There is a Chinese idiom about imposing hardships on oneself to sharpen the resolve to achieve one’s ambition.
This idiom tells the story of a Yue king who lost his kingdom to an aggressor. He was forced into servitude, and to add salt to his wounds, the aggressor took the king’s wife as his own concubine.
The Yue king was released three years later. He never forgot the humiliation of his earlier years and he sought vengeance. To sharpen his resolve, he slept on an uncomfortable and prickly patch of grass every night. He also hung a packet of bile by the rafters. When he licked it from time to time, the bitterness reminded him of his shame and suffering.
After twenty years of hard work building his country and army, he was finally ready to confront his nemesis. He defeated his rival and purged him from his land. The victory was a means of catharsis for releasing his pain and anger.
Now that he is rich and mighty, he still kept to his ritual of sleeping on grass and licking bile. He knows that he should not get too comfortable. Another aggressor is lurking around the corner, waiting to take from him what he does not fight to keep.
The meaning behind the idiom is complex, but it is expressed succinctly in 4 words.
