It means: if you don't study for a day, you can't do anything else well If there are no books to read for a day, everything else will be like a deserted yard.
This sentence is Chen Shou's experience and summary of reading, emphasizing the importance of reading.
At that time, colleagues compared Chen Shou and Shi Biao to Ziyou and Xia Zi, compared Wen Li to Yan Hui, and compared Luo Xian to Zigong. Chen Shou studied the history books such as Shangshu, Chunqiu, Hanshu and Shiji. Later, he served as an official of Guan Ge in Shuhan. Because he didn't want to give Huang Hao additional power, he was repeatedly reprimanded.
Extended data:
1. Chen Shou (233-297), word Chengzuo. A native of Han 'an County, Brazil (now Nanchong, Sichuan). A famous historian of Shu and Han dynasties in the Three Kingdoms and Western Jin Dynasty.
Chen Shou, who studied hard when he was young, studied under Qiao Zhou, a scholar in the same county. In office, he is the general Wei Zhuben, the secretary of Dongguan, the director of the pavilion and the assistant minister of Huangmen. At that time, eunuch Huang Hao was authoritarian, and his ministers followed suit.
Chen Shou was repeatedly dismissed because he refused to give in to Huang Hao. After Shu fell to Jin, he worked as a writer, magistrate, scholar and prince. He was demoted and criticized many times in his later years. In the seventh year of Yuankang (297), he died at the age of 65.
reference data
Baidu Encyclopedia-Chen Shou