Tuoba Gui, Emperor Daowu of the Northern Wei Dynasty, asked Dr. Li Xian: "What is the best thing in the world that can benefit people's sanity?" Li Xian replied: "Nothing more than books." So Tuoba Gui ordered the counties to search for books. All the books were sent to Pingcheng, the capital, for their reading;
"Zhuangzi: The Way of Heaven" says: Duke Huan of Qi was studying in the hall, and the craftsman Lun Bian was building wood below the hall. Lun Bian laughed at Duke Huan and said: "Jun. Readers, the ancients have made mistakes!" He also said that his wheel-making skills are acquired by hand and should be learned from the heart, and cannot be taught verbally. This is because there is "number" in it. Similarly, the truly valuable things of the ancients are indescribable, so books are just the dregs of their predecessors and there is no need to read them.
Zhu Xi once said: "The way to learn is not to first understand the truth; the key to understanding the truth must lie in reading." Yan Yuan objected: "There is more experience on paper than experience in world affairs. There is a lot of spirit in pen and ink, but there is little spirit in economics."
From this we can see that there has been a long-standing debate about the usefulness of reading. I think "function" is relative to a tool. If reading is a tool for seeking fame and fortune, then it really has little effect; but reading is fundamentally not a tool for seeking fame and fortune, but rather for deepening thoughts, cultivating oneself, and benefiting others. The method of mental and exhaustive reasoning is "body" rather than "use". Therefore, asking whether reading is useful is already based on the value judgment of "reading is to seek fame and fortune." Whether reading is to seek fame and fortune is a question that needs to be proved first. You cannot take what needs to be proved. as a basis for judgment.
Pursuing fame and fame aside, what is the point of studying? How should we read? Schopenhauer gave a pertinent answer in "On Books and Reading".
Wisdom is the king of personality. Most people won’t care if you surpass others in luck, appearance, temperament or other aspects, but no one wants to be crushed in knowledge, especially those in positions Highly influential people. Being called ignorant is a great humiliation, especially for the rich and powerful.
Ignorance does not matter to the poor, because it is the result of life force, and people often do not criticize a poor person for giving up his job to make a living and go to school. This shows that, whether admitted or not, in people's hearts, seemingly useless reading is actually an indispensable need after food and clothing are satisfied. For the rich and powerful, if you don't study, you will be looked down upon and seen as having no noble pursuits.
People who are wealthy but speak vulgarly, and who are famous but rude are like wild beasts in the wilderness. Although people are in awe of their power, they despise their personality from the bottom of their hearts. Because the ignorant nouveau riche only live for greed, and the rich and powerful who are full of mistakes only get the glory of their fathers. Therefore, Confucius taught that "Be rich and be courteous."
This may be the reason why many people are willing to leave the shopping mall temporarily and go to school to study after accumulating a certain amount of wealth. If wealth is the best decoration for the rich, then a reissued academic degree is also an indispensable fig leaf. Reading will make rich people look more perfect.
Dulin once used the term "Chinese erudition" when he attacked Marx. Sometimes we also like to jokingly call those bookworms who read countless books "bookcases with two legs."
In the field of reading, some literati like to buy their own knowledge. For example, in "Xici (6)" in the first volume of "Guan Zhui Bian", Qian Zhongshu examines the "Book of Changes" When it comes to the meaning of "the world has the same origin but is different from each other, and is consistent but has hundreds of considerations", tedious citations are made - first, it quotes "Historical Records·Automatic Preface", which means they coincide with each other; and then it quotes Ban Gu's "Youtong Fu", which says "the techniques are the same but the origin is the same." "Divergence"; quoted Lu Jiuyuan as "the same mind, the same principle"; quoted from "Lewei Ji Yaojia" as saying: "Although people are born in different worlds, their thoughts are the same"; quoted from "Huainanzi Xiuwu Xun" "different bodies and It is reasonable to say that they have taken different paths and come back to the same destination." In the end, it was even quoted from the Westerner Spinosa's idea that the order and connection of thoughts are consistent with the order and connection of things. For Qian Zhongshu, such a simple meaning as "different paths lead to the same destination" is worthy of wasting so many words to explain. It is seeking simplicity and getting complicated, and does not understand the spirit of "just expressive words". Erudition is erudition, but it seems empty and useless. .
Schopenhauer said: "When we read, others are thinking for us, and we are just repeating other people's thought process.
"Reading is sometimes like copying in calligraphy and painting. We just explore problems along the lines of our predecessors. For most people, reading is a mindless pastime after having a good meal. They keep reading the books all day long, actively accepting the author's indoctrination from the books, but never thinking about it.
Nerds keep many similar ideas and concepts in their minds, and can recite the contents of the book backwards and forwards. Even one word must be proofread dozens of times and quoted in no fewer than ten interpretations. This kind of skill is good for Han classics scholars and Manchu exegetes, but valuable ideas are often not found in these people. Just like a horseman, in the end he will not even be able to use his own feet.
Therefore, Confucius warned: "Learning without thinking is useless." ”
Spiritual food is the same as real food. The portion that can be digested is very small, and more knowledge has been forgotten by us. Therefore, what we need to do is not overeating. Instead, choose the most nutritious books to read.
Academics do not understand this truth. In order to show their ability to quote from other sources, they use all their free time to read and ignore everything else. In the end, like a printing press that works repeatedly, it produces a lot of copies, but leaves no real ink for itself.
What kind of books should we read? ——Never read those bestsellers! Because, “Books written for fools will always have a large number of readers. "This does not require too much proof at all. The number of readers is not the criterion for testing the quality of a book, only time is. Only valuable books can withstand the test of time and be passed down from generation to generation. Many best-selling books are Like expired newspapers and periodicals, the more time passes, the more no one cares about them. Many of our current writers emphasize chasing hot topics, which reflects their superficiality and short-sightedness.
Secondly, reading should be enlightening. Books, especially those that seem difficult to read, such as Hegel's Logic, are very unfriendly to any reader and many people cannot even read a single page. . If you rely on your erudition and usually like to criticize all works, then you may wish to read this book, which will teach you what modesty is.
Wang Mingsheng of the Qing Dynasty wrote in "Discussions on Seventeen Histories". Putting forward a point of view, he believes that there are two spirits for reading history books:
One is to engage in discussion, speak eloquently, and praise or criticize, thinking that it can clarify the law and precepts and apply them to future generations;
Two In order to dig through the classics, compare the sentences, change the taboos, supplement and remove the extensions, and not rely on opinions, everything will be made public to future generations.
The former is for historical commentary, and the latter is for exegesis. It’s difficult because historical criticism is just one person’s subjective opinion, and everyone can make comments at will, whether superficial or not. In contrast, criticism is the true knowledge of learning from many experts and learning from their strengths. < /p>
It is not surprising that even children can express subjective opinions, and people are often different from each other, which ends up in useless talk and abuse, and everyone gains very little knowledge.
As for the examination and debate skills, it is really a task that is incompetent for people who are ignorant, poorly read, and weak-willed. Only those who are broad-minded, able to tolerate many opinions, and are good at analyzing and distinguishing different viewpoints. , only then can we adopt the wisdom of others for reference, communication and proof, and the scholar's own views can also be explained in it. This is the study of seeking truth from facts.
The person who can best use this reading method is Gu Yanwu. , in his "Rizhilu", he quoted other people's opinions throughout the article, and rarely saw his own positive comments. He called this method of reading and writing "mining copper from the mountain." It is easy to add a frame, and it is not difficult to build a self-reliant theory, but it is just an extra frame of soil, which is not valuable. What is difficult is to find insights from the vast sea of ??ancient books and smelt them from the mountains of dung. When true copper comes out, this is the so-called "be knowledgeable in literature and make appointments with etiquette." "
Unfortunately, shallow reading is popular. Since copying calligraphy has been abolished, there are not many people who can adhere to the method of "mining copper from the mountain".