In the pre-Qin feudal period, reading was not an opportunity available to every family. At that time, the society had a clear hierarchy: the Son of Heaven, the princes, the doctors, and the scholars, and only those of these ranks had the conditions and opportunities to read and study. The lowest commoners are poor and have almost no literacy opportunities, let alone talk about reading, but they are the majority of society.
Even in the totalitarian society opened by the Qin Dynasty, although there were more people reading, the illiteracy rate was still very high, as high as 90 percent during the Qing Dynasty, and the Great Song Dynasty, which had a low illiteracy rate, was a staggering 85 percent. So in ancient times, I was very lucky to be able to read.
In the Han Dynasty, there was a man named Dong Yu, who originally lived in Guanzhong and had certain conditions in his family, and learned to read and read since he was a child. During the reign of Emperor Xingping of Han Xian, because Li Wei and others were in turmoil in Guanzhong, he and his brother had to turn to a friend. Dong Yu and his brother basically make a living by collecting wild rice and firewood. Every time he went to collect firewood, Dong Yu always carried a book with him, and whenever he had free time, he took it out to read. Since then, he has developed the habit of reading and studying all his time. Later, he became a generation of great Confucians.
Dong Yu once summarized the time he used to study into three categories, called "three yu". It is recorded in the "Wei Liu Confucian Biography Dong Yu", and the original text is excerpted as follows:
People who follow scholars refuse to teach, and Yun: "You must first read it a hundred times." Words: "Read a book a hundred times, and its righteousness is self-evident." From the scholar cloud: "There is no day of bitter thirst." Yu Yan: "When 'three more'." Or ask the meaning of "three more". Saying: "The winter is not the year, the night is the day, and the rainy is also the time." ”
The last sentence above is said in modern Chinese: "Winter is the leisure time of the year, the night is the leisure time of the day, and the rainy days are the leisure time of the changing seasons." ”
Of the above three times, the first is the longest time available for reading, which is also a fixed period of time in the year. In the north, almost four or five months of the year, or even half of the year, are winter, and it is impossible to work outside during the day. Therefore, you can read books not only at night, but also during the day.
The second time is shorter and is also a continuous and fixed time of the year. But to use this kind of time needs to be conditional, that is, if the daytime work is not very tired and hard, you can make full use of the night time to read and study; But if you are very tired, I am afraid that you will not be able to read at night. Especially the spring planting and autumn harvest seasons will be very busy and tiring, and sometimes it is necessary to continue high-intensity work, I am afraid that after the work, I will not be able to study, and sometimes I will fall asleep as soon as I get home, and I don't even have the strength to wash.
The third type of time is shortest and is also irregular and discontinuous. Ancient people could not predict when it would rain with as much accuracy as they do today. In the rainy season in the south, there are more rainy days, which can basically be judged from experience. However, the north is more arid, and it is more difficult to predict the rainy page, but the dry weather without rain can be determined empirically.
The above are the three types of reading time that Dong Yu uses. Dong Yu learned by making full use of and grasping these "fragmented" periods of time, and persisted in this habit for a long time, and later achieved great achievements.
So why do we say that Dong Yu was the first person in ancient times to read "fragmented"? Now let's analyze and try to give some reasons.
First of all, Dong Yu is a person who combines all available short time (or free time) with reading and studying. He is both the initiator and practitioner of the idea of this combination. Although using fragmented time and doing something meaningful may have existed long before Dong Yu.
Secondly, Dong Yu was the first person to systematically put forward and summarize the idea of fragmented time to learn. He divided fragmented time into three categories, which we mentioned earlier, which made this kind of time comparison system for learning presented to people, which had not been seen before him.
Third, Dong Yu is not only the implementer of this ideology, but also the disseminator and educator of this idea. He not only practiced according to his own theories, but also extended this philosophy and practice, educating and guiding others.
Finally, in this way, Dong Yu also made no small achievements. Dong Yu annotated Lao Tzu; He is also quite insightful about "Spring and Autumn Zuo Biography"; He also wrote the book "Zhu Mo is Different".
To sum up, Dong Yu is the first person to combine these four points, in one sentence, that is: Dong Yu is the first person to read fragmented in ancient China. Or rather, he was the first person to read books in the "fragmented" era of the "pre-fragmented" era!
Readers can see that we did not come to this conclusion through the study of Chinese and Western historiography, but through the above analysis and interpretation to reach this conclusion.
In ancient times, these "three surpluses" were actually the time left by heaven for people, and in these times, since people with conditions did not work, then they should not waste this time, and they could do something else, including reading and studying.
And as far as the Internet, especially the mobile Internet, is today's popularity, can we take the initiative to grasp these fragmented times? It can be said that we are already living in a fragmented era, and fragmented survival is reflected in many aspects: fragmented space, fragmented time, fragmented information and knowledge, fragmented reading, fragmented consumption, fragmented work, and so on.
Today, we can see the so-called "low-headed people" at any time. This statement has a clearly derogatory connotation, but we believe that looking down is not necessarily playing games, watching short videos, or killing time. Looking down at your phone is always getting some information, right? It always makes sense, right?
In the past, it was beneficial to open the book, but now it is "beneficial to boot"!
We also believe that we can read, see, and listen to whether we are in transportation, in our leisure time, or in other non-important work. This is more convenient and easier than ever for us to access information. There are countless electronic books in mobile phones, which greatly facilitates our access. People can read anytime, anywhere, pick up their mobile phones to "see" whenever they have free time, read text, watch videos, listen to voice, and so on.
Perhaps influenced by postmodernist ideas, we use fragmented ideas to refer to the era in which we were born; Or perhaps influenced by the reality of the Internet, people use the fragmented characteristics of fragmented time to call this era.
Fragmentation changes the "grand narrative" way we used to see and understand the world, but uses a specific, short, nuanced, and nuanced way of seeing and reconstructing our world, at least we have two ways to see the world, and in this regard, it is a kind of progress.
Finally, we would also like to mention that fragmentation can bring many benefits and negative problems. If nothing else, long-term fragmented survival will bring people a certain degree of anxiety. These negative impacts require our attention and further study.