It's from Ma Nancun's The Secret of Don't Secret.
1. Original text
"We now advocate reading with a critical eye, taking its essence and discarding its dross, but ancient scholars did not have the courage to put forward this proposition."
2. Explain
Essence: the best part of things.
dregs: things like distiller's grains and bean dregs, which refer to useless things.
absorb the best things in things and discard the bad and useless things in things. The "essence" and "dross" of extended materials actually have two different meanings and two different understandings.
one is substantive and the other is valuable.
the meaning of materiality is that "essence" and "dross" are regarded as the inherent existence in traditional culture and the inherent nature of various cultural phenomena, and some of them are considered to be good and "essence".
Other things are bad in themselves and are "dross"; The essence is the essence, and the dross is the dross. As long as they exist, they will never change. Our job is to find them out one by one, preserve the "essence" and eliminate the "dross".
the meaning of value is to regard "essence" and "dross" as the meaning and function of existing cultural phenomena under realistic conditions, that is, to see whether the things left over from the past are good or bad according to our present survival and development.
The premise implied here is that we don't think that the good or bad meaning of any phenomenon is always so fixed, but we admit that good or bad is essentially due to people and times. Therefore, our job is to look at the past objectively, and the key point is to choose and transform them from the realistic development of people and society.
There is a profound difference in philosophical thinking mode between these two different meanings and understandings. The former understanding is simple and intuitive, so it is common in people's views and represents a traditional way of thinking, but it has great doubts and misunderstandings. Theoretically, the latter understanding is more realistic, deeper and more reasonable.
Baidu encyclopedia-take its essence and discard its dross.