41 Learning Methods That Benefit a Lifetime

Chapter 50 Several Situations of Preface Grammar (2)
Through memory, take out the books you have read in the past and chew them a little bit, just like a cow ruminating its cud, which can further digest and absorb.Every time you recall, there will be new understandings, new understandings, and new gains.

③Able to continuously draw spiritual strength from the books that have been read.

Ba Jin said: "I am fighting against the disease now, and I also get encouragement from various works... Even if I don't have the energy to read new works when I am ill, the accumulation of spiritual wealth in the past is enough to consume for the rest of my limited life. Man needs light and heat until death."

Mr. Ba Jin's reading method is actually to learn the new by reviewing the past frequently.In our study, we need such a spirit, so that we can firmly grasp the knowledge we have learned and lay a good foundation for future development.

The reading method of being able to enter and exit is to go deep into book knowledge and combine book knowledge with one's own knowledge and experience.This method was first proposed by Chen Shan, a scholar in the Southern Song Dynasty.He said: "When reading, you need to know the method of entry and exit. You should first seek what you enter, and finally you should seek what you want to exit." Hui Zhouti, a famous scholar in the Qing Dynasty, made an in-depth explanation. "Reading requires extensive knowledge and strong memorization, but also does not follow the chapters and sentences. The two are complementary. Only after extensive knowledge and strong memorization, the contents of the front and back are run through to the point of being very familiar can we further understand the profound meaning of the article. , This is "can enter".After reading the book, you should not be bound by the specific words and sentences in the book, but think deeply, understand the essence of the spirit, and turn the dead words in the book into your own living knowledge. This is "being able to come out".

"Being able to enter and exit" also includes the relationship between book knowledge and real life, theory and practice.To be able to enter is to go deep into book knowledge-the crystallization of previous knowledge and experience; to be able to come out is to combine book knowledge with one's own knowledge and experience, and combine the practical activities of transforming nature and society.

(Li Gongpu's "Three Ways" jump out of the book) Mr. Li Gongpu once talked about the "Three Ways" that are easy to jump out of the book.One is called "Reading Living Books", which means reading lively books with practical content.One is called "Living Reading", which is flexible in method and requires more thinking.One is called "studying activities", combining theory with practice, applying what you have learned, and "using it thoroughly".Able to enter and exit the reading method, not only can "read living books" enter and get into it, get its deep taste, but also closely connect with reality, adopt a flexible method, and jump out of the book.

(Rousseau opposes dead reading) Rousseau, the French Enlightenment thinker in the 18th century, has always opposed dead reading and excessive reading.At that time, there were some people in the society who learned one knowledge and quickly learned another knowledge without stopping for a moment. They only spent time learning other people's thinking, but had no time to exercise their own thinking.As a result, knowledge is learned, but intelligence is rarely increased.Rousseau was very displeased with this. He said in his book "Emile" that this kind of person "is like a child picking up shells on the beach. At first he picked up some shells, but when he saw others , He wanted to pick it up again, but he threw some away and picked up some, and even picked up a lot of shells and didn’t know which one to choose, so he had to throw them all away and go back empty-handed.” Therefore, we must not only remember and To understand the content of the book, it is necessary to combine it with reality, have your own views, and apply what you have learned.

Lu Xun advocated reading "you have your own ideas"

Mr. Lu Xun also talked about his views on being able to enter and exit through reading.Some people read quite a few books. As Lu Xun said, they "read from the articles of the Zhou Dynasty to the articles of the Ming Dynasty. They are very mixed. Of course, some hoof tracks remain, and this is what is called gaining.”There are also some "people who are so poor that they are stunned, and they will never get anything that is good."The former lacks the ability to think independently, and reading is in a state of complete passive acceptance; the latter has the prejudice of "colored glasses", and he can only accept those things that are consistent with his interests and prejudices; Being a "captive" of books cannot really benefit from books.

Lu Xun advocated that "you have your own ideas", and you should give full play to your ability to choose, analyze and criticize.He emphasized "thinking for yourself" and not turning yourself into a "bookcase"; if you "can only look at other people's thoughts and art", it is tantamount to "running horses in your mind", which will lead to "hardening" of thinking and make reading difficult. The effect goes to the opposite.Thinking is not a kind of inner reflection activity of hard thinking and meditation. It is based on social reality and must be "observed by yourself" at the same time, "read a living book in the world with your own eyes"; this is also connected with reality, so he emphasizes that " You must get in touch with the real society to make the books you read come alive." This is actually Lu Xun's own attitude and method of reading. He never blindly followed books, but connected the contents of books with social reality for observation and reflection.Therefore, he can often extract the essence and use macros, and draw incisive new ideas that people have not seen from common books.

For example, with regard to "24 Histories", he neither regards these so-called official histories as authentic history like traditional scholars, nor does he regard it as "a book of relatives" or "a family tree of a single husband" like some people during the "May [-]th Movement". In the comparison with unofficial histories and miscellaneous theories, and in the observation of many phenomena that "existed in ancient times" in reality, after serious thinking, I think that as long as we are good at removing the "pretentious" decorations of historical officials, these historical books can be written. "Chinese soul".He said: "It's just because the paint is too thick and there are too many nonsense, so it's not easy to detect the details. Just like the moonlight projected on the berry moss through the dense leaves, only a few broken shadows can be seen." Therefore, we must get the real truth from the book. The teachings and reliable knowledge must be able to push away the dense leaves that cover the moonlight, and make the "broken shadow" become a clear light that shines all over the place.

The same is true for literary works. Mr. Lu Xun not only fully affirmed the outstanding achievements of "upholding the public spirit and criticizing the disadvantages of the times" such as "The Scholars" and "turning them into freshness because of realism" in "Dream of Red Mansions", he also pointedly pointed out It points out the essence of "concealment" and "deception" in many old novels that cover up contradictions and whitewash the reality.He emphasized the need to "keep your eyes open", that is, carefully observe the history and social reality, and think carefully to see whether these literary and artistic works face up to and reflect reality and life.Only in this way can we understand the value of literary and artistic works and gain lessons from them.

In the process of constantly seeking the truth, in the process of "self-observation" and "self-thinking", Lu Xun often felt that there were many "entangled questions" in the face of various books with different opinions.In his later period, after he read Marxist books, many problems that he often thought about suddenly became clear; his thinking made a leap, and his observation became more acute and profound.Under the guidance of scientific theories, he feels the importance of connecting with reality.He said: "If you don't get in touch with the actual social struggle, just close the glass window to make a fuss and study the problem, no matter how intense it is, 'Left', it is easy to do; It’s going to be smashed.” From Lu Xun’s large number of essays, we can see that he really “brought life to the books he read”, so he can often point out the key points and see the essence.For example, Tao Yuanming, who has always been regarded as an idyllic poet, some articles advocated that the "highest state" of art is "quietness" that "eliminates all worries and joys", and cited Tao Yuanming's "everything is 'quiet', so he is great" At that time, Lu Xun pointed out tit-for-tat: "Tao Qian is great because he is not 'all quiet'." He also explained that "there are no great authors in history who are 'all quiet'." Tao Yuanming's collections are common books for all to see. The reason why Lu Xun was able to correctly understand the essence of its content and refute the wrong arguments in a timely manner is because he had a different attitude towards books from those scholars who were locked in the "ivory tower".While studying, he always put social practice in a very important position. We should first learn from Lu Xun in his attitude towards books.

Specifically, there are many forms of learning methods that can enter and exit. Here are some great people's methods for your reference.

(Chen Yongzhi's "living brush") Chen Yongzhi of the Song Dynasty lived in Xiaoyao Village and was good at painting landscapes.The painter Song Fu looked at his paintings and said: "The paintings are indeed precise and meticulous, but they lack natural interest. You should first find a broken wall, cover the wall with white silk, and observe it from morning to night. It takes a long time. , you can see the top of the broken wall through the white silk, high and low, twists and turns, all become landscapes. With mountains and rivers in your heart, you can see mountains on the top of the broken wall, and water on the bottom. The depression is the valley, the gap in the wall is the mountain stream, the clear place is the close view, and the blurred place is the distant view. In this way, you can comprehendly imagine that there are people, birds, vegetation, flying in the sky, running underground, and coming and going on the wall. Scenery. So, if you draw with a brush, the scenery you draw will of course be natural, similar to uncanny workmanship, and beyond human imagination. This is called "living brushwork." Chen Yongzhi was inspired by this, and his painting level has greatly improved.

(Chen Hongshou’s paintings come in first and come out first) Chen Hongshou, a painter in the late Ming Dynasty, did not abide by strict rules in painting since elementary school.Once, he went to Hangzhou Fuxue to print the stone carvings of 72 sages painted by Li Gonglin. He closed the door and copied them for more than ten days. The man said: "The painting is very similar." He was very happy to hear that.After more than ten days of copying, I showed it to others, and asked, "How is the painting?" The others replied, "It doesn't look like it." But he was even happier.This is because after many times of copying, he has changed the traditional painting method: turning the round into a square, and turning the whole into a scattered one, which people can't recognize.

Chen Hongshou learned painting through two interrelated stages: the first stage is imitation; the second stage is creation.There is no development without inheritance. In order to inherit the valuable experience of previous generations, imitation is necessary.But the second stage is more important. If you just stop at the imitation stage and don't move forward, no matter how good the imitation is, it will be useless.Many people study hard all their lives, but their grades are very mediocre. The reason is that they can only imitate and lack creativity.

(Lenin's commentary reading method) Lenin adopted the method of making comments to temper his own thinking.Lenin, who loved reading, still couldn't let go of the book in the tense life of revolutionary struggle, even when he was arrested and exiled.When he is reading, he likes to write down rich comments, annotations and experiences in the margins of the pages.Sometimes the most noteworthy ideas or material are marked on the cover of the book.Once he read a work with high academic value, he also wrote a bibliographic index on the title page or cover of the book, especially indicating the page numbers of the good opinions, good materials and representative wrong assertions in the book.Lenin regarded making annotations as a kind of creative labor, and he took them very seriously, never sloppily.He generally annotates with pencil and rarely with pen.The process of his writing annotations can be said to be a process of discussion and even heated debate with the author of the book.Whenever he reads the incisive parts, he marks "very important", "witty and flexible", "wonderful", etc., and when he reads the fallacies, he marks "nonsense? Select", "inexplicable? Select", etc., Some places simply write "Oh, oh", "Um, is it? Bud", "Haha? Choose", "I see? Choose" and so on.What's more valuable is that Lenin's important work "Philosophical Notes" is a compilation of annotations and notes written while reading philosophy books.It is recognized as one of the classic works of Marxist philosophy.Seriously writing annotations can encourage you to use your brains when reading, study hard, and grasp the main content of the book, and you can also urge yourself to take notes and record some feelings and certain sparks of thought.

The so-called model reading method requires pre-constructing the structural model of reading before reading, that is, pre-imagining what the book will say and how it will be said.Then take this model to seek verification, revision or reconstruction in the "reality" of the book, and actively and consciously move towards the structure of the book.

Naturally, a problem also arises. How can the structural model of a book be pre-constructed without reading it?In other words, how did this original model come about?
(End of this chapter)