In recent years, books in Chinese mainland have really prospered. To borrow the words of a friend of mine, there are almost everything from "heavenly kings, black guns and red blood" to "big breasts and fat buttocks" on the booksstand. The place of reading in the daily life or cultural consumption of contemporary Chinese seems to be becoming more and more important.
This is certainly a good thing. But there are also some hidden problems in between. In general, among most people, there are two dominant ways of reading, one is the way of reading for exams, and the other is casual reading in the style of casual fast food. The latter is not only dominating the reading activities of adults who are no longer under the pressure of taking exams, but even for college students who are still in school, because the pressure of taking exams has been greatly reduced compared with the middle school stage, there are definitely not a few people who have plunged into a state of leisure reading.
For example, if you ask a history student to name one or two books that impress them the most, nine out of ten of them will cite "The Fifteenth Year of Wanli" as their answer. If you ask what is good about the book, they will often reply that it is very different from most historical treatises they have read. But if you ask them to talk specifically about this "very different", or ask them to answer the following question, that is, what is the book trying to tell the reader about the actions of famous historical figures such as Emperor Chongzhen, Shen Shixing, Zhang Juzheng, Hai Rui, Qi Jiguang, Li Zhen, etc., deliberately centering on the "insignificant" year of 1587 (which the author calls the year of non-significant). At this point, most of their answers will turn into a bunch of vague words that don't make the point. It may not be too much to say that reading only leaves a very vague impression in their minds.
In order to effectively resist the "impressionism" and "obscurity" in reading and comprehension, I feel that there is a need to promote a kind of focused reading that is both pleasing to the eye and highly dynamic in reading activities. It is very different from the test-taking reading method, but it can completely promote the improvement of test-taking ability. But on the other hand, it can also help us overcome the various negative effects that may arise from test-oriented reading, such as passive learning brought about by indoctrination education, excellent grades but gradually losing interest in learning, rigid coping patterns, focusing only on expression skills and lacking in depth of thinking, and so on. This is a more reliable way to read books that people should stick to for longer. From this point of view, it is worth going back and looking at how the ancients read books. It is no longer possible, nor is it necessary, for people today to completely restore the ancient method of reading. However, the reading experience of the ancients is still very instructive for how to get as close to the text as possible in reading and dig out as much inner meaning as possible from the text. That is why I am talking about this topic today.
I would like to talk about the way the ancients read books from six aspects. They are: reciting, recording, proofreading, doubting, savoring, "enlarging one's heart" and "making oneself satisfied". They are set out below.
The original meaning of the word "recitation" is to recite it aloud. The ability of the ancients to recite seems to surprise us today. Here are a few examples that have been copied from your hands.
Huang Tingjian, a famous writer and calligrapher of the Song Dynasty, was already able to recite the Five Classics by the age of five. One day he asked his teacher, "I have always called the Six Classics, why do you only read five kinds of books?" and his teacher replied, "The Spring and Autumn Period is not enough to read." This was a very popular view among people at the time, and it was most typically reflected in Wang Anshi's comment that "Spring and Autumn" was called "a broken and rotten dynasty newspaper". But Huang Tingjian said: "What is it? It is said that he "recited it in ten days, without a word or a word" (Wang Wei's "Daoshan Qinghua").
Another story is about Su Dongpo. He has been accused of attacking the government with poems and articles such as "Gratitude Sheets," and has been convicted of wrongful convictions. His opponent later admitted that during the interrogation, Su Shi was able to "answer questions as soon as he asked, without a single word" (Wang Gong, Jiashen Miscellaneous Records), of the texts and poems written twenty or thirty years ago, as well as the quotations from the classics and the commentaries on them. In ancient history, there are often descriptions of someone who "recites a thousand words at a glance, and recites them without leaving a single word", "reciting them at a glance, without missing a single word", and "lifting a book and passing it on in a continuous volume, leaving not a single word" and so on. There are also some people who are said to have read the Book of Han only two or three times before they can familiarize themselves with the whole book and quote it casually. Although this was admirable at the time, it was far from a "special function". Of course, "word for word" Yunyun may be a bit exaggerated. Su Shi once quoted the words of Confucius's disciples as the words of the teacher. One of the reasons why the words quoted in ancient books are often slightly different from the original text is that the author is accustomed to quoting the classics from his own memory without checking the original text.
I would also like to tell an anecdote that reflects the "strong memory" of the ancients, and there was a Xiucai surnamed Ge in Jiangyin in the Song Dynasty. On one occasion, he went to see the magistrate. In the waiting hall, he met another "image Xuanqiu" scholar who was already waiting there. This Ge Jun greeted him very respectfully. Seeing that Ge Jun was dressed poorly, the other party looked down on him a little, and looked like he was ignoring him. Ge Jun was very dissatisfied. After sitting for a while, he asked, "You came to see the magistrate, do you have a 'letter of title'?" This refers to the representative works that ancient scholars presented to the elders and seniors when they met in order to seek the appreciation of the latter, which is also called "Xingjuan". Naturally, the man did not forget to take it with him. Ge Jun asked him to take a look. This person has always been conceited, so he proudly showed his scroll to Ge Jun. Ge Jun took it and "read it quickly", saying "great", and returned it immediately. After a while, the two met with the magistrate. Seeing that the conversation was about to end, Ge Jun suddenly said: "These articles (self-effacing words) of mine have been taken by this old man as his own. I wrote all the chapters he presented. I can recite them on the spot as proof. Then he recited it aloud, and it was "not a word." Everyone here believed it and blamed the real author. "His people were taken by surprise and couldn't explain themselves, but they retreated in a hurry. He was ashamed to return and died of illness. ”
But the story isn't over yet. This Ge Xiucai's home is adjacent to a shop that deals in the dyeing industry. A fire broke out one night, and the entire store was burned, along with the ledger that recorded the varieties and quantities of dyed cloth delivered by customers. The customers took advantage of the fact that the shopkeeper did not have the credentials, and they all doubled their demands for compensation. The shopkeeper was in a hurry. His son suddenly thought that the day before the fire, Ge Xiucai happened to pass by the store and had flipped through the account book on the counter. So the shopkeeper prepared wine and food and went to discuss with Ge Jun. "After Ge finished drinking, he ordered to take a pen and paper, and dyed a number of things for someone on a certain day of a certain month, where there were hundreds, and the sun and moon, surname, name, and ruler were written, and there was no difference. The shopkeeper took it, "call the owner, read it to show it, and they all kowtow and bow down" ("Liangxi Manzhi").
The rumors about Ge Xiucai may not be entirely true. A later Yuanren note also mentions that in order to test someone's memory, he was asked to recite the business book of the dyeing shop. It seems more like a cliché used to describe someone who has a great memory. However, it is certainly true that people at that time were countless times better at memorizing than modern people. Before the popularization of printing, let alone before paper replaced bamboo and silk as the most basic writing material (and the full realization of this replacement was not until the two Jin Dynasty), that is, when people had only a few rare and rare opportunities in their lives to access the classics, the potential ability of people to memorize texts was maximized. This ability is not only particularly prominent in a small number of people, but it is also a basic skill that must be mastered by a large number of readers.
As long as we recall the so-called "30 old Ming scriptures and 50 young jinshi" of the Tang people and the so-called "burning incense and ceremonial jinshi, waiting for the scriptures with disgust", the truth in this can be regarded as the hardest evidence. The importance given to the two main subjects of the imperial examination is very different. The admission criterion of Jinshi is the talent of literary creation, so Jinshi has become the main competitive subject to show the talent of reading. There are many people who take the exam, it is difficult to admit, and the successful candidates are more respected by the society. The Ming Jing scientific examination is memorization, which can be described as "hand-copied Yishu, oral recitation and interpretation, and familiar notes", so it was regarded by the people at that time as a way to enter the body of "giving up the essence and simplifying, and going to the difficult and easy". It can be seen that memorization has become a common skill of ancient scholars. Therefore, it can be asserted that the ability of the ancients to memorize was generally superior to that of today's people.
The potential of memorization is certainly related to the difficulty of finding classics. But in the ancient Chinese reading tradition, memorization went far beyond the meaning of a method or means of mechanically preserving the texts of a classic. Zhu Xi said: "Reading must be recited, and you will be proficient", which is what it means. Even with a written text in hand, the principle of "recitation" is emphasized.
Here, we also take Su Dongpo as an example. One night, in the "Snow Hall" mentioned in "Red Cliff Fu", he recited "A Fang Gong Fu" again and again. Every time I finished reading it, I sighed repeatedly, and I refused to stop until late at night. This made it difficult for the two Shaanxi veterans who were waiting outside. The master didn't go to bed, and of course they had to wait. One of them sighed and said, "I know what good it is for him!" The night is so cold that he refuses to sleep, and he cries out for grievances. Another said, "There are two good sentences." The one who spoke first was furious, and said, "How much do you care?" and replied, "I love him and say, 'The people of the world dare not speak, but dare to be angry.'" It turned out that he took Du Mu's two sentences as a sustenance to vent his grievances ("Daoshan Qinghua").
Therefore, the purpose of recitation is not primarily to simply reproduce a text, but to fully interpret it to the extent of "sophistication". It is not a way to store books, but a way to read them.
"Record" means copying a book. Books are rare, and texts are preserved by copying books, which is similar to memorization. Song Lian, the "first person to be the founder of the Ming Dynasty", wrote a very famous article entitled "Sending Dongyang Horses to Life". In that article, he recalled his childhood experience: "Yu was a lover of books when he was young. The family is poor, and there is no way to read it. Every pretense is borrowed in the house of the library. Hand self-written, counting the days to return. The sky is cold, the inkstone is hard, the fingers cannot be bent and stretched, and the Buddha is sluggish. After recording, send it away. Don't dare to overstep the appointment. Because there are many people who leave books, they have to read all the books. At that time, people had a saying of "three idiots," one of which was "borrowing books and calling people idiots." It means that there are too many things to borrow books and not pay them back, so books cannot be easily lent to others. Because of this, Song Lian did not dare to break the contract, otherwise it would be difficult to borrow again.
Another example is Wang Siyuan, a man from the late Jin Dynasty and the early Yuan Dynasty. This person "hears a strange book, but fears it." ...... Ambition is strong, the vision is handwritten, and the day is 10,000 words. In less than ten years, thousands of volumes have been obtained" ("Preface to the Catalogue of Wang's Collection", "Autumn Stream Collection").
Like memorization, recording a book is not only a method of preserving texts, but also a method of reading books in itself. Therefore, the ancients had a saying that "one record is better than a number", which means that the effect of copying it once is far better than reading it several times from beginning to end. Sima Guang has a famous "reading hall" in the "Duyuan Garden" in Luoyang, which has a collection of 10,000 books. But he still often copied books by hand. In addition to transcribing the entire text, excerpts and notes are also a way to deepen the understanding of the text through "recording". The so-called "don't use pen and ink and don't turn the book" is exactly what it means, which is also the meaning of "record".
"School" means proofreading. Before the use of printing, ancient books had gone through the stage of memorization and transcription, and the inevitable errors in the process of memorization or transcription caused the texts of the same book to become very different in the course of circulation. This situation continued to exist in large numbers even after the advent of printed books. The first is the original difference in the base on which the printed copy is based, and the second is that new errors may occur in the stereotyped printing process. Therefore, the ancients read a book, and before reciting and recording it, the first step was to proofread the text in order to maintain the accuracy of the text as much as possible.
There are two floors here that are not easy to do. First of all, changing the words according to the book, to do it well, is itself a thing that is easier said than done. School books are like sweeping leaves. The fallen leaves in the yard can never be cleaned up all at once. The same is true for school books. The errors and omissions in the book, even if there are repeated and detailed efforts, it is rare to catch them all. Secondly, it is difficult to make an accurate judgment and trade-off between the differences in the words and sentences of different texts. Therefore, Duan Yuci once said: "The difficulty of school books is not the difficulty of changing the words according to the book without false or leakage, but the difficulty of determining its right and wrong." Qian Daxin read the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty" volume 68 "The Biography of Guo Tai", and found that there were 74 characters at the end of the biography "words and sentences are incoherent", so he cited the "four doubts" such as calling the characters without following the avoidance style of the previous text, the narrative is repeated, the words of the book are not the titles, and the meaning of the words is repeated, and it is speculated that the 74-character book is not the original text in the "Book of the Later Han". After his opinion was published, a Fujian version of the Book of the Later Han Dynasty from the Jiajing period was discovered, which was reprinted and engraved according to a Song Dynasty manuscript at that time. Reviewing the "Biography of Guo Tai" in this publication, as Qian said, there are no 74 words. Only then did it conclude that the above-mentioned 74 characters originally belonged to the annotation of Li Xian, the prince of the Tang Dynasty, and were only incorporated into the text of the Book of the Later Han Dynasty after the Song Dynasty.
The ancients attached great importance to the basic skills of reciting, recording, and proofreading, but their reading was by no means limited to reciting, recording, and proofreading. Xie Liangzuo of the Song Dynasty initially thought that learning was just a matter of memorizing and erudition. When he saw Cheng Hao, he "wrote a history book without leaving a word", and thought that his performance was very good. Unexpectedly, Cheng Hao didn't appreciate it, and said to him: "Xian (the honorific title for the other party in the conversation) remembers a lot, which can be described as a plaything. When Xie Liangzuo heard such an evaluation, he was embarrassed and sweaty on the spot, and his face was flushed. But when he saw Cheng Hao reading, "he read it line by line, and he didn't learn a word (mistake)." He was very unconvinced at first, but then he finally came to his senses, and used his own understanding process as a "talk" to enlighten other future generations who "learned by remembering and hearing" ("Recent Reflections"). That is to say, reading a book must begin with reciting, recording, and proofreading, but it is still far from enough to "read it line by line without learning a word."
"Doubt" refers to a spirit of active inquiry. Xu Heng, a great educator of the Yuan Dynasty, liked students who were good at "doubting" the most. His biography says: "If you have any doubts, you will be happy to see them." Because of the saying, 'There is no doubt in the book, one can think that there is doubt, and if there is doubt, one can make it doubt.' There is a lot to learn. This meaning is not his own invention, and Zhu Xi, who preceded him, had already said something similar. Xu Heng was just frying Zhu Xi's cold rice.
The so-called "suspicion" certainly does not mean advocating doubting everything regardless of everything, or denying others in an unreasonable and nitpicking manner. There was a scholar named Mao Qiling in the Qing Dynasty, who did not like Su Dongpo in his life. Once, in the Beijing Division, someone asked him: You said that Su Shi's poems and writings were not good, so couldn't he also write "three or two peach blossoms outside the bamboo, the prophet of the plumbing duck in the spring river?" I can't imagine that this trick did not stump Mao Qiling. He immediately replied indignantly: "The goose is also a prophet, why only talk about ducks?" and all the friends present were laughing at him ("Juyilu"). "Doubt" does not refer to this kind of Moordgy-style strong argument. On the contrary, the highest state of Chinese academic tradition is "plainness", that is, the so-called "extreme lofty, and the opposite is plain". Follow-up questions should be pursued all the way to the plain place, rather than relying on alarmist and clever words to blind people for a while.
We all know the story of Tang Xuanzong and Yang Guifei. Bai Juyi's poem "Song of Long Hatred", two of which read: "On the seventh day of July, the Palace of Eternal Life, when no one whispered in the middle of the night. Some people say that the Hall of Eternal Life is a palace for worshipping the gods, and it is definitely not a place for "whispering", and it is reasonable to change it to the Flying Frost Palace. Yan Ruoxuan, a Qing Dynasty researcher, pointed out that the basis for this opinion came from the "Chronicles of Chang'an". According to the book, Tianbao changed the hot spring palace to Huaqing Palace in the sixth year, renamed the palace room dedicated to bathing as the Nine Dragon Palace, the sleeping palace as the Flying Frost Palace, and the palace of the gods was named the Hall of Eternal Life (according to the "Tang Hui Yao", the temple was previously called Jilingtai). In this way, the place where Emperor Tang Ming and Yang Guifei whispered in the middle of the night seemed to be in the Flying Frost Hall where they could sleep. So, is Bai Juyi wrong?
Yan then cites a note from Hu San Province in volume 907 of the Zizhi Tongjian, pointing out that the Tang Dynasty emperor's dormitory can also be commonly referred to as the Palace of Eternal Life. Luoyang, Chang'an, and Lishan all have halls of eternal life. Therefore, the Yan clan thought that the Hall of Eternal Life really had two meanings. One is the proper name, the Huaqing Palace is also the palace of the gods, and the other is the common name, and the dormitory in the Tang Palace is also. Bai Shi's so-called Hall of Eternal Life is the latter meaning of the name, so there may not be anything wrong.
In response to the above views, Chen Yinke put forward his different views. He said that Huaqing Pool is a hot spring. The trip to the Huaqing Palace of the Tang Emperor was actually the inheritance of the old custom of the nobles of the Northern Dynasty to use warm soup to cure diseases to get rid of the cold and dispel the wind, and this can only happen in the cold and windy season in winter and spring. In fact, a careful examination of the history books, it can be seen that the Tang Emperor stationed in the hot springs, indeed in the late winter and early spring, there is no case of visiting Xingli Mountain in the hot summer heat. Bai Juyi is not familiar with the regulations of the inner palace, and the literary description of "the whispering of the Palace of Eternal Life in the middle of the night" does not have to be regarded as a historical fact. The mistake of the critics is precisely that they take the white poems too seriously and treat them as documents that record historical facts. Huang Yongnian, an expert in classical Chinese philology and the history of the Sui and Tang dynasties, pointed out on the basis of the above statement that Bai's poem was not described because of "the lack of common sense, but because of its painstaking efforts". This "painstaking effort" is that the poet must combine the popular folk story of the Qixi Cow Girl, the Huaqing Palace, the most typical background of Xuanzong's banquet, and the blueprint of the story of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and Mrs. Li. In other words, the background of this literary work must be the Huaqing Palace in Lishan, and its center must be Qixi Festival. "Fish and bear's paws, you must have both, the reason why this story of 'the Palace of Eternal Life on July 7th' was born. ”
From the questioning of the white poem, to the negation of this question, and then to the negation of the question. After this repetition, the reader's understanding may be a small step forward from the past. The process of doubt is actually a thinking process of going from the covenant to the covenant and the anti-covenant. If you have doubts, you have to ask questions, and only then can you learn. In this way, the attitude of "doubt" promotes the deepening of our reading and the growth of our knowledge.
The so-called "taste" is a statement I summarized from the following words of the ancients: "Reading must be in a place where you can't bear to give up, in order to see the true taste" (Zhu Xi); "When I play with books and swim, the smell of books is still in my chest" (Huang Tingjian); "The taste of books after sleep is in the chest" (Lu You, see "Qianqiu Notes" citation).
Regarding reading books to read "see the real taste", here are a few interesting examples. In the middle of the 13th century, there was a scholar named Liu Deyuan in North China, who was "facing the school" with another scholar one night. In the middle of the night, he suddenly got up, shook his roommate awake, and said: "I suddenly have a different opinion on Zhuge Liang's remarks in the Han Dynasty. It's a pity that he was not born at the same time as him. Otherwise, you must point it out to him in person. ("Liu Deyuan's Tomb Table", "Autumn Stream Collection") This is probably the realm of Lu You's so-called "sleeping and reading in the chest". Otherwise, how could he get up from bed so excitedly in the middle of the night?
The other is the story of Sima Guang. When this old gentleman dismissed his official position and retired to Luoyang, he spent his days reading all day long. One morning, a student went to visit him. After meeting, the old gentleman excitedly announced to the students: "I watched "Three Kingdoms" last night and saw through it. So he asked the students to take out the "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms" and "Anthology of Literature" and review the records of Cao Cao's "Testament" of Emperor Wu of Wei on the spot. We know that since people want to leave a will when they die, they will definitely choose the most important thing to explain to future generations. Cao Cao's "Testament" contains hundreds of words, but there is not a single mention of how to deal with the relationship between Cao and the Eastern Han royal family after his death (or whether to use the Wei Dynasty as the Han Dynasty). He could not have been more detailed about how to distribute the spices stored at home (in China at that time, high-grade spices were mostly imported from foreign countries, and were considered a very valuable item), and he could not have been more detailed about such trivial matters as how many wives and concubines should rely on weaving and selling shoes to support themselves. The old gentleman said, "What is the meaning of the testament?" and his student replied: "Cao Gong was treacherous all his life, and when he was dying, he finally said a few words that were a little humane. Sima Guangda disagreed, he said: "This is a subtle meaning." ...... After the death, there is a greater than the Zen Dynasty's testament, earnest words, down to the incense and sale of shoes, family members and concubines, all of which are dealt with in detail, without a word and the matter of the Zen Dynasty. Its meaning is to say: The things of the Zen Dynasty are the work of the descendants, and I have not tried to teach them. It is really the name of Hanchen who is the posthumous descendant of the world. He was quite proud of Cao Cao's "slight meaning" that although he "had no heart for a long time", he was still afraid of the "name" and still wanted to preserve his identity as a "Hanchen", and said: "The meaning of this testament has been unknown to anyone for thousands of years. Last night, I occasionally peeked through it. Then, he solemnly admonished his students: "It is not enough to speak unless you are a person of insight." This guest, who was regarded as a "man of insight" by the teacher, was really flattered, and hurriedly complimented the teacher in turn and said: "If it is not Wen Gongzhi, it can't be here." ("Yuancheng Quotations Explanation") touted and praised, Sima Guang's torch-like gaze cannot but make us admire. This kind of vision is of course closely related to his "seeing the truth" method of calligraphy
Advocating that reading should be "suspicious" and "tasteful" does not mean that the text can be subjectively played at will. Unrestrained "suspicion" will turn into "suspicion and wandering ghosts"; unregulated "taste" will lead people to go mad. For this reason, it is particularly important to maintain a mental state of "big heart" and "self-satisfaction" when studying.
"Big heart" and "self-satisfaction" means that reading "should be careless, and you will share the real experience by yourself." There is no need to dwell on the similarities and differences of one or two words. There is no way of learning, just ask for it to rest assured" (Zhu Xi). Or as Cheng Yi said: "When reading a book, you should calm your heart, change your anger, and ignore your doubts, then the opinions of the sages will be ignored." (See "Autumn Stream Collection: Yutang Jiahua" citation)
Suspicion and taste should avoid excessive and deliberate artificial manipulation of ingredients, and pursue a natural process of understanding as much as possible. The key to the perfect realization of this process is to maintain a spiritual state of peace and ease (i.e., a comfortable and easy-to-be bearing). In other words, "we must be assured, lenient, and fair", or "we must be big and open-minded." The reason why "big heart" is necessary is because "if the heart is big, everything can be connected, and if the heart is small, everything is full" (see "Recent Reflections" citation). If the heart is big, you can see everything, and the understanding of all things in the world will be naturally achieved, which is called "excellent travel and goodness, so that you can be self-satisfied". Therefore, Song Ru believes that "learning is self-satisfying, but self-satisfaction." Those who have arrangements and arrangements are not self-satisfied" ("Recent Reflections"). The so-called "arrangement" here refers to purely subjective speculation, to relying excessively on various artificial techniques or means to make far-fetched and excessive interpretations of texts, and to using some absolute, subjective, and immutable yardstick to measure the human world and the natural world.
If I am allowed to deviate a little from this topic, then I would like to emphasize that being at ease, or "having a big heart", is not only an attitude towards reading, but also an attitude towards the world in a broader sense in Song Confucianism. The ancients said: "Scholars and doctors should not harbor injustices in the world." Pingju is indignant, gnashing his teeth, and he is honest. Once the matter happens, it will be like a river, and it will be too much to do. ("Yutang Jiahua", "Autumn Stream Collection") people with this mentality, there is a typical one in the Song Dynasty, that is, Wang Anshi. It can be said that this is the fundamental opposition between the Song Dynasty and many later Chinese politicians and Wang Anshi. Confucianism says that "if you regard the injustice of the world as something unfair, you should not harbor injustice", it means that "if you have resentment, you will not be able to do it", not that people should not have a basic stance or basic attitude of right and wrong, likes and dislikes. Confucianism pursues its own political and moral ideals, and its attitude is very persistent. But they oppose the use of drastic, subversive social mobilization to achieve their political claims. They have always been highly vigilant about the radical nature of the revolution. Of course, there are historical occasions when revolutions are hard to avoid. At this time, the Confucian position is a bit conservative. However, when the revolution is "like a river" and "overkill," the rationality of the Confucian stance is easier for people to recognize. This is, of course, another topic. Because of the reference to the passage in "University" "If you are angry, you can't be right", so I will say a few words by the way.
Another meaning of "expensive self-satisfaction" is to emphasize the perception and appreciation of the rich meaning of the text through direct contact with it, without having to go through some unnecessary intermediary links. In this regard, Zhang Xuecheng has a passage that has been explained very thoroughly. He said that the success of the article can only be realized by the readers themselves, and no one else can do it for them. "For if the food is sweet and bitter, and the clothes are light and warm, and the one who eats and the clothes receive it, and each knows it, but it is difficult to tell others. If you want to tell people the way of food and clothing, you should refer to the scorching and let it taste yourself, you can get the will, and refer to the fox raccoon dog and let it be free, you can get light and warm, then there is a way. It is unreasonable to spit out what you have tasted and feed others to give them sweetness, and to hug others and put them in your arms to give them warmth. ("General Principles of Literature and History").
Now I will break it down into two points and say a few words, which can be regarded as a simple conclusion.
The method of reading books of the ancients mentioned here is particularly instructive for us to engage in "intensive reading" today. Of course, no matter who you are, the variety and number of books that you can read intensively in a lifetime are always very limited. We can't, and in fact we don't have to, treat every book we need to read in an intensive way. A lot of books, just flip through the general pages. However, I think it is very necessary for anyone to choose a few or a dozen of the most important books to read intensively, according to the different needs of each person. Only with a minimum of intensive reading experience, your extensive reading, speed reading, or even "casual flipping" can achieve better results. From this point of view, without the experience of intensive reading, it is difficult to say that we have truly learned to read.
In the past 50 years, the study of Chinese history and culture in the world has undergone two major changes in terms of methodology. One occurred in the 1960s, when the concepts, theories, and thinking methods of social sciences penetrated into the field of research on Chinese history and culture, and the traditional Western "Sinology" was renamed "Chinese Studies". This change in the atmosphere took place twenty or thirty years after the full penetration of Western social sciences into the humanities. At a time when the late paradigm shift has made "China Studies" more popular, Western academics have begun to question whether the humanities should be fully integrated with or dominated by the social sciences. Therefore, since the 1970s, grand theories have tended to be revived in the field of Western humanities, and various social philosophical theories expounded by scholars such as Althusser, the Annals School, Derrida, Foucault, Gadamer, Habermas, Kuhn, Lévi-Strauss, and Rawls have received widespread attention. This trend also quickly affected the field of Chinese studies in the West after the 1980s. These two waves, namely the impact of social science in the 1960s and social philosophy in the 1980s, on the field of Chinese history and culture research were understood by the academic community in Chinese mainland, basically in the 1990s. In the face of such a dense and large amount of information, Chinese scholars deeply feel that the significance of theory to the study of Chinese history and culture has become extremely important. But an overestimation of this point is also likely to lead to misunderstandings on the other hand, to the point that awareness of the importance of mastering the original text becomes grossly inadequate. Among college students and graduate students, the neglect of the original text has become a common phenomenon. They tend to think that theory is the golden key, the door that opens the door to solving all problems. As for how to "squeeze" as much historical information as possible from the original text, they seem to be less concerned. However, the charm of historical and cultural research can only be found by deciphering a variety of original texts. Because of this, the ancient Chinese tradition of reading remains an important, rich and precious heritage for us today.
Finally, I would like to give you a not very long reading material entitled "Zhu Xi on Reading Calligraphy". This is a selection of dozens of quotations on how to read books from "Zhuzi's Language". At first glance, you may think that they are too easy to be very clever. But if you really put it into practice, you will know that, as Zhu Xi said, in fact, it is "extremely difficult to get to that easy place"!
Appendix: Zhu Xi on Calligraphy (Selected from "Zhu Zi's Language")
1. Books are expensive and familiar
Books are only expensive to read, and you will know how much you read. Now I think about it, and writing it on the bottom of the paper will not help, and I will not have it in the end, but it is more expensive than reading. I don't know how to do this, the natural heart and qi are combined, and the more comfortable it is, I remember it well. Even if you have read it and thought about it in your heart, it is better to read it. Reading and reading, the few people do not know the bottom, but they naturally know, and those who already know, the more they taste. If you don't read it, you don't have such a taste. Now I don't say that I can read the notes, and I only read the scriptures well, and I live and sit and lie down, and my heart is always here, so I naturally know. To taste and think, to read is to learn. The Master said, "If you learn without thinking, you will be reckless, and if you think without learning, you will die", and to learn is to read. After reading and thinking, thinking and reading, it is naturally intentional. If you read without thinking, you don't know what it means, and if you think without reading, even if you know, you will end up uneasy. It's like a Qiande who comes to guard the house, it's not your own family, and it doesn't belong to your own family. If you read it well and think it well, you will never forget it. I can't remember the text of an old bitter memory, but then I just read it. Those who remember it today have all read it. Lao Su only took the books of Mencius's Analects of Hanzi and the Sages, and sat and read them for seven or eight years, and later made many words so good. His qualifications are unattainable, but he must read it that way. It's just that when he reads, he only needs to write his words and make articles. If you move this heart and such qualifications to pay attention to righteousness and reason, there is no way to get it!
Anyone who reads a book must be familiar with it. If you are familiar with it, you will be proficient, and after you are proficient, you will see it. As if eating fruit, I bite it open, and before I see the taste, I eat it. If you have to chew it carefully, the taste will come out of it, and you will know whether it is sweet or bitter, sweet or pungent, and you will know the taste.
The gardener irrigates the garden, and the husband who is good at irrigating the garden, irrigating it with its vegetables and fruits, and the plants. If a little irrigation is sufficient, the mud and water will be harmonious, and the things will be moistened and grow naturally. Those who are not good at irrigation should be cured in a hurry, and a load of water should be carried to fill the garden with vegetables. People see that they govern the garden, and things have not been touched. The way of reading, the more exertion, the farther the achievement. It is difficult first and then obtained, and first things are obtained later, all of which are the same principles.
The method of reading must be to use labor to see. It takes a lot of work to first write a book, and then there is not a lot of work. At the beginning, the first book costs ten points, the latter one costs eight or nine cents, the latter costs six or seven cents, and the latter costs four or five cents.
The way to read a book is to be familiar with it first. It must be looking straight and looking back, left and right. If you see it, you can't say yes, and you have to play it repeatedly.
Scholars are greedy for work, and they see righteousness and reason. Reading must be detailed, sentence by sentence, word by word. If you use crude brine and don't think about it, there is nothing suspicious. It's not suspicious, it's not enough, I don't know if it's suspicious. It is probably different for the old and the young: young and young have more energy, and they must use no books and no reading, and all of them have their meanings. If you are late, you have to choose to work hard, read a book, and then you will feel that you will not have time to pay attention to it later; There is only one right and wrong in the world. Yes is yes, and no is no. Although I don't read it anymore, the natural truth is clear, and I don't forget it. For example, if you eat and drink calmly, the taste will be long, and if you chew and swallow a lot, you will not know the taste.
If you read a book, you will be able to read one thing, and if you don't read it well, you will read all the other words hastily. One piece is fine, and the other is easy to see.
When a scholar observes a book, he must first read the text, remember the annotations, and be proficient in recitation. In the note, the explanation of the meaning, things, and names, the invention of the scriptures, the interpenetration, one by one, one by one, as if you made your own bottom, in order to be able to play repeatedly, upward there is a penetration. If not, it is just a fictitious discussion, just like a career, not for one's own learning. I once saw someone say poetry and asked him about it, but before he knew all about his famous teachings, he said: "Joy is not lewd, sorrow is not sad." A certain reason said to him: "The public is talking about poetry now, only these eight characters, and the three words of 'thinking without evil', a total of eleven words, it is a Mao poem." The other 300 articles are all scum!" "Because I saw Wang Duanming in the memory of the year, he said: "Shen Yuan asked Hejing: 'Where is Yichuan Yichuan?' Yin Yun: "The body uses one source, and the microscopic is seamless. "That's the point. Later, he looked like Mr. Li, and Mr. said: "Yin said that it is good." However, it must be seen that the sixty-four hexagrams and the three hundred and eighty-four hexagrams have all been accounted for, so that he can say this. If a scholar had not paid attention to it and had said this to him, would he not have been mistaken!"Hearing something terrible! I realized that the day before yesterday was empty and useless, and since then I have read more and more details.
Books must be read by heart. The so-called book is just general. However, when you read it ten times, you will end up saying goodbye when you read it once, and when you read it a hundred times, it will be different from reading it ten times.
Wen Gong replied to a scholar's book, saying that it is the law of learning, citing Xunzi's four sentences: "Recite the number consistently, think about it to get through, deal with it for others, and remove its harm to sustain it." Xunzi said that. Those who "recite" the clouds think that the ancients recited books and memorized the number of times. The word "through" is familiar, such as "practice is like nature"; and the word "through" is also trained, and only when you are familiar with the recitation can you understand it. If you are not familiar with the recitation, you will not be able to think about it.
Recite it consistently. When the ancients read a book, they must have memorized the number of times, so they also penetrated.
Whoever reads a book, and goes straight from the right path. Although there are good looks on all sides, you might as well take a look, but it doesn't matter.
Second, the general view is not as good as one
Read less and experience repeatedly, and don't have to imagine what you get. There are only these three things, and there are always things to keep.
Taifan read the text: read less and read, one also, do not delve into the speech, but to experience repeatedly, two also, bury your head in the mind, do not ask for effect, three also. Scholars should abide by this.
Books should be read sparingly, and they should be extremely familiar. Children remember to read, and adults can't remember it, just for children's concentration. If you teach 100 words a day, it will only be 100 words, and if you teach 200 words, it will only be 200 words. Adults may look at hundreds of boards a day, and they are not specialized. If a person looks at a tenth of a lot, it is better to see a tenth of it today. Stick to the deadline and stick to the course.
Reading, small lessons, and great efforts. If you can read 200 words, you can only read 100 words, but you can work hard in 100 words, pay attention to the details, and read and teach well. In this way, those who do not remember will remember themselves, and those who do not know will also be able to remember. If there are too many general thoughts, they are just not beneficial to the ear. When reading a book, you can't look at the unread at the same time, but you should look at the already read at the same time.
Don't be greedy for reading, but be proficient. Today, I can see a board, and look at half a board, and look at the first half of the board with that energy, so that you can see it well. It is good to see what the ancients meant.
Don't be greedy for too much reading, and often make your own strength more than enough. Zheng Chunyun: "I want to read the books in a loop." He said: Don't do this, you must read a book thoroughly before you can read another book. If they go hand in hand, they will be trapped. If you shoot a bow, you have five buckets of strength, and with four buckets of bows, you can pull it full, and you can bully him with your own strength. Today, he doesn't want to read books with his own strength, and he is afraid that his own family will take care of him.
Today's people are so simple and simple, and there are more printed books. For example, the ancients all used bamboo slips, unless a large section of the strong foundation people made it. Therefore, Wu Hui of the Later Han Dynasty wanted to finish writing the Han book, and his son Wu You admonished: "If this book is completed, it will carry two cars." Xima used coix to slander, and Wang Yang was famous for his clothes, which is exactly what he said. "For example, Huang Ba received a book from Xiahou Sheng in prison, and then passed it on after the winter. The Gaigu people have no roots, unless they are familiar with the beginning and the end. As for the reciters, they also memorize them all, and then learn from the teacher. For example, Dongpo was the secretary of the Li family's mountain house, and books were still rare at that time. Chao tasted the Tao to get the public, the grain was passed on, and there was nothing to be done, and then a book was written. Today's people are tired of even writing, so they read simply.
Gu and Li Jizhong Tieyun: "If you don't judge the scriptures and history, who is the most familiar? It is better to be good at one than to be good at a hundred books. If you have spare strength, then and the books, you will dabble in the articles and get their essence. If you look at books with me, you will benefit from them everywhere, and if you use books to read books, you will be at a loss when you interpret the books. The gentleman was very pleased with it, thinking that it would be a supplement to the scholars.
Reading must be single-minded. Read this sentence and heed this sentence, read this chapter and heed this chapter. You must see this chapter thoroughly, then you can read other chapters, and you don't have to think about other chapters and sentences. It's just that you can look at it calmly, and you can't think too much about it, but it will damage your spirit. Senior Yun: "Reading should not be disrespectful. "Jing is specialized, and I don't leave this heart.
It is better to read and think about it than to read it in general.
Reading, only reading one booklet, only one paragraph a day, is the beginning of the family. If you look at this and look at the other, although you can pass it from the eyes once, you will not be familiar with it.
3. Be patient and careful
The words of the saint are like a thousand flowers, and they are good to see from afar. The true benefits of the end are obtained. It is necessary to take a closer look. The effort is only on the sub-scrutiny, and there is no other way.
The words of the saints are all opposite to each other, the leaves and leaves are equal, and somehow they are arranged neatly. Today's people are just coarse-hearted, and they don't study carefully. If you study it carefully, every word has fallen.
There are two kinds of diseases when reading words: there are first-class people with blunt bottoms, who have never seen it, and they can see it alive, but they can't see it when they are in a hurry, and they are definitely sick. There is also a first-class keen person, who is reluctant to be detailed, and it is easy to ignore it, so he must quit.
In order to learn to read, you must be patient and careful, and you must not be careless. If you say why you need to study, you have a shortcut, which is to mislead people into the pit. When you don't see the reason, it's like a number of searches wrapped in Lixu, and you can see it if you don't have a chance. It must be that today it has gone to a heavy weight and seen a heavy weight, and tomorrow it has gone again and seen another heavy weight. Remove the skin, you will see the flesh, remove the meat, see the bones, remove the bones, and see the marrow. so that carelessness cannot be magnificent.
When a person reads a book today, he sees that his heart is already behind, and when he sees this, he wants to give it up. Now, I just don't ask for my own understanding. It must be wandering and caring for love, if you don't want to give up, you can recognize it.
For example, if a reader looks at this house, if he sees this house outside, he will say that he has seen it, that is, he has no chance to know it. You have to go inside, and look at them one by one, there are a few shelves, a few windows. I watched it again, watched it again, and remembered it together, Fang is.
Fourth, concentrate on it
If a person does not concentrate on his homework and looks at the east and the west, then his mind has already been scattered, and how can he see the truth? He must look at the Analects and only look at the Analects, and if he looks at Mencius, he only looks at Mencius. When you read this chapter, you should not read the next chapter, and when you read this sentence, you should not read the next sentence, and if you do not understand this word, you must not read the next word. In this way, it can be single-minded and successful. If there is a difference in what is seen, there is no unity, and although the age of death is poor, there is no period of thoroughness. A certain old text just abides by this clumsy law, even today. Thinking about it, there is only this method, and there is no other way.
To read the text, you must read it in a large paragraph. Raise your spirits, build up your muscles and bones, don't be sleepy, if there is a sword behind! Hit its head and tail, hit its tail and then be the first, and the party is the beginning. Do not follow the booklet and forget it, or forget the text when you look at the booklet, and forget the note when you look at the text. This paragraph must be thorough, and then look at the back plate.
Now when a person reads a book, he has not yet seen this, but his heart is already behind, and when he sees this, he wants to give up. In this way, I just don't ask for my own understanding. If you don't want to go, you will recognize it.
To read the text, you need to get into it and roll it out. You have to be thorough in order to get out of it. If you only look at it briefly, I am afraid that you will not be able to get rid of it for a long time, and you will not be able to let go of this heart.
Mr. Xu Rong's father said: In order to learn, it is necessary to break the fence and do it painfully, the so-called "one cane and one mark, one slap and one palm blood". Make it clear and clear, don't be ambiguous.
It must be a stick and a mark! A slap and a palm of blood! Look at people's words, if you want to be like this, how can you ignore it!
Looking at the text, just as the use of cool officials is profound, there is no human affection, and you have to do it to the end. If you just wait to read it, what will it taste! If there is something unknown about the text, you must work hard to die, until you see the truth is from your own home, and then you can live.
To read, you must be physically and mentally involved in this paragraph, not to mention what is going on outside, in order to see a piece of truth. For example, "erudite and determined, inquiring and thinking closely", how can we say that "benevolence is in it"? If you can always have this heart, you can always teach and do things, and reason is naturally in it. Today, however, while reading the written word, we are thinking about foreign affairs, but it is in vain. It's better to put down the text, and wait for the meaning of the overlapping religion to be quiet, but go to see it.
Scholars are not in the heart of many scholars, so they do not see the reason. The words of the sages are self-evident, and they only have a slight meaning, and they can see it. If you concentrate on it, you can't see it!
The mind is uncertain, so it is unreasonable. If you want to read now, you must first fix your mind, so that it will be like a stagnant water and a mirror. How does a dark mirror illuminate objects?
There is a way to read, just brush and scrape the heart to read. If he does not know, let it go, and when he is happy, he will come and see it. But now he says that he should be humbled, and how can his heart be relieved of emptiness. Now I want to put my heart on that.
Fifth, find out through the seams
When a scholar first looks at the text, he only sees a mess. For a long time, it was regarded as three or two pieces, so that more than a dozen pieces were grown. If you solve the cow, you can't see the whole cow, yes.
If you just hold a fruit at the bottom of the eagle, you don't know that it is sour, salty, bitter, and astringent. If you chew it with him, you will see the taste.
Reading must be to look at his sewing place to find the truth thoroughly. If you don't see it, you can't get it. When you see the sewing, the veins open on their own.
Look at the text, and according to this sentence, don't add words. There are sewn in the yuan, similar to the zygote. We only want to open it, not to muddy the substrate and dig it hard, and we can't say it first, and we can't make it up with the will of the ancients. And for example, the distinction between "deception, billions of unbelief" and "foresight": reverse, that person has not deceived me, first to figure out the Tao, that person will deceive me; billions of unbelief, that person has not believed the bottom line, then the person will not believe; prescient, it is clear that the person has deceived me, do not believe me. If Gaozu knows people and is good at making envoys, he can also clearly see his talents.
Sixth, there are doubts about teaching
Those who are undoubtedly reading must be taught, and those who are doubtful must be undoubted, and only here can they grow.
Q: There are many doubts about reason. As Baishi said, he may suspect that it is wrong, and he also suspects that it is true, how should he break it?
When a person is sick, he only knows that what others say is suspicious, but he does not know that what he says is suspicious. Those who try to criticize others will criticize themselves, and they will see their own gains and losses.
Don't read a book, don't get involved in it. In addition to what you see, you must see what the ancients mean in his booklet. For example, Mr. Cheng's explanation of "Straight Square" is to quote Mencius. Although it is Mr. Cheng's words, after all, it is urgent.
If you have an opinion first when you read the text, I am afraid it is just a private intention. It is said that if a rough person looks at a book, he must be brave and resolute, and if he is a gentle person, he must be kind and generous, and there is nothing in the book!
Reading is like asking about people. If you want to know about it, you have to ask them. But now he does not ask about the person, but only thinks that it will be so.
Scholars should not just stick to what they have seen before, but must see new ideas in addition to them. If you go to the turbid water, then the clear one comes out.
When it comes to paying attention to the nowhere to go, it is necessary to "get rid of the old views and start with new ideas", and still only look at it in this article.
A certain Xiang told his friend to read at the time, and also taught him to think and ask for doubts. Seeing from a close distance, reading is just a humble and familiar reading on the top, and after a long time, it has its own gains, but also its own doubts. After the cover is familiar with it, it has its own suffocation, and the incomprehensible place is naturally suspicious, so it is good to compete. If you go to find a doubt now, you can't do it.
There are times when this happens. In the old days, when I looked at the Analects, I had doubts when I closed them. Gai has one thing, which is said by Mr. Zhu, so he is suspicious. Now there is a collection of notes, and you can read the book and be familiar with it. There may be a few things that don't make sense, and I have doubts when I see them, but I can't doubt them first.
In general, you must first read the book familiarly, so that its words are as if they come from my mouth, and then you must think about it so that its meaning is as if it comes from my heart, and then you can have it. However, after knowing the essence of reading, it must be doubted that it is not only so, but also that there is a lot of progress. If this is the case, there will be no progress.
Seventh, easy and broad
When reading books, you should look at them with a fair mind. In general, you can't read a book, you can't see it from a clear place, and you can't look for it from a hidden place. The words of the sages are mostly to speak to people. If it was Sawasaki, it taught people at that time how to know.
Reading books must be quiet, broad-minded, and immersive, and you will know it for a long time.
Relax, and look at him as he speaks. Look at things with things, and look at things with yourself.
Read and relax your heart, and the truth will come out. If sorrow is urgent, the truth will never come out.
Whoever reads a book must first know what he is saying, and then see whether he is right or not. When it is reasonable, it is wrong. Nowadays, most people have a meaning in their hearts, but they say what others mean from their own hearts, and if they do not agree, they will force them to make a combination.
If you see something in reading, it may not be, and you can't be attached. And put it aside, Yi more reading, since the new see. If you cling to the sight, then the mind is clouded by the sight. For example, if there is anything on a clean field, there must be a shelter. The saint is well-connected in all directions, and everything is to the extreme. Scholars must read a lot, make each other invent, and be poor in everything to the extreme. The so-called "all bodies, all the common people, the three kings without Miao, the heaven and the earth without disobedience, the ghosts and gods without doubt, the hundred generations to the saints without confusion". Until this field, Fang is. Yuyun: "Virtue is not promoted." Yi Yun: "Wide to live in." "The sage said a lot of great and generous meaning, and scholars should understand it.
Scholars read books, and the disease is that as long as they move forward, they refuse to regress. The further you go, the more you can't tell. If you don't regress, you can see the judgment. Probably the illness is clinging to it and refuses to let go. Just as in hearing a lawsuit, if the mind first asserts the meaning of the second sub, it only seeks the first bottom is not, and if the first asserts the meaning of the first subordinate, it only sees that the second bottom is not. If you ignore the words of A and B, and look at it slowly, you can distinguish its straightness. Heng Quyun: "Remove the old view, come with new ideas." That's a good point. If you don't get rid of the old ideas, where will you get new ideas? Today's scholars have two diseases, one is the Lord's selfish intentions, and the other is the old preconceived theory, although he wants to get rid of it, he also seeks it out of his own way.
Reading must be a place of knowledge, east and west, all touch this pass, to get it. Just admit to do it, don't think about the past and the future, you have your own place. Now I say that I have never done it before, and I am afraid that it will be late, and I am afraid that I will not be able to do it, and I am afraid that it will be difficult, and I am afraid that my personality will be dull, and I am afraid that I will not be able to remember, it is all idle talk. Just admit to do it, don't ask about the speed, the few have their own places. Since I have not done it before, I will use my efforts to fill it in now. Don't look ahead and think about things, a lifetime of young people, I don't know how old I am!
Reading must be all over the week. A certain taste thinks that it is better to be detailed than omitted, rather than high, rather clumsy than clever, and rather near than far.
Today's people say that it is easy to be easy, but I don't know that it is extremely difficult to get to that easy place. How can you get rid of that old habit! For example, in composition, the new skillful person is easy to do, but it is difficult to be plain. However, he must return his new ingenuity, and then make it plain.
It is very difficult to move from the high danger to the easy place.
This article is excerpted from The Wisdom of Reading History (Revised Edition) (Yao Dali, Fudan University Press, 2016).