断机教子（duàn jī jiào zǐ)

断机教子（duàn jī jiào zǐ; break the loom to show the child that the learning effort should not be interrupted）

This is another story further illustrates the emphasis that Mencius's mother relocated for her son's education.

Mencius lost his father when he was three years old. His mother did weaving to make a living. When Mencius was young, he played truant from school. Mother Meng, learning about this, got very angry. She took out the scissors, cut the threads on the loom in from of Mencius, and said: “The cloth is weaved together by every single yarn and thread on the loom. The cloth can’t be weaved now that I cut the threads. Learning is the same. Knowledge is accumulated bit by bit, as a drop of water, how can you give it up halfway?” Mencius felt ashamed as he heard this. Thereafter, he took painstaking efforts on learning, and became a great master in the end.

This story was intended to illustrate that one cannot stop a task midway, and Mother Meng’s example inspired Mencius to be diligent in his studies. He studied with a disciple of Confucius’ grandson and became a great Confucian scholar.