Yan was very talented in the area of literature. Both his poems and his essays were outstanding, and he was known by nearly all the scholars of his time.

Jiang Yan once had a dream that a man came to him and said, "My name is Guo Pu. One of my pens has been here with your for several years; please give it back to me now." In his pocket, Jiang Yan found a multi-colored pen, which he returned to Guo Po.

As Jiang Yan grew older, the poems and essays that he wrote were not as good as those he had written when he was younger. Everyone said that when Jiang Yan gave away his multi-colored pen, he used up the last of his talent.

When a person today is so satisfied with himself that he ceases striving to improve, and therefore beings to regress, we can say that "Official Jiang has used up his talent."

江郎才盡

南北朝時，有一位名叫江淹的人，他是當時有名的文學家。江淹年輕的時候很有才氣，會寫文章也能作畫。可是當他年老的時候，總是拿著筆，思考了半天，也寫不出任何東西。因此，當時人們謠傳說：有一天，江淹在涼亭裡睡覺，做了一個夢。夢中有一個叫郭璞的人對他說：「我有一支筆放在你那裡已經很多年了，現在應該是還給我的時候了。」江淹摸了摸懷裡，果然掏出一支五色筆來，於是他就把筆還給郭璞。從此以後，江淹就再也寫不出美妙的文章了。因此，人們都說江郎的才華已經用盡了。