Zu Ti, a famous general of the Jin dynasty, worked with his good friend Liu Kun in Sizhou as a young man. One night, as they were fast asleep, there came the sound of cocks crowing. 

Zu Ti woke up, and thought for a while. Then, he woke Liu Kun and told him, “Listen, the cocks are crowing! ”

Liu Kun said, “Indeed! The noise so early is disturbing my sleep.“ 

Zu Ti smiled and said, “It is not noise, but a call to wake up early to begin sword practice! ”Upon hearing this, Liu Kun felt that it made sense. So, they got out of bed and into the courtyard to practice sword fighting. 

From then on, Zu Ti and Liu Kun began getting out of bed to practice sword fighting  upon hearing the cock’s crow every morning, and only stopped after daybreak. They never took a day’s break from their sword practice. After years of training and hard work, they finally became two of their country’s greatest talents.

晉朝的名將祖逖，年輕時和好朋友劉琨在司州一起工作。有一天晚上，他們睡得正熟的時候，外面忽然傳來一陣雞叫聲。

祖逖醒來後，想了一會兒，就把劉琨叫醒：「聽，雞叫了！」

劉琨說：「唉！半夜雞叫吵得睡不著。」

祖逖笑著說：「這不是噪音，而是叫我們早點兒起床練劍啊！」劉琨聽了，覺得很有道理，兩人就起床到院子練起劍來。

從此，祖逖和劉琨每天都半夜起床，練劍練到天亮才休息，從來沒有中斷過。經過長時間的苦練，他們終於成為國家重要的人才了。