Original text:
A gentleman who is good at learning is an official. If you ask and learn, you will go hand in hand. If you don't learn, you will have no doubt. You can't be a good scholar if you are thirsty for knowledge and don't ask questions frequently. If you understand clearly, but you don't achieve your goal, you know it's big, but you don't know its details. How can it be funny if you don't ask?
If you are wise to yourself, ask how to solve your doubts. The so-called Tao is right. Not as good as yourself, just ask how. The so-called can ask no, ask a few more. If you are equal to yourself, ask how to learn from each other. The so-called difficulty in cross-examination is also a matter of interrogation. Isn't the book a cloud? "Ask and answer." Mencius talked about "seeking peace of mind" and called it "the way of learning". After studying, there are questions. Zisi said that "respecting morality" boils down to "asking about learning through Taoism", asking first and then learning.
Ancient people enjoyed goodness in vain, asked without choosing anything, asked without choosing others and took it from themselves. It is the words of a madman, the choice of a saint, and the inquiry of an ancestor. Shun and the son of heaven discuss the husband, view your words with great knowledge, be neither humble nor supercilious, and take the goodness with sincerity. After three generations, friends are friends without asking. As for the rule of persuading the good, it is enough. It is urgent to consult each other with justice and reason, and it is also urgent to study hard. What happened?
It's self, not human beings, and the common customs are the same. If you can't learn, you will be strong (qi m￠ng). If you think you know, you will be uneasy, and you will think you are false (duo). If so, there is nothing to ask for in life. People who are virtuous to themselves are unwilling to ask questions, and those who are inferior to themselves and disdain to ask questions are equal to those who are unwilling to ask questions. If so, there are few people in the world who don't ask questions. People are not convinced, there is nothing suspicious, and this is only for the teacher's own use. For personal use, the smallest one is also; Knowing its ugliness and protecting its loss, instead of feeling inferior, it is better to keep learning and making progress, which is harmful to the soul, and those who follow it are often nine times out of ten.
Otherwise, what you ask is not what you learned: ask the strange things in the world and tell them quickly; Even if the mind is clear, ask people to measure their abilities, and things are difficult to solve, ask people to be poor and short. Those who are wrong, although related to their physical and mental life, can collect the benefits of goodness and seek compromise without getting it. Ha ha! Why can't you learn a few from the ancients (j: and)?
And the husband is not easy to ask, and the heart can't be empty; If your heart is not empty, you will learn insincerely. Nor is it an enemy who does not concentrate his strength. His learning is not the learning of the ancients, nor is it the goodness of the ancients, so he can't be seek fortune for oneself.
No one is always smart. What saints don't know, fools don't necessarily know; What a fool can do is not necessarily impossible for a saint. There is no major in truth, but there is no end to learning, but can you ask less? In The Book of Rites, the foreign court asked all the people, and Shu Ren was also asked about national politics, so he could ask Lian, Xian, Widow and Old, which is exactly what Tao achieved. Confucius is not ashamed to ask questions. The ancients regarded asking questions as a virtue, but did not think it was shameful. It is a shame for later generations of gentlemen to argue without asking, but those who are deeply ashamed by the ancients, what later generations have done, are too much, and mourn for their husbands!
Translation:
A gentleman must like to ask questions when he is studying. "Ask" and "learn" are complementary. You can't ask questions without learning, and you can't increase your knowledge without asking. People who love learning but don't have high requirements don't really love learning. I understand the reason, but I may not be able to apply it to practice. I know the big one (principle, procedure, whole), but I may not know the details. Besides asking, how can I solve these problems?
(Yes) Ask someone with higher moral ability than yourself to dispel that doubt. (This is what Confucius said. ) Find someone who has learned to judge right and wrong. (Yes) Ask people who are not as good as themselves, and get a correct view. This is what Ceng Zi said: Ask people with high talents and people with low talents, and ask people with high moral knowledge and people with low moral knowledge. (Yes) Ask people with their own level to learn from each other. (This is the golden mean) Ask each other questions, make a detailed investigation and make a clear distinction. Didn't Shangshu say that? "People who like to ask are knowledgeable." Mencius said: "Find your own distraction" (at that time), and mentioned "the way to learn", followed by "ask". Zisi's emphasis on moral cultivation boils down to asking (diligently) about learning, and (in his formulation) "asking" precedes "learning".
Ancient people adopted good words and deeds with an open mind, asked questions without picking things, asked questions without picking people, and sought things that were beneficial to their self-cultivation and study (as long as they could). Therefore, the arrogant ordinary people's words, saints (also) adopt it, humble woodcutter, ancient saints, the first king (also) asked him, Shun Di has the identity of the son of heaven, asked the civilians, but with (their) great wisdom, he noticed shallow and ordinary opinions, which was not accidental modesty. It is really necessary to listen to many beneficial opinions. After three generations, only those who "learn" but don't "ask" can persuade their friends to do good things and not do bad things. What's more, people who consult each other on the issue of right and wrong and study diligently are rare.
People think they are right and others are wrong. (This is) the same problem as ordinary people. They don't study thoroughly (where they don't understand). (But) they just feel that understanding (where they hold) the truth is not safe (where). (But) they make subjective guesses at will. In this way, there is almost nothing (anything) to ask for a lifetime. People with higher moral ability (right) than themselves are (just) jealous of him and unwilling to ask him. People who are (right) inferior to themselves (just) look down on him and (think) it is not worth begging him. People at the same level don't respect him and don't want to ask him. Like this, few people in the world can ask him. (What) people (all) are not worthy of admiration, (what) things (all) are not suspicious, that's just self-righteousness. Self-righteous, that mistake is still small; I know that I am shallow, but I cover up my mistakes closely. I would rather not make progress in my study in the end, and (also) I don't want to ask others humbly, thus endangering my inner cultivation. People who fall into this (big mistake) are often (accounted for) nine times out of ten.
If you don't do this, what you ask is not what you have learned: (for example) it is interesting to ask strange words and trivial things in the world; Even what you already know in your heart (the problem is just what you brought on purpose), let others try that person's talent; Embarrass someone by asking them some difficult questions. If this is not the case, (or) even if there are things closely related to one's ideological and moral cultivation, the effect of learning a lesson can be achieved, and it is impossible to lower one's dignity (asking for advice with an open mind). Alas! Isn't it true that learning can't be close to the ancients?
And people who don't like to ask, (yes) because they can't be open-minded; I can't be modest (yes) because I don't like sincere study. Not because he didn't concentrate on his studies. He doesn't study what ancient Confucianism studies, and he doesn't like what ancient Confucianism likes. It is natural that he is not good at asking questions.
A wise man will make mistakes if he thinks about it a thousand times. What saints don't know is not necessarily what fools know; What a fool can do is not necessarily impossible for a saint. Truth is not only in the hands of some people, but also endless to learn. So, can you ask less? "Zhou Li" (said), out of court (to) ask people (opinions on state affairs), and also ask people's views on state affairs. Therefore, nobles can ask people with low status, people with high moral ability can ask people who don't deserve it, and old people can ask young people as long as they can achieve something in their studies. Confucius is not ashamed to ask questions. Confucius thought he had a high moral knowledge. The ancients regarded "question" as a virtue, but did not think it was shameful. Instead, the gentlemen of later generations scrambled to regard "questioning" as a shame. Then the ancients were deeply (ashamed) of things, and later generations were more (just) things without shame. What a pity!
The author introduces:
Liu Kai (1784— 1824) was born in Tongcheng (now Zhouchen Township, Zongyang) in Qing Dynasty. I was born alone for several months, and my family was poor when I was a child. I used to be a cowherd. I like to eavesdrop on the teacher's reading, and I can recite it after listening. When the teacher found out, he invited him to study in the bookstore and later betrothed his daughter to him. When Liu Kai was fourteen years old, he called on Yao Nai, the main writer of Tongcheng School, with his own articles. Yao Nai admired him very much, tried his best to teach him to write, and praised this new literary talent many times. From then on, Liu Kai's talent was a sensation, and later he became one of the famous writers of Tongcheng School, and his poems were praised by the world. In the first year of Daoguang (A.D. 182 1), Bozhou hired Liu Kai to study the city records and live in a Buddhist temple. Daoguang died of illness in the fourth year (AD 1824) at the age of 4 1 year. There are a large number of poems existing in the world, all of which are included in the Collection of Poems of Montague. His words such as "a gentleman's learning must be easy to ask" and "if you don't ask, you won't learn widely" have become world famous sentences.