During the Jin Dynasty (265-420), there lived a writer named Zuo Si. As a child, he was mischievous and disliked studying, much to his father's frustration.
One day, while Zuo Si's father was chatting with friends who admired his son, he sighed and lamented that Zuo Si was even less studious than he had been in his youth, calling him a "good-for-nothing." Overhearing this, young Zuo Si was deeply saddened and realized his future would be bleak without hard work. He resolved to study diligently from that moment on.
Years of relentless effort transformed Zuo Si into a learned scholar. His first major work, the "Ode to the Capital of Qi," showcased his literary talent. He then embarked on an ambitious project: the "Ode to the Capitals of the Three Kingdoms." For a decade, he immersed himself in research and writing, often forgetting to eat or sleep, until the masterpiece was complete.
Upon publication, the ode was met with immense acclaim, compared to the great works of Ban Gu and Zhang Heng. In an era before printing, admirers had to copy it by hand. The demand for copies was so overwhelming that it caused a paper shortage in the capital, Luoyang, driving up prices.
This story, from The History of the Jin Dynasty, gave rise to the idiom "the price of paper went up in Luoyang," symbolizing the extraordinary popularity of a literary work.