Zhu Xi’s reading method
Zhu Xi, a famous scholar in the Song Dynasty, was a learned man. He annotated classics and conducted research on classics, history, literature, music and natural sciences. In terms of reading methods, he summarized the "Twenty-Four Characters" reading method, which is composed of 24 characters: "step by step, read carefully, reflect with an open mind, understand deeply, pay close attention, apply hard, and teach when in doubt" method.
1. Step by step. That is to say, start from the basic knowledge and read through each book. When reading, you should understand the characters, words, sentences, articles, etc. in the literature one by one. While laying a solid foundation, systematically and step by step from low to high, from simple to basic. Read deeply.
2. Swim with an open mind. That is to say, you should read it carefully and carefully, repeatedly study, polish and understand it yourself, and avoid being careless or self-righteous. (What is "Han Yong"? "Han", the explanation of "Cihai·Word Collection" is "immersion"; "Yong" naturally means swimming in the water)
3. Observe personally. That is to say, we must combine our thoughts, experiences, experiences, and needs to experience the meaning of the literature, and know the truth that "what you read on paper will eventually become shallow, but you must practice it if you know it."
4. Read carefully and think carefully. That is to say, we need to understand and think on the basis of familiar reading, and deeply understand its gist, so that the words in the book seem to come from our own mouth, and the thoughts in the book seem to be thought by ourselves.
5. Use tight force. That is to say, you need to concentrate, work hard, and spend great efforts. It's like sailing against the current. If you don't advance, you will retreat. Never relax and work hard.
6. Be sure to teach when you have doubts. That is to say, we must be good at raising and solving problems, learn to "question", and only after reading from "doubt" to "no doubt" can we truly understand and grasp the essence.
He particularly emphasized “step by step”. Some people are impatient in reading and rush forward as soon as they open the book. Zhu Xi criticized them for being like hungry men who walked into a restaurant and saw a table full of large plates and small dishes. They were hungry and devoured the food without knowing its taste. How to study? Zhu Xi's method is: "Ask for the instruction in each word, and seek the purpose from the sentence. If you don't get the previous one, you won't dare to seek the next. If you don't understand this, you won't dare to aim at the other. If you do this step by step, your will will be clear and clear, without any confusion." Ling Lu is suffering." That is to say, we must understand their meanings word by word and their principles sentence by sentence. If you don’t understand the front part, don’t rush to read the back part. This way there will be no omission errors. He also said: "The problem for scholars when reading books is that they only have to move forward and refuse to step back. The more they read, the more confused they are before they read. It is not as if they are regressing, but they can read carefully." That is to say, reading should be solid, starting from the simple to the basic. Deep, step-by-step, and sometimes review frequently, to gain solid knowledge through temporary advances and retreats.
In short, the "24-Character Method" is an intensive reading method. It has a great reference for the reading activities that are emerging in today's society and mastering good learning methods.