At the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a hermit Liang Hong who was deeply in love with his wife. Each day the wife would serve the meal in a tray which she raised to the level of her brows and respectfully presented to her husband. And Liang Hong would affectionately take the tray before sitting down at the table and enjoying the meal together with his wife. Thus "holding the tray level with the brows" became a Chinese idiom meaning mutual love and respect between husband and wife.

Liang Hong was from Pingling of Fufeng (northwest of Xianyang of Shaanxi) with the courtesy name Boluan. The exact years of his birth and death are not known. It was only recorded that he was born into a very poor family that could not afford even a coffin after the death of his father who was then buried in a roll of mat.

Poor as he was, Liang Hong had lofty aspirations. He read widely in the Imperial College and had a good mastery of the Confucian classics. Nevertheless, he had no interest in an official career. After graduation from the college, he herded pigs in the Imperial Garden, which won him the respect of the local people. Later, he went back to his hometown to do farming. At that time a Meng family in the county had an industrious and good daughter who had declined many offers of marriage, as she detested the lazy and good-for-nothing sons of rich families. Not until she was about 30 years old did she hear that Liang Hong preferred the life of a hermit to being an official. Out of admiration, she hinted to her parents that she would like to marry the young man.

Having heard a lot about the daughter of the Meng family, Liang Hong accepted the marriage proposal. However, for seven days after their wedding, he remained silent to his wife. It turned out that the bride had made up a little and dressed up a bit to please her bridegroom, which caused Liang's misunderstanding. So, removing her ornaments and putting on her coarse-cloth dress, she began to do all kinds of hard work on the eighth day. Very much pleased, Liang said, "Good! That's what I expect of my wife." He named her Guang and they lived in Baling (east of present Chang'an County of Shaanxi) doing farming and weaving.

Once Liang Hong passed by Luoyang on his trip to the east. Indignant at the extravagant life of the officials and nobles, he wrote Five Alas Song satirizing the situation:

Mounting the northern mound, alas.
I look to the capital city, alas.
Magnificent palaces I see, alas.
People are toiling in the fields, alas.
Their hardships are endless, alas.

Offended by the song, Emperor Zhangdi issued an order for the capture of Liang Hong, who then had to change his name and escape to Shandong with his wife. They later went to Wu and lived under the porch of a famous local scholar, Gao Botong, husking rice for other people for a living. Each day when Liang Hong came back to their place, his wife would present him the food on a tray which she lifted level with her brows. Amazed, Gao Botong realized Liang Hong was no ordinary person and invited the couple to live in his home, treating them as his guests. Not until then did Liang Hong have time for writing. After writing more than 10 pieces, he died of illness and was buried next to the grave of the gallant ancient assassin Yaoli, whom people referred to as the "Yaoli Martyr".

The life story of Liang Hong was in "Biographies of Hermits" in the "History of the Later Han Dynasty. Most of his writings were lost. The extant pieces, Five Alas Song, Song on Coming to Wu, Missing a Friend, are recorded in "Biography of Liang Hong" in the History of the Later Han Dynasty.