41 Learning Methods That Benefit a Lifetime

Chapter 48

Han Yu, a scholar of the Tang Dynasty, proposed in "Shi Shuo" that "don't be ashamed of the teacher", which means that you should not be ashamed to learn from others or ask each other to learn from each other.This view is the development of the educator Confucius' thought of "not ashamed to ask". Only by combining "diligence" and "questioning" can we learn well. "Have a good question" must have a humble, civilized and polite attitude; it must be based on self-thinking; it must have the spirit of "breaking the casserole pattern (asking) to the end".

Zhang Binglin's practice of "study hard, ask questions, and not be ashamed as a physiologian"

In modern times, the democratic revolutionist and thinker Zhang Binglin was also a diligent and inquisitive person.When Zhang was 23 years old, he left his hometown to study in Hangzhou, and entered the "Gu Jing Jing She" hosted by Yu Yue.In his early years of study, Zhang was greedy for more and faster, eager to become famous. In fact, his foundation in treating classics was still shallow at that time.After learning from Yu Yue, he was inspired and influenced by his academic methodology, so he took the teacher's admonition of "study the old teachings carefully and study the facts" as his motto, and turned to the road of striving for extensive and intensive examination.

Later, Zhang Binglin also set up a research method for himself by consulting his teacher:
① examine the name and truth; ② pay attention to supporting evidence;

If these six approaches to scholarship can be summed up in modern Chinese, it is necessary to study knowledge in a practical, careful and objective manner, and to refrain from sloppy dabbling in knowledge and subjective assumptions and indiscretions based on personal will. An exaggerated style of study that pretends to understand.

Even if these literary masters are like this, in our study, we should study hard and ask questions, not ashamed of the teacher, often ask teachers and classmates for advice, constantly enrich our minds, and acquire more knowledge.

The three-diligence reading method is a reading method that seeks cleverness with diligence.In the process of diligent reading, diligent copying, and diligent writing, combine skimming and intensive reading to achieve the purpose of understanding content, developing memory, and applying what you have learned.Frequent reading refers to selecting the book that you need to read the most at present on the basis of extensive reading, and then choosing the content in the book that best suits your needs, reading it repeatedly, and copying and writing frequently.Diligent copying is not random copying, but to deepen understanding and memory of those key contents and incisive insights.For example, a wonderful description, a maxim, a new point of view, an advanced model, these valuable contents need to be memorized and used, and they are all excerpted in a notebook or card, read at any time, and often sorted out to help digestion Understand, master use.

On the basis of diligent reading and copying, there will inevitably be some experience and experience, so it is necessary to write frequently.To write frequently and practice pens, you must write down your experience frequently, apply your learning experience to practice, and express your own opinions in connection with reality.Frequent reading and copying can deepen understanding, consolidate repeatedly, enrich and accumulate, help to string together many fragments and scattered knowledge, and develop memory.Diligent writing is the result of diligent reading and copying and connecting with reality, which in turn promotes frequent reading and copying.Diligence is one of the necessary conditions for success, and the "three diligent reading methods" of diligent reading, diligent copying, and diligent writing are its concrete manifestations.

In Chinese history, many people have been loyal practitioners of such a method.

"Looking at it forever" is due to diligence
People say that Su Shi, a famous litterateur in the Song Dynasty, was gifted and could "remember the memory".In fact, this is not the case, but there are other mysteries.

One day, a friend went to see him. After waiting for a long time, Su Shi came out to meet him.The guests were not happy.Su Shi explained: "I am copying "Han Shu". The guest did not understand it.With Su Shi's talent and the ability to "recite from memory", is it still necessary to copy books?Su Shi said: "I have read "Hanshu" and copied it three times. The first time I copied three characters per paragraph, the second time I copied two characters per paragraph, and now I only need to copy one character. After picking out a few words for a try, Su Shi was able to recite the relevant passages in response, word for word. Su Shi's "remembering from memory" turned out to be the result of hard work and hard work.

Su Shi not only copied "Hanshu" three times, but also copied several other masterpieces with hundreds of thousands of characters such as "Historical Records" over and over again.Su Shi called it "the obtuse method".

In modern times, this method is still applicable.

Be a "bookworm" who reads frequently

Wu Han loved reading when he was a child, especially history books and historical novels.When he was still in elementary school, he read "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin", "Journey to the West" and other classical novels.I couldn't find the book I wanted to read at home, so I borrowed it everywhere.Sometimes he can run dozens of miles to borrow a book.When encountering books that people refused to borrow, he squatted at the door to read them; if he could borrow them, he read them while walking.Often when I get home, I have finished reading the book, and then return it immediately.The owner of the book doubted whether he had read it, so he asked him what was in the book, and he could tell it right away.Because he reads a lot and quickly, the locals call him a "bookworm".

In the summer of 1934, Wu Han graduated with honors from the History Department of Tsinghua University.During the three years of college life, he was always accompanied by diligence and hardship.He studies very hard and has few hobbies other than reading and copying cards.His research work is basically to explore on his own.He said: "At that time, I looked for books to read without anyone pointing me out. I read many good books, and I also read many bad books. I copied books by myself without anyone's help. I borrowed books from others in every possible way. People still refuse to borrow them. Some books I don’t understand in some places, so I have to find out by myself, use this book to be right, and use that book to verify each other.... Read the catalogs by yourself, learn bibliography, collate by yourself, study history and geography by yourself, and research by yourself. Dialect, try punctuation by yourself, write cards by yourself.”Therefore, when he was a student, Wu Han had a deep knowledge of ancient Chinese.He has read a wide range of books and considered many issues.He advocated that reading should be diligent with eyes and hands, copy down useful passages in the book, and copy as you go. If you copy more information, read it several times, you can consolidate your memory and find problems easily.Knowledge is always accumulated gradually, from scratch, from less to more, from one-sided to more comprehensive.This kind of hard work, diligence and amazing perseverance enabled him to achieve unusual achievements. He was appreciated by senior scholars and respected by his classmates. Some people nicknamed him "Tai Shi Gong".

Coincidentally, Wang Yanan, the first president of Xiamen University after liberation and one of the authors of the Chinese translation of "Das Kapital", has translated 41 books and more than 300 papers in his life. He is a well-known knowledgeable economist and educator in my country.His talent is not particularly high, mainly by hard work.He summed up his five basic ways of accumulating knowledge, namely: reading, copying, translation, teaching and writing.

Wang Yanan studied in a private school at home when he was young, and he was familiar with the Four and Five Books of Classics and ancient books such as "Historical Records" and "Li Sao" that his husband ordered to memorize over and over again.After graduating from middle school, he studied in the Department of Education of Wuhan Zhonghua University.In middle school, in order to compete with sleep for study time, he imitated Sima Guang's "police pillow" and designed a "police bed" with the two sides of the bed elevated. And skewed.So, he rubbed his sleepy eyes, lit the oil lamp by the bed, and continued reading.Without money to buy books, he would try to borrow books to read, or go to the bookstore to stand and read for most of the day; or borrow books to copy.Once, he borrowed a copy of "Records of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty" from his teacher. After reading a few pages, he couldn't put it down.Later, copying books became a habit, and I continued to copy even when I was in college, even such a large book as "Historical Records". From 1929 to 1937, in order to study Marxist economics in depth, he successively went to Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom to study and investigate.He immersed himself in the sea of ​​books, searched extensively, day and night.Later in Shanghai, when he taught at Sun Yat-Sen University, and when he worked at Fujian Provincial Institute of Social Sciences and Xiamen University, no matter how hot or cold he was, despite the busy work, he either sat at his desk and read late into the night, or wrote quickly in the early morning, working tirelessly for many years.The Shanghai academic circles at that time once praised him as "a very hardworking scholar".

After liberation, his enthusiasm for studying hard has never diminished.Every time I go out for a meeting, I bring a box of books with me to prepare enough "spiritual food" for the journey.As a university president, one can imagine the busy schedule.He still seized the fragmented time, often picking up the original foreign language books to read aloud.The habit of excerpts formed in his youth is still retained after he wrote books.I often make index cards and summary cards by myself instead of using secretaries or data clerks.He set a rule for himself: not watching movies and dramas on non-Sundays.During the "ten years of turmoil", Wang Yanan was already in his early 60s.He was in adversity and was persecuted, but he never let up in his studies.In the spare time of accepting "criticism", I repeatedly intensively read Marxist classics such as "Anti-Renlin Theory", "Natural Dialectics", "Materialism and Empirical Criticism", and thus have a deeper understanding of Marxist positions, viewpoints, and methods experience.

Addicted to learning to copy books and eventually become a talent

The language master Hou Baolin only went to elementary school for three years. Because of his diligence and studious, his artistic level has reached the level of proficiency and he has become a famous language expert.Once, in order to buy a Ming Dynasty joke book "Jian Lang" that he wanted to buy, he ran all over the old bookstalls in Beijing, but failed.Later, when he learned that the Beijing Library had this book, he decided to copy it back.It happened to be winter, and he braved the strong wind and heavy snow, and went to the library to copy books for 18 consecutive days. A book with more than [-] words was finally copied by him.

Mathematician Wang Zikun is good at copying.When he was in middle school, whenever he had time after finishing his homework, he would visit the library.He borrowed good books and was really reluctant to return them, but he couldn't buy them and couldn't afford them, so he made up his mind to copy them by hand.Copying, he thought it was still affordable.He successively copied "Advanced English Method" written by Lin Yutang, "Encyclopedia of English", and "Sun Tzu's Art of War". He couldn't put it down, so he copied two copies at once.Wang Zikun believes that people only know the pain of copying books, but they don't know the benefits of copying books.

Read, copy, and practice writing

On the basis of diligent reading and memorizing, you must also write frequently.Zhu Guangqian, a famous esthetician, always asks graduate students to read and write at the same time when he instructs graduate students. He thinks this is of great benefit to study and study."It is not enough to do learning without reading or writing. If you want to write, you must read carefully. You must sort out what you read in your own mind and think about it. In this way, you will understand more clearly and digest the author's thoughts. , become one's own spiritual nourishment".

This experience was summed up by Mr. Zhu Guangqian in his academic practice.

In the early 20s, Zhu Guangqian, who was about 30 years old, first went to Britain and France to study at university.He has learned a lot of homework, dissected sharks, made stained sections, read architectural history, and studied semiotics, but his center of interest has three footholds: one is literature, the other is psychology, and the third is philosophy. , around these three points, he studied diligently, and if he had any experience in the process of reading, he would write it down.Later, he simply started writing books while reading. During his student days, he successively wrote "Psychology of Literature and Art", "Talking about Beauty", "On Poetry", "Tragedy Psychology", "Psychology of Abnormality", "Symbolic Logic", etc. " and other books.

It makes sense to read and write at the same time.When we usually read books, it is a process of accepting other people's thoughts and analyzing and identifying them.The meaning of a book is clear when you read it, but if you are asked to explain the ideas in the book, you often cannot express it?The crow may not be complete, which means that you have not fully read it?If you want you to accurately summarize the ideas expressed in the book in your own words, then you will find it even more difficult.

The three stages of rough reading, dictation, and writing reflect the three different depths of reading.Generally speaking, ordinary books only need to be able to do rough reading and dictation.However, for some important books, you must really understand them thoroughly, and reach the point where you can speak and write well. Writing books can force you to study more attentively, collect reference books and materials more comprehensively, and be more thorough. Can a deep understanding of the content of books help you discover the insufficiency of your own knowledge structure, identify your own reading effects, and take remedial measures?Crows can also stimulate your ability to think, identify and create about book knowledge.But writing diligently makes things my own and forms my own thoughts.

The preface and general examples refer to the text written in front of the main text of a book, which mainly introduces the target audience of the book, the main content, and the author's reason, intention, process, and style of writing the book.Some prefaces also introduce the author's situation, relevant background materials, and comments and analysis of the book.

The benefits of reading order are many:
① Knowing the object is good for book selection.Read the preface first to find out who the readers are, so as not to spend a lot of energy reading books that are not suitable for you.

②Understanding the background makes it easy to get started.

③Knowing the person knows the book better.

④ Get a guide, don't get lost.

⑤ Grasp the main points and understand deeply.

The preface can generally point out the main points of the book, so that readers can understand the ideological content of the work more accurately and deeply.

Wang Li talks about the benefits of reading the preface first

A new book that exudes the fragrance of ink, ordinary readers often skip the table of contents and read the text directly after getting their hands on it.However, Wang Li, a famous Chinese linguist and professor of Peking University, is not like this. After he gets a book, he always reads the preface and general examples first.Some books have a preface at the end of the book.He put the preface forward to read.

Why does Professor Wang Li place so much emphasis on reading order?In a conversation with graduate students of Peking University, he gave a simple example: For example, when studying "Ma Shi Wen Tong", the first book in my country that uses modern theories to study the laws of ancient Chinese, if you don't read the preface, you can look at it from the perspective of traditional Chinese characters. Text, it is very laborious, even incomprehensible.On the contrary, if we read the preface first, then the sentence in the preface "a collection of many words to form a text, its way will remain unchanged" will make us understand that many words are combined to form an article, and the grammar has its stability.The preface also said: "Part of the category of characters, and the meaning of the husband character and the script to form a sentence." It means to study grammar, first of all to distinguish the part of speech, and then see how these words are matched with other words to form a sentence.After understanding these, you will get guidance when reading the text and feel convenient.

Therefore, Professor Wang Li specially emphasized: "Prefaces often talk about the program and purpose of writing a book. Those who write prefaces for others also talk about the advantages of books. Prefaces are what the author thinks should be paid attention to. We must not ignore these." He asked graduate students to pay attention to reading the preamble and examples.In this way, the characteristics and general content of the whole book can often be grasped first.After that, read each chapter in detail.

Einstein's Preface Reading Method
Coincidentally, the great physicist Einstein summed up the "one total, two points, three combinations" reading method, which is also such a learning method that advocates reading the preface first.Specifically, the steps are as follows:

General: first browse the preface, postscript, preface and other general parts of the book, and then read the table of contents carefully, so as to have a general understanding of the structure, content, main points and system of the whole book, so that you can have an overall impression of the whole book.

Two points: After reading the table of contents, first skim the text, which does not need to be read word by word, but should focus on reading the paragraphs with big and small titles, underlines, dots, boldface or special marks, which are often the key points of each section where.You can choose the content you need to read carefully based on these.

Sanhe: On the basis of skimming the whole book, you have a specific impression of the book, then go back and read the contents of the table of contents and the whole book carefully, and think about it and synthesize it to make it organized and systematized. In order to clarify its inner connection, achieve the purpose of deepening and improving, and further understand many things that could not be understood at the first reading.This step is very important.People often read the book and throw it away when they don't know the point at this step, and forget about it.

(End of this chapter)