Chapter 6 "Learning by Picture"

Whenever a person, even in middle age or even old age, gets close to children, he will step into the frontiers of the long-forgotten world of children, thinking how the moon follows people, how the stars are embedded in the sky.But in his world, children are like fish in water, swimming freely and forgetting what they are doing, while adults are like people swimming in water. Although they can also feel the smoothness and coolness of the water, they still feel strenuous, embarrassed, and admirable. Landing is impossible. How can I explain the situation of the moon and the stars clearly at the moment, the family is not considered poor, of course, it is better to give some so-called education, first of all, literacy.Shanghai has people from all over the world, bookstores from all over the world, and children's books from all over the world.But we are Chinese, we need to read Chinese books and know Chinese characters.There are also such books. Although the paper, pictures, colors, and printing and binding are far inferior to those in other countries, there are some.When I went to the market, I bought for my children the "Literacy by Reading" book published in November of the 21st year of the Republic of China.

First of all, how dirty the color is, but that doesn't matter to him.He didn't care how rigid the pictures were.Although the publishing house is in Shanghai, it is strange that there are candles and foreign lamps in the picture, but no electric lights; there are court boots and three-inlaid cloud-toed shoes, but no leather shoes.Those who shoot while kneeling will drag their feet on the ground; those who shoot arrows standing will not have their arms level. I sighed softly, remembering the "Daily Miscellaneous Characters" I read when I was young.This is a book for educating women and servants so that they can keep accounts. Although there are not many types of famous items and the pictures are crude, it is very lively and similar.why?Just because the painter is familiar with the things he paints, a "radish" and a chicken don't contain Hu in his memory, so of course the painting is realistic.Now we only need to look at the living conditions depicted in "Literacy by Reading" - washing face, eating, reading - to know that this is the author's intended readers, and also the author's own living conditions, renting a house in the concession, A person who is neither rich nor poor, who has a whole family, and works hard for a day to make ends meet. The children have to go to school, and they have to wear long gowns. What about buying reference books, observing things, and practicing skills?Moreover, there is a line on the last leaf of the book: "The first edition of July in the year of Wushen".I checked the chronology and found out that it was the thirty-fourth year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty, that is, 1908 in the Western calendar. Although it was newly printed the year before last, the book was completed 27 years ago. It is already an ancient book, and it is dying. , is not surprising.

Children can be admired. He often thinks of the realm above the stars and the moon, the situation below the ground, the uses of flowers, and the speech of insects; You need to be very careful, and it is very troublesome to do.That is to say, the two small books "Literacy by Reading" contain everything from astronomy, geography, personnel affairs, and material conditions.In fact, it would be difficult for a painter to be competent if he is not a painter who has some solid knowledge of everything from the size of the universe to the size of a fly. However, we have forgotten what it was like when we were children, and we regard them as fools and don't pay attention to anything.Even if, because of the trend of the times, we have to give a little so-called education, we still think that it is enough to pay fools to teach.So they grow up and become really stupid, just like us.However, we fools are still fooling children even more.You only need to look at the publishing industry in the past two or three years, and you will know that there are a lot of publications for "primary school students" and "children".Have so many "children's writers" suddenly appeared in China?I think: it is not the case.

May 30th. CC [1] This article was originally published in the third issue of Peking's "Literature Quarterly" on July 1, 1934, signed by Tang Qi.