Reading is one of the most important things in a person's upbringing. What we read and how we read it often deeply affect the path of our lives.
Since we went to school, we have been taught by our teachers to read more, especially the classics, and after stepping into society, different voices still tell us to read more books and read classic books.
But there are so many books in the world, why read more classics?
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There is a Lindy effect: for most things, for most things, for every day of age, the rest of life expectancy is shortened by one day, and for some things, for some things, every day of life is an indication that the remaining life expectancy may be longer.
Classic books fall into the latter category.
Classics are the crystallization of human wisdom. "Do not do unto others as you would have them do unto you" in the Analects of Confucius makes us understand that we should respect others and learn to empathize, while in the "Book of the Family of Zeng Guofan", "abstain from excessive speech, abstain from anger, and abstain from seeking" let us know how to cultivate ourselves and maintain a peaceful state of mind. The scriptures contain a wealth of life wisdom that can help us better manage our relationships and cope with life's challenges.
Classics are the precipitation of national culture. The Four Books, the Five Classics, the Han Fu, Tang Poems, Song Ci, Yuan Qu, Ming and Qing Dynasty novels, etc., these highly distinctive literary forms are all classics in Chinese culture, and are the essence of the traditional culture of the Chinese nation that has been accumulated after thousands of years of development, and contain excellent traditional virtues. Among them, there are patriotic feelings of "donating one's life to go to the country, and seeing death as if they were going home"; there are moral sentiments of "no one can be indifferent and have no clear ambition, and no one can go far without tranquility"; there is a heroic complex of "no one has died in life since ancient times, and he has left his heart to take care of his sweat"; and there is the gentleman's friendship of "having a confidant in the sea, and the end of the world is like a neighbor...... These classics have been passed down from generation to generation, influencing generations of descendants of Yan and Huang, and constitute the most basic spiritual background of the Chinese nation.
The classics are the reference for action and practice. Reading the classics means thinking often, so that the ideas of the classics can be connected with the historical development process, the reality of social development, and the direction of career development, so that the classics can be read often and always new. Taking the classic of the Communist Manifesto as an example, the brilliance of the Communist Manifesto lies not only in its persuasiveness, appeal and appeal, but also in the vivid practice of the Chinese Communists, which makes the classic theory more innovative, more vivid and more substantial.
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Bingxin once gave us such reading advice, "Read well, read well, read well." "Whether it is online reading or paper book reading, we must first pay attention to arranging classic reading.
If you ask what is the best reading option, there is always only one answer, and it is the classics.
As the philosopher Schopenhauer said, a great work is never written by a mediocre author. The Italian writer Calvino also proposed at the beginning of his book "Why Read the Classics": "The classics are those books that you often hear people say, 'I'm rereading ......' instead of 'I'm reading ......'." ”
This is the charm of classic works, they can stand the baptism of time, they can stand the test of readers of different eras, and each rereading brings about discovery like the first reading.
So the question is, why do you have to reread the classics, and do you have to read the classics repeatedly?
Anyone who reads a book has heard the saying - "Read a book a hundred times, and its meaning will be seen by itself." ”
This "book" is not an ordinary book, and the ordinary book cannot stand repeated chewing, and the "book" here refers to the classics. Only the classics have a profound spiritual heritage and unique value charm, we may read twice, three times, ten times are still half-understood, but when we continue to chew, after repeated reading and thinking, we will find that the connotation of these classics will naturally appear.
Mao Zedong was famous for his love of reading, and he was also famous for his ability to read. Whenever Mao Zedong talked to others about reading "Dream of the Red Chamber", he always said, "You have the right to speak only when you read "Dream of the Red Chamber" five times!", which has almost become his mantra. In his later years, Mao Zedong once said to people: "I have read "Dream of Red Mansions" more than a dozen times, and I still haven't understood some places".
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According to the "2023 National Reading Trend White Paper", 87.98% of the public maintain the habit of reading, of which 46.52% insist on reading every day, and 42.31% of the public read 2-3 times a week, and the public can read for 15-60 minutes at a time.
Reading is becoming a "favorite" for most people, and it's a good trend. However, at a time when there are more and more reading methods and reading choices, some so-called "nutritious fast food" can easily encroach on our precious reading time.
There is such a set of data: if each person is calculated according to the limit, if given 70 years of reading time, each reading material is about 200,000 words, calculated at the speed of extensive reading, one hour of reading time per day ≈ 30,000 words of reading, and can read a book in a week, each person can read about 54.75 books per year, and can read 3832.5 books in a lifetime.
This may seem like a lot of reading, but it's actually very limited. Since it is impossible for us to go without eating, drinking, sleeping, working, and only reading, when we are finally able to return to books, we should choose the classics as soon as possible.
Read the scriptures with reverence. The creation and circulation of classics is not only the work of genius, but also the joint force of working people, which embodies the most valuable wisdom, pursuit and enthusiasm in the development of human civilization. Today, when we stand on the shoulders of our predecessors and look back and read the classics, some people will have prejudices such as "the ancients are just like this" and "they don't understand the Internet and artificial intelligence". Although the era in which the classics were produced has its limitations, the most beautiful connotations of human beings expressed in them are unique, and we can only gain something if we enter the spiritual world of the classics with awe.
Read the classics with a calm mind. Some people have questioned that the ancients read the classics in order to gain fame, but what do we modern people do when we read the classics? Zhang Ailing said: "Your temperament hides the road you have traveled, the books you have read, and the people you have loved. It is true that some people read the classics in order to achieve a specific purpose, but reading the classics should be an end in itself, and the value of the classics should not be viewed in a one-sided tone of "useful" or "useless". The scriptures are not an object to be conquered from the outside, but a necessary way to enrich our thoughts and experiences, an indispensable part of our life activities. Read the classics with a normal heart, not arrogant or impatient, knowledge accumulation, self-cultivation, joy of life, etc., you can not seek self-satisfaction.
To read the classics, one must be diligent in practice. "Erudition, prudence, discernment, and practice", the unity of knowledge and action is the starting point and the end point of reading the classics, and it is a repeated process. Mr. Lu Xun once said, "To read, you must first read the thin books thickly, and then read the thick books thinly." "The more we read the book, the thicker it becomes, which means that we should draw inferences from one another, touch on the analogy, and supplement our cognition through practice; the thinner the book becomes, which means that we have our own views in practice, and we can outline and internalize what the book says. Find your own answers in the classics, and return to the classics with new thinking, and in the continuous input and output, the truth can become the way.
The classics have the greatness of the classics, and the readers also have the insights of the readers. Zhang Ailing said: "Your temperament hides the road you have walked, the books you have read and the people you have loved. "In the context of the new time and space, let the classics integrate into our lives and constitute the inner bones of life experience, and the soul attraction and collision between readers and classics will be amazing.