Gong Zizhen, the great Qing Dynasty poet and reformer, passed the provincial exam at 27 but waited eleven more years for the higher exam. He despised the rigid eight-legged essay format and refused to write hollow prose. For ten years in the capital he held a minor post - a hero with no stage, his political ambitions thwarted and constantly sidelined. At 48, he resigned under the pretext of caring for elderly parents. On his journey south in 1839, he wrote 315 poems. One of them thundered: 'The nation's vitality depends on wind and thunder / Ten thousand horses standing silent - how tragic! / I urge Heaven to rouse itself again / And send down talent without constraint.'
清代著名的诗人龚自珍，27岁中举，11年后才中进士。他从小讨厌那些禁锢思想的八股文，不愿写华而不实的文章。然而，龚自珍只是在京中做了10年无足轻重的闲官，英雄无用武之地，政治抱负不得施展，而且时常受到排挤。他刚刚48岁，就借口侍奉年迈的父母，离官回乡了。道光十九年，龚自珍在南下途中，共写了315首七言绝句。其中有一首写道：九州生气恃风雷，万马齐喑究可哀；我劝天公重抖擞，不拘一格降人才。成语万马齐喑即出自龚自珍的这首诗。
Reflection & Analysis · 寓意解读
Core Wisdom
When a society silences all voices and crushes all initiative, it becomes as lifeless as a field of mute horses. The idiom describes a stagnant political atmosphere where no one dares to speak.
When a society silences all voices and crushes all initiative, it becomes as lifeless as a field of mute horses. The idiom describes a stagnant political atmosphere where no one dares to speak.