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Source : http://www.flickr.com/photos/tiarescott/
 When he was a boy, Zu Ti (266-321 AD) was very naughty and didin’t like reading. Not until his youth did he realize that he had little knowledge with which he could hardly serve his country.  

From then on, Zu Ti read lots of books and studied history, from which he learned a lot and made great progress. Anyone who met him complimented him upon his statesmanship. 

He was once offered to work in the government when he was 24 year old, but he refused and countinued reading dilegently and persistenly.  Ever since his childhood, he enjoyed a deep frendship with he good frend, Liu Kun. 

They shared not only the same bed but a lofty ideal as well, that is, to be a backbone of the state by rendering meritorious service to the state and revive Jin Dynasty.  

Once, Zu Ti heard a rooster crowing in the dream, and then he kicked Liu Kun awake, saying, “it is considered unlucky to hear a rooster crowing at midnight, but I don’t think so. 

From today on, let’s get up practicing swords on hearing the crow. How about it?” Liu Kun gladly agreed. From then on, as the rooster crowed, they would ge up practicing swords, flashing and clanging. 

As summer went and winter came, they never stopped. Everything came to him who waits. After a long period of assiduous study and practice, they finally became wall-rounded with abilities of being a good writer and a capable commander.  

Now “Sword Practice at Cockcrow” is used to mean how industrious a person is.