The famous saying of Ma Qian of the Taishi Company: "Whoever plants a thousand citrus trees in the Jiangling area can have the same wealth as a thousand households of nobles."

Thousands of tangerine trees (Jia Sixie's "Essential Art of Qi Min") )

Li Heng (1) built a house in Xuzhou (2) of Longyang, Wuling, and planted thousands of sweet and orange trees. Before he died, he ordered his son (3) to say: "There are thousands of trees in my state." Slave, not responsible (4) Your food, clothing, and a piece of silk are enough for you. "At the end of Wu Dynasty, sweet oranges were grown, and thousands of pieces of silk were obtained every year. Heng (5) was also called the person who Tai Shigong said "Jianling has thousands of orange trees, and thousands of households of marquis, etc.".

Fan Zhong (6) If you want to make utensils, you must first plant catalpa and lacquer (7), and people will laugh at it; but after years of accumulation, it will be used, and those who laugh at it will not be able to stop planting it (8). He said: “A one-year plan is nothing more than a valley of trees; a ten-year plan is nothing more than trees. "This is what it is called.

[Notes]

(1) [Li Heng] A native of Wu during the Three Kingdoms period, he served as the prefect of Danyang. (2) [Xunzhou] Dashazhou. (3) [Edict] Warning. (4) [Responsibility] Requirement. (6) [Fan Zhong] The grandfather of Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu. (7) [Zi, Qi]. The catalpa tree is good wood, and the lacquer tree can produce lacquer.

Translation:

Li Heng built on the sandbank in Longyang, Wuling. He built a house and planted a thousand citrus trees. Before he died, he told his son: "I have a thousand tree slaves on the sandbank. They don't ask you to provide them with clothes or food. Each slave creates a piece of silk every year." The value is enough for you to use. "In the last years of the Wu Kingdom, citrus trees were growing, and the value of thousands of bolts of silk could be obtained every year. This is the often mentioned famous saying of Ma Qian of the Taishi Company: "Whoever plants a thousand citrus trees in Jiangling can have the same wealth as a thousand households. " Fan Zhong wanted to make utensils, so he planted catalpa trees and lacquer trees in advance. People at the time laughed at him. However, after a few years, all the trees he planted came in handy. People who had laughed at him before borrowed wood and lacquer from him. This shows that planting must never be given up. The proverb says: "A one-year plan is better than a tree valley; a ten-year plan is better than a tree." "That's the truth.