Hard to Come By

In late East Han Dynasty, Mi Heng, a well-known litterateur who was learned, versatile and good at debate, and could write articles quickly and wonderfully. However, he was very proud and often had strife with others.

Kong Rong, another famous scholar, greatly appreciated Mi Heng's talent and learning. So he recommended Mi Heng to Emperor Xian of East Han Dynasty and called Mi Heng a talented man who was hard to come by.

At that time, Emperor Xian was coerced by Cao Cao, the prime minister, and had no right to decide, so he had the recommendation memorial sent to Cao Cao and let him decide it.

Cao Cao summoned Mi Heng, but Mi Heng looked down upon him and refused to go by pleading sick. Finally Mi Heng went, but offended him with proud words. Greatly angry, Cao Cao appointed him a drummer and ordered Mi Heng to play the drum for his guests in a banquet so as to insult him, but Mi Heng scolded Cao Cao badly when drumming. Cao Cao intended to kill Mi Heng, but fearing that others would blame him for killing a virtuous man, he ordered Mi Heng to persuade Liu Biao to surrender and wanted to kill Mi Heng by Liu Biao's hand.

Unexpectedly, Liu Biao valued Mi Heng very highly as an honorable guest. But Liu Biao could not endure Mi Heng's pride, so sent him to Huang Zu, a governor of Jiangxia, as a secretary.

When drafting a document, Mi Heng always finished it without a stop. So Huang Zu admired him greatly. Huang She, Huang Zu's son, spoke highly for Mi Heng's ability to recite after reading only once. Mi Heng's masterpiece, The Ode on Parrot, won people's admiration and they described Mi Heng as a talent who was hard to come by.

But Mi Heng's pride was never restrained. Once when Huang Zu held a banquet for his guests on a ship, Mi Heng scolded Huang Zu with humiliating words. And Huang Zu killed him when he was only 25 years old.

This idiom describes a person who is a scarce talent and hard to come by.

We students should not only be skillful in our majors, but also should learn how to communicate with others. Only in this way can we be accepted by the society.