I believe many people have their own views on reading. Some people say that reading is a shortcut for poor students to change their fate, while others advocate the theory of "reading is useless". So is reading important? Actually, this kind of thinking has existed since ancient times. Some people say that "everything is inferior, only reading is high", while others say that "no talent is a scholar". Where do these two sentences come from? Is it contradictory?
"Everything is inferior, only reading is high" comes from the prodigy poem of Wang Zhu, a famous scholar in the Northern Song Dynasty. Perhaps you are not familiar with this poem, but a few words in this long poem are still often on many people's lips. "This poem has no seeds, and men should strive for self-improvement." "After a long drought, we meet our bosom friends and meet old friends in other places." "Wedding Night, Being the First Time" comes from Wang Zhu's "Poems of a Prodigy". However, Wang Zhu was born in a family of county officials. He was very clever since he was a child, and he could write poems at the age of 9. He is a famous "child prodigy" in the local area. Compared with many ill-fated poets, Wang Zhu's official career went very smoothly. Finally, he paid homage to the scholar in Guan Wen Dian.
"Nothing goes to the Three Treasures Hall" is a famous sentence of Huang Jingren, a poet in Qing Dynasty. This is the first full text as follows:
All kinds of feelings
The immortal Buddha didn't make it, only knowing that the night was uneven.
The wind shed is full of sad songs, and the mud is stained with poverty and happiness.
Nine out of ten people are contemptible, but none of them is a scholar.
Don't worry about poetry. Spring birds and autumn insects make their own voices.
The whole poem expresses the poet's indignation at his failure to display his talents. Huang Jingren was also very smart and famous since he was a child, but perhaps because of fate, he could never satisfy his talent. Later, he finally went to be an official, but on the official road, he died in a foreign land because of poverty and illness, which was also very sad.
Comparing Wang Zhu and Huang Jingren, we can easily find that life in Wang Zhu is smooth sailing, while Huang Jingren has experienced many setbacks, even making a living is a problem. It is not difficult to understand why he positively affirmed that "only reading is high", but naturally it is difficult to feel the suffering when things are going well. Perhaps this is also the origin of the phrase "everything is inferior". He has never experienced the hardships of life, so it is inevitable that he thinks highly of himself.
On the other hand, Huang Jingren did not actually say that "reading is useless". Although he said that "nothing is useless except scholars", we can easily find that Huang Jingren still maintains his pride as a scholar. However, faced with the mess of life, what can a poor wit do? This sentence "nothing goes to the three halls" is actually a kind of irony and the author's self-mockery. The previous sentence "Ten people and nine people are contemptible" means that "nine out of ten people look at it with a poet's eyes". It can be seen from this that although Huang Jingren is down and out, he has his own scholar character.
In fact, if the context and the author's creative background are not linked, in my opinion, the two sentences "everything is inferior, only reading is high" and "no scholar" are also valid. Just picking out these two sentences is actually the difference between wanting and doing. What you think is one thing, and what you do is another. There is nothing wrong with "only reading is high", but if you only know "reading dead books, reading dead books", but you don't know how to adapt and how to combine practice, isn't it natural to become a "useless person"? So in my opinion, what you think is very important, but what you do after thinking is more important, don't you think?