Reading War and Peace as a child

Tang Xiaomin

Reading Ye Lang's "Aesthetic Principles", I saw a passage in the book: It is the Russian contemporary film art master Andrey Tarkovsky who said:

In my childhood, my mother first suggested that I read War and Peace, and in the years that followed, she often quoted passages from the book to point me to the delicacy and detail of Tolstoy's writings. War and Peace thus became a standard of my artistic school, taste and depth. From then on, I could no longer read garbage, and they gave me a strong sense of disgust. (Ye Lang: Principles of Aesthetics, p. 421, Peking University Press, 2009)

This is very important. Children read first-rate works from an early age, which has great value. When a child reads first-class books and has a standard in mind, he will not be interested in those things that are third- or fourth-rate, or even not in-class.

Andrei Tarkovsky's experience is not unique. This was also the case for many children during the Republican period. Of course, they read not "War and Peace", but ancient Chinese masterpieces, such as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". Many children also read famous works such as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Water Margin" as children. For example, Bingxin, Deng Yunxiang, Yu Guangyuan, etc. all read the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" at the age of 7, and Qian Mu not only read the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Water Margin" at the age of 8, but also was able to recite the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" in large sections.

We may be surprised to see this today, but it is an obvious fact.

Let's not underestimate children's ability to learn. When I was a child, that is, in childhood, I could not only read such storied and interesting literary works as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", but also read more profound classics.

In his article "The Book Is Finished", Mr. Jin Kemu listed some of the most important works that Chinese should read: "Yi", "Poetry", "Book", "Spring and Autumn Left Biography", "Li Ji", "Analects", "Mencius", "Xunzi", "Laozi", and "Zhuangzi". He said: "This is a large part of the recitation since the Han Dynasty when children go to school, until the end of the last century." If these ten books are not known, the books of Han Yu of the Tang Dynasty, Zhu Xi of the Song Dynasty, and Wang Shouren (Yang Ming) of the Ming Dynasty cannot be read. Even the words and meanings of many places in "Mirror Flower Edge", "Dream of the Red Chamber", "West Chamber", and "Peony Pavilion" are difficult to understand. ”

This naturally makes sense. But what should be noted is probably the following words:

These books, except for "Easy", "Old" and foreign philosophy books, are mostly understood by teenage children, and many of them are stories and interesting. The boring part can slide over. China's ancients did not like "abstract thinking", the truth is often very practical, the language is often funny, a little annotation can read the original text. A book reads through, reads through, and then it gets easier and easier, and it's not so scary. That's how children used to read it. The main thing is to arouse interest. Children have their way of understanding, can not be understood in the way of adults, especially can not cut words, reason. Where adults are difficult to understand, children may not be able to "understand".

Jin Kemu believes that the classics he mentions, "except for Yi, Lao, and foreign philosophical books, are mostly understood by teenage children." "Jin Kemu is a person who has come over, he has experienced it, and what he says will not be a lie. Nor do we have reason to think he is lying.

Children in Russia can read War and Peace, and children in China can also read Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which is also a literary masterpiece. The question is, is our family education and school education necessary to guide and encourage students to read the classics?