In this class, I would like to introduce Nan Huaijin's lecturing style.
I have followed Mr. Nan for more than twenty years and listened to countless lectures he has given. Sometimes it's a speech by a few hundred people, sometimes it's a lecture by dozens of people. Mostly after dinner, several people gathered around the table to listen to him tell a classic. Talk about it every night for a few months, and then change it after you've finished. In this kind of small-scale lecture, sometimes, Teacher Nan will let one or two students speak first, or everyone will discuss it together, and finally he will explain the key points and doubts in the book in a targeted manner. Teacher Nan never gave a lecture, and when he was in class, he took a book to be taught, and our students would also prepare one. Teacher Nan explained word by word, some paragraphs and sentences, different interpretations of ancient and modern scholars, debated endlessly, Teacher Nan will also point out, attracting everyone's attention. But he will have his own interpretation, and the speech is never ambiguous. He often said something like this: "At least that's how I see it today, maybe tomorrow I find myself wrong and change it." "Teacher Nan's Mandarin is not very standard, with the Zhejiang accent of our hometown, but in addition to individual words, it is generally easier to understand. After explaining the original text, Teacher Nan played a role, ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, the world is south and the north, the world is sophisticated, and the truth mentioned in the instruction manual is taken at hand. Sometimes, I will take the things of our classmates here as an example, which often causes laughter in the hall. Although it is a laugh and angry scolding, the sea and the sky are wide, but Teacher Nan's lectures are by no means casual nonsense, but are very organized and logical. In fact, he was well prepared before each class. The first night, I found the reference materials, and the next morning I asked the secretary to copy them out and send them to everyone during class.
When Teacher Nan lectured, the cited classics, whether it was the Thirteen Classics or the Great Tibetan Classics, the allusions mentioned and the poems inserted were all blurted out. His amazing memories are exercised from childhood recitation. He often said in conversation: Since he was five or six years old, he has been shaking his head and shaking his head all day under the threat of the private school teacher's "ring ruler", and memorizing the Four Books and Five Classics by rote. The books that the teacher asked him to memorize, he memorized them, he did not understand the meaning of the books at that time, and when he grew up, after the tempering of life, the truth in the book was naturally understood. The books he memorized at that time made him infinitely useful throughout his life, so he later advocated children to read ancient classics. Teacher Nan often said to us, "You are reading?" How many books have you read? I've said it a hundred times and you can't remember it. "He knew we couldn't endorse it, so he asked us to read it. Before his death, he asked me to read the Lengyan Sutra a hundred times, and it was read in the method of "fools and fools", that is, not to rush to understand the meaning, "read it a hundred times, and its righteousness will be self-evident." If you want to sum up the style and characteristics of Nan Huaijin's lectures, I think it can be summarized in twelve words: in-depth and simple, extensive and extensive, through the ancient and modern.
First of all, it is simple and simple, Teacher Nan likes to make the esoteric truth clear and understandable, the attitude is approachable, and the language is witty and humorous. I think anyone who has read Nan Huaijin's writings will have this impression. This is also the reason for the popularity of his book. For example, in the past, the I Ching always gave people a mysterious and mysterious feeling of unfathomable profundity. Teacher Nan's two easy-to-learn works are uniquely brilliant and understandable, and the profound yili can be understood by everyone. Through his explanation, the reader will find that the I Ching is actually a very simple science. Of course. There are also many experts and scholars who do not agree with Nan Huaijin's learning. In their view, it is necessary to explain a simple concept so that everyone cannot understand it, and it is mysterious in order to appear to be very knowledgeable. They often give the impression of being either sour, incorruptible, or full of portal views. Nan Huaijin did not pay any attention to this at all, just as someone said: "He opened up the temples and rivers and lakes, so that the ordinary people have a sense of intimacy with traditional culture, and provided the public with a possibility of getting started." Because of this, "Nan Huaijin has done what traditional Chinese readers and college readers are unwilling to do, disdain to do, and today it seems that they are not capable of doing things." "He passed on traditional culture to modern readers in a language that is simple and simple and in a relatively popular way," thus changing the situation in which traditional classical learning had long been placed only on the pulpit and in academies, and had not been promoted to the masses, so that the traditional doctrines that were shelved on the shelf were expressed in plain and ordinary language, and the interesting, popular, and secularized teachings of Confucianism, Buddhism, And Taoism and traditional doctrines were completed."
Secondly, Teacher Nan's teaching style is to recruit and quote. Some people say that Nan Huaijin's lectures "not only melted his own legendary life experience, but more importantly, he took the historical palm, the style and anecdotes, the poetry and literary style, the philosophical quotes, and the ability to be very funny and humorous, all of which became the annotations of the scriptures." It seems to be scattered and homeless, but in fact, it is at ease and easy to retract. In the sigh of the great opening and closing, swinging qi and intestines, tragic heaven and compassion, and thousands of years of sighing, the understanding and epiphany of the classic sentences have been completed, and the afterglow is lingering and circling the beam for three days, which is endlessly evocative. Some people also said, "Nan Huaijin mobilized his profound learning and unique views on reading, practicing, reading the world, thinking, and teaching people in his life in his explanations, and traveled through the subset of the history of the scriptures, soliciting buddhist, Taoist, and even Western religious academic views, regardless of whether he was born into the world, judging the essence of righteousness, saying the opposite, and even prompting the will to enter and leave the Zen Path, and using popular discourse, in-depth and simple, to open the portal of wisdom for the reader." "These statements are all good and very true! Thinking that after personal experience, I felt that there were too many things in his head, and it was really easy to come by and export. In almost every kind of writing, Nan Huaijin, with his profound knowledge, includes the essence of the hundred schools of thought of the sons, integrates ancient and modern Chinese and foreign theories in one furnace, and can touch the bypass and solve the problems that have deterred the famous Confucians of the past. For example, the seven levels of cultivation mentioned in the "University" of "knowing, stopping, settling, quiet, peaceful, worrying, and obtaining" are the characteristics of the traditional Chinese culture in the pre-Qin period, and are also the cultivation skills of the Confucian heart. Although these "seven certificates" have a great impact on future generations, the "University" does not specify how to do it. Theoreticians since the Song and Ming dynasties have been limited to the view of the portal, and there is no way to explain it clearly. In the "Whispers of Guben University", Teacher Nan borrowed the two schools of Buddhism and Taoism to illustrate the "Seven Proofs" Kung Fu, thus surpassing the views of his predecessors. I will analyze in detail in the third part of the course.
The third feature of Mr. Nan's lectures is that they run through ancient and modern times. Sima Qian's "changes through ancient and modern times, into a family's words" can be said to be the biggest feature of Nan Huaijin's lectures. In his view, the "Four Books" and "Five Classics" have values that transcend time and space, but to understand these classics, they must not be immortalized, but must be combined with the changes of the times. His writings have filled the gap between ancient and modern cultures and become a bridge for contemporary Chinese to understand traditional culture. In "Analects of Language", Teacher Nan not only connects with today's people and current events to help readers understand the ideas of classic authors, but also points out the route and direction that his nation and country should take in the future in accordance with the cultural trend of the modern world. He said: "The world's human cultural thought is in a state of paralysis, emptiness and poverty. To speak of the good point is that material civilization is developing; to talk about the bad point is that the material desire is expanding, blinding the wisdom of mankind. Therefore, for the revival of our own culture, we must do the work of integrating China and the West from the beginning to the future, which is an urgent and important mission. Those who work in culture must know their sacred and arduous responsibility. Who gives the responsibility? It is only by oneself that we must pick up the heavy responsibility of carrying forward the past and opening up the future, and only then can we engage in thinking. If we look at the actual environment, people who engage in thinking often spend their lives in poverty and obscurity. But every historical evolution is influenced by the thoughts of this lifelong man. After his own death, he led the world of humanity. In terms of his real life, what is the use of his poor life of thinking and culture? But the value of his spiritual life is so great and long-term! It depends on the individual's understanding and the choice of what path to take. "Teacher Nan takes it as his duty to carry forward traditional Chinese culture.
Okay, that's all there is to it.
In the next class, I will share with you the questions that Ms. Nan Huaijin is often asked by many people, that is:
What are we reading and learning for?