China's traditional reading method is best described in Zhu. Zhuzi's genre has two volumes: General Theory as a Learning Method and Reading Method. I hope readers will take the time to read it, which will certainly be of great help to how to enter the world of China's old knowledge. Zhu not only put forward his own views, but also summarized his reading experience since Xunzi, which can best guide us.
We should not think that this is the old method of China, which is out of date compared with the new method of the West today. I compared the similarities and differences between Zhu's reading method and the so-called hermeneutics in the west today, and found that there are many similarities between them. All levels of hermeneutic analysis can be found in Zhuzi's Genres and Selected Works.
In ancient and modern China and foreign countries, reading is generally nothing more than specialization and exposition.
"Specialization" refers to the basic work that must be done on ancient classics. There are many ancient classics, and everyone can't finish reading them today. Like Dai Zhen in Qing Dynasty, he not only memorized thirteen classics, but also memorized notes. It's just that he can't remember everything, which is impossible today. Because our knowledge has expanded countless times, it is impossible to concentrate on a few classics and history. However, if we are interested in learning from China, we should choose a few classics and read them again and again. You don't have to learn by rote, but at least you should be familiar with it. Yu Jiaxi, a close friend, said in the preface to Four Treasures of the Study's Summary of Dialectics: "Dong Yu said that he had read it a hundred times, but it was not easy to see what was right. A hundred times or three times is essential. " At least make such efforts within the scope of your own special research. Classic works have been rearranged by the ancients and modern people, and we have used a lot. This is not only the tradition of China, but also the study of modern western humanities. Once upon a time, the University of Chicago had a course of "Great Books and Special Books", which also required students to learn some classic works that they were good at. Although I have been a little slack recently, some people advocate intensive reading of Plato's Republic and other works.
Intensive reading provides us with the basis of learning; With the foundation, we can expand. This is the World Expo. Expo also needs to be focused, not aimlessly rummaging. Modern is an era of knowledge explosion, and the so-called "omniscient, the shame of Confucianism" of the ancients is out of date. Therefore, we must cooperate with our major and gradually expand our knowledge. You need to train your judgment here: which subjects are related to your major? How can we establish an orderly development plan among related disciplines? What books in related disciplines are "required reading"? These questions can be asked from teachers and friends, and clues can also be found from modern works. This is a special convenience given to us by the modern university system. Although you don't have to "answer three times", you should choose the best one to read systematically, and at least read every word carefully. After getting familiar with it, you can "speed read" and "skip reading". Zhu once said: It takes a lot of effort to finish a book first, and the second book can be finished in seven or eight minutes. It will be more and more labor-saving and faster in the future. This is a process from "ten eyes and one line" to "one eye and ten lines", regardless of specialization or elaboration.
Reading with an open mind is the only way that China passed down from ancient times.
Zhu said well: "Don't do things that are impossible to read, just read. This is the law. Like a fool, cliff to cliff, but don't want to express their opinions first, look on with an open mind. It seems that you naturally know. " This seems to be the most stupid method, but it is actually the smartest method. I advise young friends not to believe many ideas moved from the west today for the time being, saying that our minds are no longer a blank sheet of paper, and we must read many "preconceived" ancient books. "Objectivity" is impossible. Because we are subjective, we must try our best to seek "objective understanding" when reading. Facts have proved that people with different subjectivities can't prove and agree with each other as long as they study with an "open mind". If it is impossible to be "open-minded" and the result of reading only strengthens the existing "subjectivity", then why study?
"Deficiency" and "modesty" are inseparable. When we read classic works, even the works of modern people with general academic value, we should always be a little humble first, and we should not be arrogant at the beginning. This is a common problem that many scholars in China often make today, especially those who treat China's knowledge. They tend to "respect westerners and regard westerners as sacred" (this is what Deng Shi said in 1904), and "criticize" China's ancient books with a little western ideas they usually get. They don't study, but like prisoners, they try to interrogate and extract confessions from China's books. If someone thinks this is a "creative" performance, I don't think he needs to waste time reading China. Just like Lu Xun said, "You don't have to read any China books, but you can read foreign books if you want." In fact, it's even simpler. However, reading foreign languages should be modest and not arrogant.
Of course, the ancients can "criticize", and ancient books are not without loopholes. Zhu Dui said, "Look at the words and believe this sentence without adding words. If there is an original gap, if the zygote is similar, you should open it yourself, don't confuse the substrate, and chisel hard. " Can't say first, take the wishes of the ancients. "Reading can see the' lack of seams' in the book, which is quite late, not the realm that beginners can reach." Difficult to chisel "and" speak first, make up for it with the wishes of the ancients "are exactly the most common symptoms in the intellectual circles in China today. People who are interested in learning about China should remember this sentence of Zhu.
There is indeed a new difficulty in reading China's ancient books today, which the ancients did not have: we have been educated since childhood and have been immersed in modern (mainly western) concepts. For example, the old classification of classics, history, disciplines and collections (which can be based on the catalogue of Sikuquanshu) has long been replaced by the new classification of disciplines (that is, western languages). There are many similarities between human culture and thought (otherwise, mutual understanding between cultures is impossible), so some western concepts can be naturally introduced into China's academic tradition, changing the old into the new. But some of them are unique concepts in western cultural traditions, and we can't find their equivalents in China. There are many special concepts in China culture, which are totally absent in the west. What we are most afraid of when reading China's book today is to expose western ideas, and as a result, it is either a donkey or a horse and becomes a laughing stock.
I hope that young friends who are interested in reading ancient books, it is best to try their best to learn from the old traditions of China first, and don't rush to make new explanations with western concepts. The combination of Chinese and western is something you can only try after you have mastered it. Even if we read the Analects of Confucius and Plato's dialogues at the same time, we can only understand their old meanings in the original cultural system, and we can't immediately think of "merging into one".
I can say responsibly that since the 20th century, China scholars' most valuable works on China's academic work are at least compared with western ideas. If the person in charge of China's history has a foreign frame, it will be impossible to understand the "original intention" of China's historical records carefully, but will regard it as a newspaper and look for what they need word by word (don't mistake some shallow people for thinking that the "original intention" can't be found, so I won't elaborate here).
"studious and thoughtful, knowing what it means" is the highest stage that every real scholar must strive to achieve. The first meaning of reading is to try to gain an objective understanding, not to show off one's "creativity", but to "make something that one has never done before". In fact, some "new ideas" in today's Chinese world have been debunked, and only one or two foreign new terms have been rummaged around there, which is not only unfounded in China's books, but also divorced from the western original.
From Han Yu in the Tang Dynasty, China advocated "reading first, then reading". On the surface, China's characters are the same in ancient and modern times, but after two or three thousand years of evolution, the same noun has different meanings in different times. Without the basic knowledge of lectures, you can't understand ancient books. The same is true of western books. Those ideas about the European continent that are not proficient in German and French but obtained from second-hand English works are completely unreliable.
It seems that China's intelligentsia has not completely got rid of the colonial mentality, and everything is based on western ideas. Even "anti-Western" thoughts still come from the West, such as "dependency theory", "criticism theory" and "deconstruction theory". Therefore, especially in recent ten years, as long as there is a slight disturbance in the western ideological circles (mainly from the United States), a group of China intellectuals make waves and immediately apply them to the interpretation of China's books. This is not a combination of Chinese and western, but dancing with foreign tunes, like a puppet led by people. If young friends unfortunately enter this magic road, their academic future will be ruined forever.
America is a market-oriented society. Without changing some new tricks and products, there will be no market. Affected by this, academic circles often do something with old things and sell them as new creations, especially in the fields of humanities and social sciences. But on the whole, American academic circles can still maintain the tradition of practical learning and are not moved by new salesmanship. At the end of May this year, I went to Harvard University to attend a special conference to review the long-term employment in China's modern history. One of the candidates was first removed from the history department and was not considered. Because according to the professor who delivered the speech, the candidate used the popular term "discourse" more than 20 times in an hour. People in the history department of Harvard University concluded that this scholar is too shallow to guide graduate students to do practical literary research. These words made me deeply feel that there are still strict standards in the field of western historiography after all. They still require graduate students to study in a down-to-earth manner.
This is actually a reading tradition handed down from ancient times in China, and it has not changed until the 1930s. As far as I know, Japanese sinologists have generally maintained this simple style. During my thirty years in the United States, I have witnessed the rise and fall of the so-called "new trend of thought" countless times. It's really "seeing him build a tall building and seeing his building collapse". I hope that there are at least a few "reading seeds" in China's intelligentsia, so that they can keep the tradition of studying China seriously and completely overcome the colonial mentality. As for most people who will be swept away by the times, it is probably helpless.
However, I am by no means advocating the narrow view of "native China". Blind xenophobia and blind worship of foreign things and flattery are all abnormal mentality. Only by reviewing the past can we know the new, and only by bringing forth the old can we create the new. Children never get tired of reading old books, and they don't know themselves until they have read them carefully. This is an irrefutable truth about reading.
How to read the book of China;
6, c ("to the point of being able to contact the author" is a misunderstanding of the original meaning of "reading with an open mind, not confirming each other and agreeing with each other"; And misunderstood the relationship between subjective and objective. "No preconceptions" completely negates subjective mistakes. )
7.C (a) "This is the process from' ten eyes and one line' to' one eye and ten lines', whether it is specialization or elaboration" is the author's experience; B "Old books are never tired of reading, and children are familiar with them" comes from Su Shi's "Sending an Andun Scholar to the West"; D is the view of Dong Yu's reading method, not Zhu's remarks. )
8.a ("The author thinks that people who are studying now must have this basic effort" is wrong. Judging from the original text, it is impossible to do this kind of work today with the explosion of knowledge. )
9. Methods: ① "specialized" reading means that you must work hard on ancient classics. You should choose several classics to read over and over again. Although you don't have to memorize all of them, you should at least "repeat them three times" to get familiar with them.
(2) "Expo" is an extended reading based on "specialization". We should gradually expand our knowledge in line with our major. To choose the best people purposefully to read systematically, at least read every word carefully.
Attitude: The author believes that reading classic works, even modern works with academic value in general, should have a "humble" attitude. It's not that we can't criticize, but we can't be arrogant from the beginning and criticize China's ancient books with a little western ideas we usually get.