Be down-to-earth.
Interpretation: Step on solid ground. Metaphor is practical and serious.
Source: Song Shaoyong's "Before Listening to Shao" Volume 18: "The public asks:' What kind of person is someone?' Say,' You are a down-to-earth person.'
Shao Gong once asked Kang Jie: "What about this person?" He replied: "(Sima Guang) This person is really a conscientious and down-to-earth person."
Usage: as predicate, attribute, attribute and adverbial; Refers to doing things seriously.
Look up at the stars: look up at the stars in the sky. Refers to an upward and positive attitude towards life. Modern vocabulary has no specific source.
Extended data
A down-to-earth idiom story
The "man" who asked Shao Yong "How am I" was Sima Guang, the one who smashed a jar to save people when he was a child. He is a famous politician, historian, essayist and editor of "A Mirror with Resources" in the Northern Song Dynasty. In the process of compiling "Learning from Mutual Aid", Sima Guang worked diligently, working late into the night every day and getting up early the next day.
According to legend, in order to ensure that he didn't oversleep, wake up early and get up early, he specially made himself a "police pillow" out of wood, not a police pillow, but a pillow to alert himself. This "police pillow" is round and lies behind the head in a panic. It moved a little and turned around, and the head that had been resting on it fell off. When it falls, people wake up, don't sleep, get up and continue reading and writing. It is also difficult for him to come up with this trick, which can be comparable to "hanging the beam and stabbing the stocks."
The compilation of Zi Tong Zhi Jian took 19 years, which almost exhausted Sima Guang's life energy. Look at what he said in Zi Zhi Tong Jian: "The day is insufficient, and the night comes next", which is really touching and admirable.
The place where Sima Guang compiled Zi Tong Zhi Jian is called Du Paradise, and the site is in Sima Jie Village, Zhuge Town, yanshi city today, which shows that he has a deep relationship with Luoyang.
Sima Guang has many friends in Luoyang, one of whom is Shao Yong, a master of Neo-Confucianism in the Northern Song Dynasty, who lives in his comfort zone and talks about theory. His history records that "when he was young, he had his own talent, and he was generously eager to become famous." He read everything in the book and began to learn, that is, work hard, don't cook cold, don't fan in summer, stay out at night for a few years. " Shao Yong works as hard as Sima Guang. No wonder they are on good terms.
On this day, Sima Guang came to talk to Shao Yong again, talking about XingChu. Sima Guang asked Shao Yong, "Who is someone?" "How am I?" Shao Old Master Q answered beautifully: "You are a down-to-earth person." Don't think he is flattering. Throughout Sima Guang's life, it really conforms to this evaluation.