To treasure one's own shabby broom
To highly treasure something despite the fact that it doesn't really have any inherent value; sentimental attachment
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我知道这壶不值钱，但是敝帚自珍，我就是舍不得把它丢弃 | Wǒ zhīdào zhè hú bù zhíqián, dànshì bìzhǒuzìzhēn, wǒ jiù shì shěbudé bǎ tā diūqì
I know this pot doesn't have any value, but I'm very attached to it and can't bear to throw it out
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请原谅我没按照您的意见改动文章，就算是敝帚自珍吧 | Qǐng yuánliàng wǒ méi ànzhào nín de yìjiàn gǎidòng wénzhāng, jiùsuàn shì bìzhǒuzìzhēn ba
Please forgive me for not editing my paper according to your suggestions. I was extremely attached to my version.
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敝帚千金 (bì zhǒu qiān jīn)
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《东观汉记》(Dōng Guāng Hàn Jì), a series of scrolls that documents the history of the Eastern Hàn (东汉, 25 - 220)
刘秀 (Liú Xiù) was a sincere man of great talents and bold vision. In the year 25 AD, after years of effort, he founded the Eastern Hàn Dynasty (东汉, 25-220) and established himself as its emperor under the name 光武帝 (Guāng Wǔ Dì). However, there were still many others with independent regimes, including a man called 公孙述 (Gōng Sūn Shù) who had also declared himself emperor. 刘秀 demanded 公孙述 submit and pledge allegiance to the Han, and when he refused, 刘秀 sent troops to defeat him by force. However, 公孙述's base was strategically located and difficult to access, and he was able to repel the Han emperor's army.
The next year, 光武帝 sent his troops to conquer 公孙述 once more. 公孙述 and his troops resisted fiercely, but the Han troops managed victory after victory and edged closer to 公孙述's stronghold. As they got even closer, though, fighting turned even more violent and desperate, and 公孙述's troops also started seeing victories.
Fighting continued. Finally, one day in November, 公孙述 personally led ten thousand troops to engage with the Han emperor's forces. The two sides battled for days straight, until 公孙述's troops succumbed and started to flee. The Han troops pursued them, skewered them with their weapons to knock them from their horses, and killed them. The next day, 公孙述's subordinates realized the direction in which the wind was blowing, and they surrendered to the Han troops. The Han deputy general 刘禹 (Liú Yǔ) responded by chopping off 公孙述's head, killing all of his family, and ordering his troops to pillage the city and set it ablaze.
When word of this reached 光武帝, he grew enraged. He issued an imperial edict denouncing 刘禹's behavior, stating, "The city had already surrendered, and it was full of tens of thousands of old people, women, and children. The moment troops enter and start setting fires and killing indiscriminately, people will grow angry and sad. For most people, even if their household only has a battered old broom, it is still immensely valuable to them, and yet you didn't respect that! How could you engage in this sort of cruel and ferocious behavior?" The emperor then fired 刘禹 and harshly criticized the commanding general.