Schopenhauer said: "When we read, it is others who take our place in our thoughts, and we merely repeat the process of his thought activity, just as when a child is enlightened to learn to write, he draws a gourd with a pen according to the strokes written by the teacher with a pencil." A large part of our intellectual activity is dispensed with when reading. Therefore, when we take a book to read without thinking for a while, we feel very relaxed, but when we read a book, our mind actually becomes a playground for other people's thoughts. Therefore, the more people who read books, or who are immersed in reading all day, although they can use it to recuperate their spirits, their thinking ability will gradually be lost, just as the walking ability of people who often ride horses must be poor, and the reason is the same. ”
Lu Xun wrote in an article criticizing the argument of not reading books: "Reading dead books will become nerds, and even become a book cook, some people have long opposed it, time is endless, and the anti-reading trend of thought is becoming more and more thorough, so some people come to oppose reading any kind of book." He is based on Schopenhauer's old saying that if you read someone else's work, you are just running a horse for the author in your own mind. This is indeed a slap in the face for people who read dead books, but in order not to explore, it is better to dance, or to be a hot-tempered, blind genius, but it is also a golden word worth introducing. But understand: the genius who clings to this golden saying is in his head being swept away by Schopenhauer. ”
Parents discussed online whether to study Chinese studies, and one parent strongly criticized Confucianism, saying bluntly: "Mr. Lu Xun has long said: eat people." Instead of using the ills of Sinology to argue one's own point of view, but to argue directly with Lu Xun's point of view, this is also the head being run away by Lu Xun.
In fact, the ills of reading that Schopenhauer talked about were discussed by Zhu Xi, who had already discussed it more than seven hundred years earlier, and Zhu Xi believed that reading "to be extensive and not to seek refinement" was taboo, "Reading too much, such as a person who is sick in bed, and the doctors are mixed up, and a hundred medicines are handed over, and there is absolutely no reason to see results." The solution he proposed is "look into the text, do not adapt to the sound, I see the prescription is credible." You must dive in and play to have a place to see. Otherwise, people say that sand can cook, and I also say that sand can cook, how can it be eaten? ”
Reading books must not only delve deeply and play repeatedly, but also dare to question, and you can't believe what is said in the book. The purpose of reading is to think, and if reading cannot be exchanged for thinking, it is really a lively pastime, or the head becomes a beautiful container full of all kinds of knowledge. As Locke said, "Reading is only the material that provides the mind with knowledge; thinking makes what we read our own." ”
Only by thinking, digesting, and converting the words in the book into your own things can you not become a nerd. Confucius said, "To learn without thinking is to be reckless, and to think without learning is to perish." "Just reading and not thinking, the head becomes someone else's racetrack, and just thinking without reading, the head is empty, and it is difficult for a woman to cook without rice."
One of my classmates has loved to read since he was a child, and when he was older, he still didn't give up books, and some people called him a book idiot in the impression of his friends. Since he was doing the work of writing materials in the organs, I advised him: "Since you write all day, why don't you write something of your own?" He said, "But there's nothing to write about." "Do you have no feelings when you read those books?" "I don't have any feelings." This should belong to Confucius's saying that learning without thinking is reckless.
Li Ao said: "I think one of the most important ways for us to be unlearned by others is to cultivate the ability to read, read and seek knowledge, pursue the truth, and turn our minds into kings that are not bad and golden guns, so as to reduce the chances of others to deceive us." Otherwise, those who have been deceived by others all day long, from the ancients to the present, from Chinese to foreigners, have come to deceive us and can deceive us. ”
Zhu Xi said: "The disease of man only knows that the words of others are suspicious, but he does not know that his own words are suspicious. Those who try to criticize others are difficult to criticize themselves, and they see gains and losses for themselves. ”
What should we do with books, and who should we listen to?