My high school classmate L worked for a foreign company. From November to March, it is the business off-season. Their company has an enlightened default rule: without affecting normal work, employees are allowed to go to work to "touch the fish" and read books. Years later, L finished reading foreign masterpieces such as "Pride and Prejudice" and "Gone with the Wind" and asked me if I had any book recommendations. I thought about it and recommended "Dream of the Red Chamber".
This, of course, carries a little selfishness of the Chinese people. In the current Internet buzzword, such a good "Dream of the Red Chamber", I do not allow you not to have seen it.
L was embarrassed to say that as a Chinese, I also knew that I should watch "Dream of the Red Chamber", but I heard that this book is difficult to read, and I have not dared to try it.
It's a familiar word. On the Internet, "Dream of the Red Chamber" has been ranked first in the "book that cannot be read alive and dead" for many years, and it is a well-known "hot knowledge" for everyone. Many netizens have come forward to prove how boring and painful the reading process is. Some time ago, Li Mingjun, a researcher of ancient literature, said that young people can't read "Dream of the Red Chamber", which is related to the characteristics of world love novels, and its "description of the daily life of the family is easy to become trivial and bland." However, Li Mingjun still firmly believes that "young people must see the Dream of the Red Chamber" because "if they do not understand Chinese culture, they cannot read this novel thoroughly; if they understand this novel, they will also understand Chinese culture." ”
"Dream of the Red Chamber", which cannot be read but must be read, is like a metaphor, and the question behind it is: Why should we read Chinese masterpieces?
Interestingly, this in turn reflects the experience of many people reading best-selling novels: easy to read, quickly finished, the story is also wonderful, that is, after reading it feels "light and fluttering", can not remember anything.
Classic masterpieces, probably specializing in this kind of reading "loss disease". Its path to realization is: painful reading + hard to get + great satisfaction.
In fact, truly valuable reading is never simple, easy, and enjoyable, it is bound to be accompanied by hard mental work, and even a conflict process of "fighting" with previous knowledge structures and life experiences to reshape oneself, and then experience the joy of harvest. This is the eternal meaning of the famous book - only those who condense human experience, insight and wisdom can transcend time and space, enlighten and guide mankind; it is also one of the cornerstone philosophies of life - if you want to truly appreciate the "smell" of plum blossoms, you must experience a "cold to the bone". Reading, no shortcuts and ingenuity.
Of course, you also understand and read famous works from the perspective of feelings and utilitarianism. Goethe said, "To read a good book is to talk to a man of high moral character." Famous books are the "good books" that are most powerfully guaranteed; for example, many people have drawn strength and wisdom from reading celebrity biographies and inspired themselves to walk through the troughs of life. In small bits, I learned a sentence pattern, a point of view, and a writing style from the famous works, which are used to "amaze everyone" in work and life. No matter what the original intention, from personal growth to the progress of social civilization, reading famous works will not disappoint.
Reading famous works, of course, should be included at home and abroad, because human knowledge, experience, thoughts and feelings know no borders. The reason why we read Chinese masterpieces alone is that, first, we have more advantages in accepting Chinese classics written in our mother tongue than foreign masterpieces; second, it is closer to our history, culture, and society, and it is more necessary and valuable to read first; starting from Chinese masterpieces and then contacting foreign classics, we may have a deeper understanding of nationality and universality.
In recent years, domestic goods, national dramas, and national tides have been on the Internet and among young people, and they have been out of the circle from time to time. This return to traditional culture is also reflected in the enthusiasm for Chinese masterpieces. Whether it is on the subway commuting to work or in the circle of friends of parents, you can always see adults and children reading Chinese masterpieces. A relative of my programmers at a well-known Internet factory, in the list of books for children, the four classical masterpieces are at the forefront.
The Internet era has brought about information bombardment, exacerbating the fragmentation of reading and fast food, but it has also made the dissemination of cultural knowledge extremely fast with a broad field of vision; and with the screening rules of the big waves, let fast food accelerate its slide and let the classics shine for a long time.
It is worth paying attention to how to use conceptual innovation and technological progress to reduce the threshold of reading. For example, a considerable number of Chinese masterpieces are written in Chinese and Chinese, which will cause certain reading disabilities for children and non-liberal arts professionals. Especially for children, in the enlightenment stage, whether to insist on reading the original text, or can accept a certain amount of children's adaptation of content; in the school stage, how to use the current teaching and assessment mechanism to improve students' interest in learning... These are long-standing but consistently lacking in the existence of better solutions.
If movies have extended a person's life threefold, then reading classic masterpieces can make life rich, thick and wonderful three times. You might as well start by reading the great treasure of Chinese classics, starting now.
Text: Wang Can
Image: Network
Column moderator: Zhang Yongqun
Editor-in-charge: Zhang Yongqun
Editors: Zhu Xiaofan, Chang Ying, Sun Xiaoting