The "twelve characters" reading method of Feng Youlan in the language learning method

Feng Youlan's "twelve characters" reading method

The famous philosopher Feng Youlan, since entering a private school at the age of 7 to count books as friends, has been sailing in the sea of books for more than 80 years. He summed up his reading experience in 12 words: fine selection, interpretation of words, knowledge of their meanings, and understanding of their reasoning.

Feng Youlan divided the books that should be read into three categories: intensive reading, extensive reading, and flipping through books. In this way, there are not only a number of intensive reading books that repeatedly read "one by one to find out the essentials" as the basis for academics, but also a batch of "looking at their general outlines", a batch of skimmed reading books that are generally understood as materials for expanding the scope of knowledge, and there are also flipping books that can be picked up at will for occasional needs. Careful selection means paying attention to "economic benefits" and spending every minute of reading energy on the blade.

Feng Youlan is proficient in the history of Chinese philosophy, and of course there will be no shortage of obstacles in the text of the "subset of the history of the classics". To understand the words is to read the text and clear the text barriers to entry. Words are bridges, and to reach the other shore, you must pass this hurdle.

To know its meaning is to delve deeply and understand the meaning of the book. "Books are not exhaustive, words are not enough". When reading a book, it is necessary to examine and ponder deeply, ask questions and doubts, and discern and taste carefully, so that we can talk about giving examples and repeating each other. In her youth, Feng Youlan studied in the college preparatory class of China Public School in Shanghai, and one of the courses was logic. At that time, not many people understood logic, and the teacher taught the students to read the <Programm of Logic" written by a foreigner named Yefons. The teacher talked in a knot, and the students were dizzy. Feng Youlan tried to explore on his own, carefully doing the exercise questions attached to the back of the book, and finally had a deeper understanding.

"The intention is not reasonable", understanding the original meaning of the book, is not equivalent to having your own opinion. To be clear is to have your own opinion. In the process of supplementing, comparing, and correcting the opinions of the book or predecessors, a relatively correct opinion is formed. To Ming Qi, Feng Youlan figuratively used an analogy: "This principle is my own, and I can use it to deal with things and solve problems." It was as if I was walking on my own legs, and as soon as I wanted to walk, the legs went naturally. Reading books to this extent, even if it is a living learning to use words, read the book alive. ”