Chapter 42 Forty-two reading

The previous article affirmed the value of knowledge, and it is logical, so let's talk about how to obtain knowledge.Everyone knows that different knowledge comes from different sources, some of which are not from books.To give a prominent example, the knowledge and skills of ancient music (the music of rites and music) were probably passed on from hand to hand without writing, so the music of the Six Classics has its name but no book.Modern knowledge, there are still a lot of word of mouth.The topic here is reading. Obviously, when it comes to knowledge, books are limited, or at least books are highly valued.Open your mouth on books and shut your mouth on books. The reason is that I think almost all the weighty knowledge comes from books.The knowledge of books is common sense, or that ordinary literate people may or even should have, and professional, or that ordinary literate people can’t pass it by. This article talks about reading in general, so no matter Whether it is the scope, method or harvest, they are all close to the "pass" of common sense, rather than the "fine" of professionalism.Generally speaking, there is knowledge and understanding. My experience is mainly from reading, and what I read is mainly books (newspapers and periodicals occupy an auxiliary position), so it is collectively called reading.

Reading is necessary and highly recommended. First of all, the reason for utilitarianism is that it is all activities in life. If measured by the ratio of investment to gain, reading should be the most cost-effective.Because the records in the books, generally speaking, are the essence obtained by predecessors with special attainments based on their experience or research.As far as we ordinary people are concerned, some, such as grammatical knowledge, can be obtained by studying language phenomena by ourselves, but it takes a lot of effort (maybe several years); some, such as logical knowledge, can be obtained by ourselves, theoretically. It is not impossible, but actually it can be said to be impossible; there are also, such as historical knowledge, without reading (listening is indirect reading), and wanting to know is obviously absolutely impossible.And with the help of reading, still take logic knowledge as an example, find a book about common sense of logic and read it.And furthermore, you will apply what you have learned. For example, if you know what the law of contradiction is, you will not believe the nonsense that "Confucians are all traitors" (full name affirmative judgment), because Wen Tianxiang is also a Confucian, and he is not traitorous (specially called negative judgment). .Knowledge is the most important part of human cultural wealth, and to obtain this wealth, reading is like the key to open a treasure house, you cannot enter without it, and with it, adversity can become easy.

Such cheap things, such as we don't miss opportunities, make good use of them, gain, elaborate, what are they all about?Roughly the following. One of the most preliminary is simple absorption, or changing the unknown into the known.People are not born with knowledge, and all kinds of knowledge are gradually accumulated through the senses.Accumulating knowledge has a purpose. If you want to live a good life, you have to understand many things related to your body.Some of these things are in front of you, like a coat in a wardrobe, while many more, perhaps still more important, are not in front of you.Take the knowledge of history as an example. More than two thousand years ago, there was a Qin Shihuang, whose deeds cannot be known without reading.Geographical knowledge, pushed far away, until the knowledge of the macro world, if you don't read books, you can't know it naturally.Read, read more, and read miscellaneously, the result will be more knowledgeable.According to common sense, more knowledge is better than less knowledge.

The second is that reading can be sensible.When it comes to reason, the issue is very complicated.The ancients said that there is one right and one wrong, and this one is also right and wrong. Each is what it is, and each is not what it is not. As the saying goes, the public says that the public is right, and the woman says that the woman is right. What is reason and what is reason?It is difficult to analyze in depth here.It is not easy to know whether there are living things on other planets, but the standard of right and wrong is clear, but it is just the actual situation.This is not the case if it is biased towards the way of life, but even the standard of right and wrong is different, and everyone has their own opinions.I want to skip the distinction here, and just say that there is so-called right and wrong. I think that compared with not reading, the former has much more opportunities to be sensible than the latter; or, reading may also be unreasonable in some aspects, and not reading , is often unreasonable in many ways.Reading does not necessarily make sense, there are many situations, the reason can be summed up in one word, it is not much to learn, believe without doubt, just like the old days when the emperor humiliated his ministers and died.As for the opposite, if you don’t read books, there may be too many people who are ignorant. For example, there are still many people who believe that the king is wise, and that going to Lingyin Temple can turn misfortunes into blessings, and deep drilling can predict good and bad, etc. .Therefore, if you want to get rid of all kinds of superstitions, that is to say, you must read books.

The third is that if you encounter problems in life, you can get pointers from the book.The problem is infinite, give a little example.For the most trivial ones, if you want to eat fried twice-cooked pork, but you don’t know how to do it, you can find a cookbook, see what ingredients are used, how to operate it, and take medicine according to the prescription. The problem can be easily solved.Moderate, if you read by yourself or listen to others, "Ask how much you can worry about, just like a river of spring water flowing eastward", you have become interested in Li Houzhu, and want to know more about the author's background, then you can Find a certain kind of Chinese literary history, or look for both "Southern Tang Book" and "Southern Tang Two Subjects", and the problem will be solved.There are also major issues, such as major national affairs, a certain major problem, how to solve it, or which way to go, and personal issues, such as going out of the mountains or living in seclusion. Follow the good.Throughout history, even Liu Bang, who won the world immediately, woke up in his later years and said: "I was in troubled times. When the Qin Dynasty burned my studies, I was happy, saying that reading is useless. Since Ji Jianzuo, the time has been to save books, so that people can understand the author's meaning. "Not to mention a large number of other scholars.

The fourth is to cultivate temperament.According to common sense, there are high and low temperaments.What is high?In a nutshell, it's just being human.It can be reasonable without forcing production.Such a disposition can come from nature, or it can be infected by nature plus the environment.But congenital plus infection, it may not be high or even very low, which needs to be cultured or cultivated.Obviously, reading books will be beneficial to education.There is a direct way to cultivate, that is, to learn lessons from the speeches of the past.This kind of lesson, starting from the "Shangshu" "full of losses, modest benefits", can be said to be overwhelming.Many, although it does not mean special effects, but the impact (not only good words, but also good deeds) will always have a greater or lesser impact.Indirectly, under the influence of books, narrow-mindedness can become open-minded, biased can become peaceful, that is, temperament can change from bad to good, or at least better.The human feelings in the world can also be used as evidence. Scholars are often accompanied by elegance. The opposite of elegance is vulgarity. It can be seen that reading does have the power to cultivate or change one's temperament.

The fifth is that besides intelligence and rationality, it can also be appreciated, that is, enjoyment of beauty.This mainly refers to reading literary works. According to foreign classifications, there are poetry, prose, novels and dramas.In fact, as far as local works are concerned, those worthy of appreciation are not limited to these four types. If it is reasonable, "Historical Records" records historical events. Wen's "Preface to the Pavilion of the King of Teng" and so on, after tea and dinner, if you are depressed, or just unbearable, you can read it or read it, you can temporarily forget the present, and enter another realm, and what you get is not what you want Satisfaction is beyond compare.From this point of view, if you can't study or refuse to study in your life, it is equivalent to returning empty-handed after passing through Baoshan, and the loss is too great.

The sixth is the ability to speak up. "Zuo Zhuan" says that there are three kinds of immortality, the highest is Lide, the second is meritorious service, and the second is Liyan.Here we only talk about Liyan, which originally refers to the speeches of sages and sages, which can be used in later generations. We might as well expand its scope and lower its grade. It is said that expressing affection in words, whether it is circulated or not, is Liyan.Or to put it more bluntly, it is the ability to express ideas with words and expressions.This ability is useful, and everyone recognizes it.Use size.The smallest things, such as leaving a note to someone or writing a letter to Zhun, although the things involved are limited, they are done after all, that is, they are so-called useful.This escalation may also involve the group, distinguish right from wrong, make clear trade-offs, and may really affect the implementation.This becomes great use, use, and planning for oneself, and what is even greater, is to become immortal through making words.Many people in history, such as Li Du, Sansu, etc., although their lives have long since passed away, their names have remained in the hearts of future generations for a long time.Does this have any ultimate significance?Maybe not.But as the saying goes, "People leave their names when they pass, and geese leave their voices when they pass by", it is also an idiot. Since you are an idiot, you should learn to write in order to achieve your wish.And learning to write, obviously, can only come from reading, because if you don’t read, your stomach will be empty, and you won’t have any heavy content to write; even if you have some affection, you don’t know how to express it, and you still can’t write.

The seventh is collecting books for reading, which is also an acquisition that should not be underestimated.The so-called acquisition only refers to the enjoyment of getting a favorite book. Although it is just a leisurely thing, it is worth cherishing because it is based on the reader.This kind of leisure has also existed in ancient times, not to mention public collections, but only private ones. Ye Changchi wrote "Book Collection Chronicle Poems", and various dynasties talked about it a lot.Until now, there are still many.Some of them collect a lot of books.It is conceivable that this requires first, laborious search, second, buying with money, and third, finding a place to put it.The trilogy will bring difficulties, or hardships, but many scholars still advance despite difficulties, why?It is because they feel that compared with the joy of getting a book, those sufferings are nothing.There are many kinds of joy in life, and the joy of reading, at least I think, and I guess many scholars will agree, should be both high in quality and large in quantity.

After reading, you will gain something, and then I will talk about what you should pay attention to when you are determined to read.A matter that seems to be unspoken but quite difficult to say is to be read well.It's hard to say, because first, it's biased towards theory, what is good, and second, it's biased towards facts, such as two books that talk about the same subject matter, and it's hard to tell which one is better.As a last resort, I have no choice but to rely on common sense, for example, yellow is not good, and everyone admits it; second, leave the right of discrimination to the readers themselves, and seek success through more reading and comparison.The second is to seek intelligence and understanding, which requires both a lot of reading and miscellaneous reading.Read more, one meaning is more quantity. For example, when studying the history of a country, don’t be satisfied with a general history. You should read more, absorb more relevant materials, and listen to other schools.One meaning is ancient and modern Zhongqi, the purpose is not only to absorb more knowledge, but also to broaden horizons.Knowledge, or not being bound by prejudices, must be obtained through this path.Besides, the more important miscellaneous reading is to read all kinds of books (of course limited to common sense).Some people like literature and read a lot, both ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, but what they read is limited to novels, and never touch the edge of social science and natural science. It is possible to talk about state affairs and side with conservatives. To burn incense.This is reading a lot but not miscellaneous. If you are on the edge of a dead end, you will not be able to understand it.Extending from miscellaneous reading, there is one thing that deserves to be mentioned separately. It is miscellaneous. Some of the books are boring in nature and difficult to read, but you have to read them carefully.The most typical examples are theory of knowledge and logic, in which there are no vivid plots and character activities, but only abstract thinking. When you read it for the first time, you will definitely not be interested.But it is very useful, because the thinking is clear and the ability to distinguish right from wrong can be quickly exercised only by reading such books.Finally, I would like to talk about the middle of reading, but also to be able to think.Confucius said a long time ago, "Learning without thinking is perfect", that is to say, if you believe what you read, you will not be able to understand it.Thinking is the mental activity of judging the authenticity, right and wrong, superiority and inferiority after being absorbed, analyzed and compared.The so-called knowledge, rationality, or collectively known as knowledge and insight, are all developed by thinking.

What I said above is all about theory, and reason often has a distance from reality, so we still have to talk about reality.This begs the question, is reading easy?Obviously not easy.It can be seen as evidence that people who like to read and read a lot are not a large proportion of the national population.There are objective reasons, and they can be divided into two types: one is solid and powerful, such as the lack of economic conditions at home, and the lack of conditions in schools outside the home; .Objectiveness is beyond the control of personal ability. If you have to be poor, you will be alone. If you have the conditions, how to change your dislike of reading into your favorite reading.My idea is to rely on "reason" at the beginning, that is, knowing that reading is very useful, I force (or force by parents or teachers) to read by myself.It is best to do it on a regular basis (it may not be very long), so that it will form a "habit" after a period of time, which is 80% to 90% guaranteed.After that, based on habits, there will be "interests", that is, reading is fun. Obviously, at this time, the previous 80-90% guarantee will become 100%. It can't be done.This is what is called success.