Spreading books to cover a hundred cities: a metaphor for a rich collection of books or a deep love for books

Northern Wei Dynasty Li Mi read a lot of books and had no intention of becoming an official, so he spent all his property on collecting books. There are as many as 4,000 volumes of books that he carefully reviewed and edited. He has a famous saying: "If a husband has thousands of books, why pretend to have hundreds of cities in the south!" This means that as long as he has thousands of books, there is no need to be an official in charge of hundreds of cities. Later, "the book spread in a hundred cities is proud of" is a metaphor for the rich collection of books or the deep love for books.

The second part of You Dong's "Early Autumn Xinqing Limited Rhymes" of the Qing Dynasty: "I failed to collect medicines to find the three islands, so I spread my books to a hundred cities." It is also written as "I spread my books to support a hundred cities."