Reading has its fun and methods. So why did the ancients attach so much importance to reading in family rules and family instructions, and how did they educate their children to read? What inspiration did their reading methods give us today?
Busy planting in the field, writing on the table is fragrant. In the traditional family life in ancient China, farming and reading are inseparable. Reading in the rain, farming, just putting down the hoe and picking up the book are the true life portrayal of many families. This enduring tradition is embodied in family rules and family instructions, that is, attaching great importance to reading. Zhu Bailu's "Home Economics Motto", known as "Home Economics Classics", holds that all people can and should study, regardless of their educational background and gender: "Children and grandchildren are stupid, but they must read classics." The Wu family in Peitian, Liancheng, Fujian, bluntly pointed out in the family training: "Scholars are the people first, and reading is the best."
So why did the ancients value reading so much? In their view, reading is a simple and commendable skill. Yan Zhitui, known as the "father of family precepts", said in Yan's Family Instructions: "As the saying goes, it is better to accumulate wealth than to have a Ji Bo at home. "Those who are eager to learn and valuable never study."
It is better to bequeath a son than a godson. Huang Tingjian has a poem: "There are thousands of books to teach children, and it is often a disaster to leave money." The ancients realized long ago that the inheritance of family blood is not the inheritance of wealth, nor the inheritance of official positions, but the inheritance of culture. No matter how strong the house left by our ancestors is, it will fall down, and no matter how much wealth we leave, it will dry up. Only books and morality can be nourished for a long time and passed down from generation to generation.
To study well is to be an official. The ancients thought it was an important way to apply what they have learned and be an official. However, studying can't be just for the imperial examination, but for being an official. Zheng Banqiao made it clear in his letter to his younger brother Zheng Mo: "It's trivial for a husband to study, learn and be an official. The first thing is to be a good person. " Sun Qifeng, a famous philosopher in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, also said in the Family Instructions of Xiaoyaotang: "The ancients read books and took subjects in order to understand the truth and be a good person."
In other words, no matter what use reading is in the future, it is beneficial to open the book and read it. With this mentality, reading is actually a very beautiful thing, and many people also tell the fun of reading with their own personal experiences in their home books. Mr. Tao Yuanming, who is "good at reading, not seeking a very good understanding", wrote in his family letter: "Learn less piano books, love leisure, and forget to eat when you open them." Chen Jiru, a writer and painter in the late Ming Dynasty, said in "An De Lao Ren Yan": "Closed doors are deep mountains, and reading is pure land everywhere." It is advisable to be immune and feel at ease.
Reading lies in diligent reading of classics, appropriate erudition, and fear of hardship. It is quite common to read the traditional family rules and instructions in China and emphasize "diligent study". "Fan Wenzheng's Hundred Words Inscription" says: "Read the books of sages diligently and respect teachers as relatives."
Fan Zhongyan, a public official in Fan Wenzheng, is a typical diligent scholar. The allusion of "painting porridge with broken pictures" vividly reflects his hard work. When he was young, Fan Zhongyan went to study at Liquan Temple in Changbai Mountain, Zouping, Shandong Province. Eager to study, he lent out all the rich books in Liquan Temple, and then shut himself in a cave, staying at home and concentrating on reading, often reading all night. In order to solve the problem of eating, he cooks a bowl of porridge with brown rice every night. When it freezes the next morning, it is divided into four portions, two in the morning and two in the evening. If there is no food, he will cut some pickles for dinner. In this way, I persisted for three years and finally finished reading all the books in the temple. Later, Fan Zhongyan once described the hard life at that time in Fu Fu: "In a clay pot, it was salted into a bluish yellow; Take a big bite and take out the corner card of the palace merchant. "
"Xiao Cao, listen to the teachings: study hard and be filial; Learn to be humble and follow etiquette; Diet and games; Don't lie, don't be greedy for profit ... "This is the beginning of Wang Yangming's letter" Xian Er ",and" diligent study "is the first place.
When Wang Yangming was a child, he was so obsessed with chess that he couldn't stop admonishing and learning. His father, Wang Hua, felt that he was a little tired from playing with things. In a rage, he threw the chess pieces into the river. Since then, it has become Wang Yangming's lifelong pursuit to study hard, quit playing games, be a good teacher and become a saint.
Yu Chenglong, known as "the first honest official in the world", is also an inspirational brother who studies hard. Before becoming an official at the age of 45, he studied hard for six years in ankokuji, a thousand-year-old temple near his hometown. Up to now, there is still a "reading building in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China" in the local area.
I lived in Chenglongshan Temple for six years. plain clothes fasted, lived an abstinence life, sang the wind, washed the snow and learned the classics. He firmly believes that "I Confucian scholars should cherish Yin to sharpen their studies" and "Reading is wise and clever, not just pretending to steal reputation" is his purpose of reading, and it is also his belief in life, which has laid a solid ideological foundation for him to adhere to the character of being honest and diligent in his official career in the next 20 years.
This persistence and habit was also passed on to future generations. "Yu Jiaxun" said: "Looking forward to your son is cautious and noble. Although they are enrolled in school, they are no different from ordinary people and bury themselves in their studies. "
Intensive reading and extensive reading can combine efforts, but we should also pay attention to methods.
Zhu, a great scholar in the Southern Song Dynasty, said in Exegetics for Children: "I have tasted that there are three times in reading, namely, heart, eyes and mouth. The heart is not here, the eyes don't look closely, the heart is not single-minded, it can only read, never remember, and it won't last long. Among the three, the heart is the most urgent, the heart is here, and the eyes are not here? "
The ancients lived up to their reputation in reading. They should not only look with their eyes and read aloud, but also copy, recite, write silently and use their brains with their hearts. Li Guangdi, a famous official of Neo-Confucianism in Kangxi Dynasty, said in his family instructions and letters: "It is better to pass on books than to pass them on. Cover it manually, and the heart will follow. Although I have read it 20 times, it is better to take notes once. " Reading is not as effective as reading. This is because when you start working, you must use your brain. Using your brain will help you understand the meaning of the book.
As to whether books should be intensively read or extensively read, the ancients also had their own opinions. Zhang Ying said in "Cong Xun Zhai Yu": "When reading a composition, you must concentrate on it, and your eyes are very different ... You read more than you are familiar with, and you can't practice it. If you can't use it for a while, you will be exhausted, just like an empty fist." In Zhang Ying's view, reading a lot of articles without in-depth understanding is like a general wasting his spirit by not training soldiers and not needing them in the face of war.
Zeng Guofan's reading is notoriously "slow", with special emphasis on patience and singleness. On the seventeenth day of the twenty-third year of Daoguang's first month, he said this in his letter to his brothers: "There is a formula for reading classics: if you don't understand one sentence, don't look at the next one; I can't see through it today, but I will see it tomorrow; Not this year, I will study again next year. " Looking at sub-parts and episodes, "but when watching a person's album, it is not appropriate to look from east to west", "Don't change an episode until it is finished."
But Hu Linyi, Zeng Guofan's good friend and an important general of Xiang, has a different view. He believes: "When studying, you can look far away, learn from heaven and man, learn a little about the changes of ancient and modern times, and make a brilliant marriage. If you just talk big, there will be no motivation to learn. "
In fact, intensive reading and extensive reading do not conflict. They can be used together or alternately, depending on the books you read and the people you read. Liang Qichao provided an operable "model":
"The books you read every day are best divided into two categories: one is good at this; One is browsing ... intensive reading department. You can watch it at a fixed time every day and never let go of a word when you watch it. After reading one, you can read other departments. If you want to copy, you can copy while watching. In addition, point out a moment, browse at will, pay close attention to what is interesting, and turn over a page if it is boring. "
Of course, the process of reading is not only to finish reading the book, but also to practice. As Lv Zuqian said in "Family Rules and Learning Rules", "All scholars should take classics as the purpose and reason as the action", and ultimately they should reflect on themselves and practice themselves when reading.
Zuo said in a letter to his wife and younger brother Zhou Ruchong: "When reading, you should carefully examine what the ancients did and take another thing. What do you think? How to tide over the difficulties? And when I handle things myself, I carefully compare the ancients. If the ancients thought so, what should they do? What should I do if I am willful? Then your own mistakes began to be seen, and the ancients began to understand. Never use ancient books to do things with yourself. "
Reading is a kind of spiritual communication and soul dialogue with others. You should read with your own ideas, otherwise you will find the book you read beautiful and interesting, but you will get nothing from yourself. This is "people are like this when they don't look at it, and they are like this after they look at it." Reading is the same as not reading.
Zeng Guofan once said: "If you can't understand your body when reading ... what's the use of reading?" ? Although he can write poetry, Boya boasts that he can only be regarded as a literate herder! "
In Zeng's view, the key to reading is to "be considerate of the body", swim with an open mind, observe yourself, and truly achieve the unity of knowing and doing, and stop at perfection.
Most importantly, read long and read sincerely.