【Explanation】
Because people rushed to copy Zuo Si's "Rhapsody on the Three Capitals" (San Du Fu), the price of paper in Luoyang rose. This idiom describes how a piece of writing or literary work becomes widely circulated and extremely popular for a time.
【Source】
The Book of Jin · Biography of Zuo Si: "(After Zuo Si completed his 'Rhapsody on the Three Capitals'), the wealthy and powerful families competed to copy it, causing paper in Luoyang to become expensive."
【Story Behind the Idiom】
Zuo Si, a literary figure of the Jin Dynasty, was a very naughty and uninterested-in-study child when he was young. His father often got angry about this, but the young Zuo Si remained mischievous and unwilling to study diligently.
One day, Zuo Si's father was chatting with friends, who envied him for having such a clever and adorable son. Zuo Si's father sighed and said, "Don't mention it. My son Zuo Si's studies are even worse than mine were as a child. It seems he won't amount to much." As he spoke, a look of disappointment appeared on his face. The young Zuo Si saw and heard all of this. He felt deeply saddened and realized that failing to study hard truly meant he would achieve nothing. Thus, he secretly resolved to study hard.
Day after day, year after year, Zuo Si gradually grew up. Due to his persistent and diligent studies, he eventually became a man of profound learning, and his writing became excellent. He spent a year completing the "Rhapsody on the Qi Capital" (Qi Du Fu), which displayed his literary talent and laid the foundation for him to become an outstanding man of letters. After this, he planned to write the "Rhapsody on the Three Capitals" (San Du Fu), focusing on the local customs, people, and products of the three capitals of the Three Kingdoms period—Wei, Shu, and Wu. To ensure the work reached a high standard in content, structure, and language, he devoted himself to research, wrote meticulously, and worked so intensely that he forgot to eat and sleep. After a full ten years of effort, the literary masterpiece "Rhapsody on the Three Capitals" was finally completed.
The "Rhapsody on the Three Capitals" received high praise, and people compared it to the Han Dynasty literary masterpiece, the "Rhapsody on the Two Capitals" (Liang Du Fu). Since printing had not yet been invented at the time, admirers of the "Rhapsody on the Three Capitals" could only copy it by hand. Because so many people were copying it, the demand for paper in the capital city of Luoyang far exceeded supply, causing the price of paper to rise sharply throughout the city.