Once, we talked about which ancient mechanism was stronger, and he told me a story casually. In other words, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, three craftsmen were the most famous, one was Lu Ban, the other was Mozi, and the most mysterious was Yan. They agreed to send their disciples to participate in the competition once every ten years. What is the comparison? Better than an office doll.
This habit has been passed down to the Northern Song Dynasty. This year happens to be the year of competition. The three young people exchanged letters, agreed on the time and place, and set off separately.
The descendants of Lu Ban arrived first. Seeing that the house he met was very shabby, he decorated it with dolls. His doll is very practical. As soon as Mozi's descendants came, he sent his dolls to shoot some animals as food for several people to get together. The descendants of Yan arrived at the latest, only to see them carrying bags, while his doll was wearing a cloak and hood, but took nothing.
So he asked the descendants of Yan why. Yan's descendants scratched their heads embarrassedly and said, "The dolls are too expensive to take out for a competition, and they are not allowed to do anything at ordinary times."
After listening to this, the descendants of Lu Ban and Mozi thought that Yan was weak and incompetent, so they laughed at him. The descendants of Yan seemed to be used to it, just scratching their heads.
Now that all three people have arrived, Mozi's descendants suggested that everyone eat and drink first, and then have a competition, and all three agreed. So the three of them sat down around the table to eat and drink.
After eating and drinking enough, Mozi's descendants stood up and said, "Eat and drink enough and be a complete ghost. You can give me all the dolls and I will help you carry them forward." After that, Yan's descendants lay motionless on the table.
At this time, the descendants of Lu Ban realized that something was wrong and vomited blood in succession. They took out the dagger at their waist to slay Mozi's descendants, but they had no strength and could not afford to fall to the ground.
Mozi's descendants laughed hysterically. At that moment, he felt a sharp pain in his waist and saw a knife tip coming out of his stomach. Looking back behind him, he found that Yan's doll took off its mask and revealed a flesh-and-blood face.
After listening to this story, I was attracted. I thought it was a big brain hole. I thought he had an idea, so I asked him who knew he was improvising, which really made my eyes shine.
Contact for a long time, I found that he not only said that this fictional story is powerful, but also said that historical stories are even more powerful. This relaxed way has broadened my knowledge and made me feel particularly interesting, so it is no wonder that as an art teacher, he has been sought after by many history students.
If you can tell stories, you can make an abstract thing concrete. People's brains will pursue "imaging". Once an object is imaged, it can be firmly rooted in people's minds and remembered.
In ancient Greece, a philosopher went to a cocktail party hosted by nobles. Before going out, he prayed to God for peace and then left. Halfway through the reception, a farmer went to the door of the reception to find him, told him that something had happened at home and told him to hurry back, so he hurried out before dinner was served. As a result, the philosopher came home and found that his dried wheat had been eaten by birds flying from nowhere. Just when he was upset, there was a loud noise in the direction of the reception desk, and he hurried back to the reception desk.
The roof of the building where the reception was held collapsed, crushing all the people attending the reception to blood. Many women and children were crying at the entrance of the meeting place. Not only did they lose their loved ones, but even their bodies could not be distinguished.
The philosopher was the only survivor of this meeting, and he felt it his duty to help these ladies identify their husbands' bodies. So he distinguished all the people according to the number of people standing under each pillar and the clothes of the participants he remembered when he left.
This is the embryonic form of the "memory palace" mnemonic method. The memory method of memory palace is probably to imagine a space with tables, chairs and other objects, and then we can associate new knowledge with these objects in various ways to remember. As a result, when we imagine ourselves coming back to this room and seeing these objects, we can recall the new knowledge we have memorized before.
And why can the story touch us? The reason is somewhat similar to the memory palace method. A good story will create many familiar scenes for readers, which will remind us of unfamiliar knowledge in the story and thus produce memories.
I think this is the principle that a story can give us new knowledge. The most important principle why people are interested in stories should be that our brains are usually interested in "experience", because from the perspective of evolution, the process of "evolution" can never be smooth sailing, and only by having enough experience can we avoid all kinds of dangers. So after thousands of years of evolution, when people hear stories, genes tell the brain: "Hey, get up and eat." Then we are eager for experience.
Of course, some stories are not so interesting, which may be because the author uses too many unfamiliar words and doesn't give enough useful experience, so when we read that kind of story, we will feel bored.