Chapter 243 Find out what you have and know it later

The concept of studying things to gain knowledge was first put forward in "Book of Rites·University".By the Song and Ming dynasties, it had been referred to as a highly debated topic of epistemology.Philosophers have given various explanations on how to investigate things and gain knowledge. Yan Yuan has a hobby. He likes to discuss studies with his like-minded teachers, friends and disciples.One of his disciples, named Li Zhixiu, was very interested in studying things to gain knowledge, so he asked his teacher for the exact meaning of this concept. Yan Yuan explained: "'Knowledge' has no form, just like 'seeing' itself has no form. 'Knowledge' takes shape and color as its form. Therefore, although human eyes can see things, if Eyes are useless if you don’t see black and white things. Although people’s hearts are effective, they cannot be implemented if they don’t think about problems. Now those who talk about attaining knowledge are just reading, speaking, and speculating. I know that what can make me know is not here. For example, if you want to know the etiquette, you can only read the etiquette hundreds of times, research and ask dozens of times, and speculate dozens of layers, but you still can’t really know it. However, if you go to worship in person Zhou Xuan, holding a jade wine glass and receiving gifts in person, knows what etiquette is like after doing it yourself. Another example, if you want to learn music, no matter how many times you have learned music scores, how many layers of lectures and speculations, you will never learn. But as long as You can play the qin and zither yourself, sing and dance, and you can gradually understand the theory of music. Therefore, I think that things are the things of the three things (referring to the six virtues, six elements, and six arts); , which means beating and rubbing with hands.” Here, Yan Yuan’s explanation of “gewu” means to practice by oneself, which contains the practical significance of change.

Li Zhixiu asked again: "If you don't understand etiquette first, how can you practice it?" Yan Yuan replied: "Look at Confucius, why didn't he teach people to learn literature first, and then asked people to be filial, loyal, and universal love? Why didn't they first teach people to be consistent in nature and Tao, and asked people to learn the 'three things' first? Like Vegetables such as radishes, even wise people and old farmers, did not know that they were edible at first; even if they could deduce that they were edible from their shape and color, they did not know the taste of radishes, so they had to try them themselves. Know. Therefore, we must 'find out what you have and then know it'."