Recently, I read an essay by the essayist Wang Kailing, The Road to Disappear from School, which was very touching. Let me read you some paragraphs:
"Kojiro, carrying that bag to school, not afraid of the sun and the storm ..."
Passing by a primary school, the nursery rhyme of 30 years ago suddenly woke up.
At 4: 30 in the afternoon, the school gate opened, the children filed out and the adults flocked. Just then, Song suddenly jumped out of his memory, word for word! As if the schoolbag had returned to my shoulder, I couldn't help but have the idea of skipping again.
Once upon a time, the children on the way to school were like a group of undisciplined sparrows, with no escort and no escort. They chattered and were in high spirits. They had enough fun and went home when they were hungry. In retrospect, the greatest happiness of childhood was on the road, especially on the way after school. It is the most imaginable and anticipated space. Every alley, every stray dog and wall cat, biscuit shop, tailor shop, small mill, the selling sound of candied haws, the smell of popcorn, and the newly built bird's nest in someone's tree will contact me at some time.
This is the most fertile soil for the growth of life. It's hard to imagine what's left of childhood if the page number on the way to school is removed. I suddenly feel sorry for my child now. They don't have to go to school anymore. They are packed in cages like luggage and transported directly home. Children in big cities, in particular, are in danger of losing their spiritual home, and the warm and interesting way of going to school has disappeared.
A junior high school Chinese teacher said that nowadays, composition questions rarely involve "hometown" because children will be at a loss and at a loss. Yes, can you regard the vast Beijing as your hometown? Can you regard a commercial housing community as your hometown? I once rented in a residential area for 3 years, and walked around it every day, but I knew nothing about it. On the day I moved out, I was a little lost. I really want to say goodbye to someone and say something, but I can't figure out who that person is. ...
Mr Wang Kailing thought of the disappearance of his hometown from the disappearance on his way to school. From this, I further think that in an increasingly fast-paced and fast-food life, what we are disappearing is not only the way to school, not only the material hometown, but also our spiritual home and cultural hometown.
In our mother-tongue world, desertification is becoming more and more serious.
For example, if you walk around the garden of our mother tongue world, you will find that our mother tongue homeland is facing the dilemma of ecological deterioration, our mother tongue spirit is disappearing and the quality of our mother tongue is declining. We are gradually moving from the rich language world to the future of desertification.
I used to help professors and friends who worked in universities read master's and doctoral dissertations. I don't want to talk about the content of the paper. We only talk about writing here. Many masters and doctors have received 12 years of basic education, and the words written are like a messy grass, which is terrible and sad. Why has our mother tongue education been reformed for decades, but even the most basic bottom line-the cultivation of writing ability can't be guaranteed? Isn't this the great sorrow of education in China? In 1990s, an economic and trade delegation from China visited Japan. The Japanese reception unit requires each VIP to sign in the VIP room, and has prepared various pens such as writing brushes, signature pens and pens. Most Japanese VIPs sign neatly with brush and Chinese characters, because in Japan, signatures on solemn occasions are generally written in Chinese and brush. And our senior officials and entrepreneurs in China, when they saw the writing brush, hid 50 feet away. They are afraid of the writing brush. They can't write with it. Later, a Japanese TV station compared the dignified and honest signature written by the Japanese with the signature written by the China people with the same ant paw. ...
Watching this news really makes people speechless!
Citizens of a country can't even write their own words well, they are too lazy to write well, and they don't write well seriously. This is not only a question of writing, but also a question of identifying with national culture. So I say that the spirit of our mother tongue is disappearing bit by bit.
Our lost mother tongue spirit is not only reflected in the decline of writing level, but also in the ability to express. Chinese mainland people's speeches, whether officials, scholars or presenters, are generally characterized by falsehood, grandeur and emptiness. We are good at shouting loud slogans and saying empty universal formulas, but we lack the strength of flesh and blood, details, spirituality, sincerity and touching the heart. An American professor gave English training to some teachers in Peking University. He came up with an English composition topic: My mother. The next day, he walked into the classroom with dozens of compositions from Peking University teachers. Confused, he pointed to one student after another and asked, Why? Yours, yours, yours-all your mothers are the same appearance, the same personality, so hardworking and so kind. Why do I only see one mother in the works of so many of you?
This question hits the nail on the head! These Peking University teachers are a representative, a microcosm, representing our public and each of us: we are used to formulaic and modular expressions, used to empty words and expressions, and have lost the ability of personalized expression. The rich expressive power of mother tongue is disappearing little by little in our generation or even two generations. ...
Not only in writing and expression, but also in some important links involving the overall situation, we can find the decline of mother tongue spirit.
Please take out your identity cards. The editorial department of "Shanghai Chewing Word" found four serious language errors from the second-generation resident ID card we are using now.
The first mistake is that the front of the ID card is "citizenship number" or "citizenship". What is the other way around? Is it a China People's Identity Card, a Citizen's Identity Card or a Resident's Identity Card? There is a big difference between "citizen" and "resident": as long as you live in this land, you are a "resident" and criminals are also "residents", but "citizen" is different. "Citizens" have rights and obligations, which are a thousand miles away.
The second mistake, let's look at the front: "citizenship number", what is identity? I am an editor and you are a teacher. Can you give this identity number? Obviously, the "citizenship number" should be the "ID number".
The third mistake-there is a column on the front of the ID card: "birth" should actually be "date of birth", because only saying "birth" must contain two elements, the place of birth and the date of birth.
The fourth mistake is the most ridiculous. The validity period of the ID card for the elderly is "from a certain year to a long time". Who can live long? How can the validity period be "long-term"? That's ridiculous.
The identity card error reflects the extent to which civil servants in our state organs have lost their mother tongue literacy and sense of language. Recently, Ge, a professor at Fudan University, strongly called for the accountability of identity card makers and relevant departments, and suggested that the NPC and CPPCC start the investigation procedure. Because the ID card is not a trivial matter, it concerns1300 million citizens. If we want to continue, hundreds of millions will be wasted. What does the language error on the ID card mean? It shows that our mother tongue spirit is disappearing, and the mother tongue spirit is dying.
When James Soong of Taiwan Province Province visited the mainland for the first time, Gu, president and academician of Tsinghua University, held a grand ceremony and presented James Soong with a word. As a result, when President Gu was reading a poem about that word, he read the wrong word and burst into laughter in full view, although there were four small reminders from the secretary. One day later, a professor in Tsinghua University was a guest on CCTV's Face to Face program. When talking about James Soong's visit, he mispronounced the word again. Professor Lu Gusun, Dean of the School of Foreign Languages of Fudan University, received a linguistics book from a doctoral supervisor. On the title page, the professor of linguistics wrote: "Please ask Professor Lu Gusun to help health". What is "righting"? In the past, when the first wife of a big family died, it was called "supporting the young wife". Is it a clerical error to mistake "correcting the axe" for "righting the body"? I don't think so. If the professor really understood the essence of "error correction", he would certainly not make such a low-level mistake.
You see, from presidents and academicians of top universities in China to professors of linguistics and doctoral supervisors, even these senior intellectuals and social elites often make low-level mistakes in expressing their mother tongue. What does this mean? It shows that the Chinese literacy of our whole society is declining, indicating that our mother tongue spirit is disappearing. Faced with such a situation, we should feel very ashamed and very uneasy. As Chinese educators, we have the responsibility to change this situation and revitalize our mother tongue world.
Rediscover the beauty of mother tongue.
What is the spirit of our mother tongue? I think it can be summed up in four words: exquisite, elegant and spiritual.
The so-called "fine" means fine, fine and fine. The essence of Chinese is embodied in The Book of Songs, The Analects of Confucius, Tang and Song poems and classic books handed down for thousands of years (see Zhu Wenjun's speech later). The so-called "elegance" means elegance, elegance and elegance; The so-called "God" is the spirit and aura. I will talk about these two points in detail below.
So rediscover your mother tongue and find out what?
First of all, discover the genes of our national spirit from our mother tongue. The mother tongue of any country is entrusted with her national spirit. For example, the moon culture "thousands of miles away", the bosom friend culture "high mountains and flowing water", the farewell culture of "Yangliuyiyi", patriotism, moral integrity and other spiritual elements are all found in our ancient poems and classics. One of the most basic functions of leading children to read classics is to sow the seeds of traditional culture in their spiritual pastoral.
Second, we should also discover the phonological beauty of our mother tongue.
As I just said, for our mother tongue, our tongue and throat are really the happiest vocal organs in the world. Reciting such a beautiful language is really like enjoying the most wonderful taste every day. It's really a pleasure. Xu Jianshun, an associate professor at Minzu University of China, extensively collected and sorted out traditional singing methods and developed new Chinese singing methods, forming a brand-new singing method with both the charm of Chinese traditional culture and modern and contemporary characteristics. Professor Xu will give you a special speech, so I won't go into details here.
Third, we should discover the symmetrical beauty of mother tongue.
Looking at the world around us, we will find that all symmetrical things are often beautiful. According to expert research, the more symmetrical a person's left and right faces are, the more beautiful they look. Chinese has a strong beauty of symmetry. First of all, the structure of each Chinese character is symmetrical: up and down coordination, left and right symmetry. Look at the combination of Chinese characters, sentences, poems and songs, which are also symmetrical. Idioms are all composed of four words, which are neat and symmetrical; Couplets bring symmetry to the extreme. "Two orioles sing green willows and a row of egrets soar into the sky." Symmetry, complete symmetry, how beautiful!
Fourth, discover the beauty of China's growth. There used to be many ancient languages in the world, but now most of them have died out. It is a miracle that only China people are still alive, growing between our lips and teeth. China has experienced two serious crises. The first time was during the May 4th Movement. Many of our new cultural pioneers think that Chinese characters are backward and strongly advocate using Pinyin instead of Chinese characters. After this crisis, Chinese has leveled off today. In the 1980s, Chinese suffered a second crisis, and computers began to be widely used. At this time, Chinese computer input becomes a problem. If this problem could not be solved at that time, the fate of China people would be really unpredictable. This crisis has passed, and now, Chinese has been perfectly integrated with computers, which is very good. No one dares to say that Chinese is backward.
Now no matter what new things appear, whether it's the Internet, whether it's blogs or Weibo, as long as there are new things, we China people can present them with wonderful words. A young man wandering in Ningbo is such a tramp. Because he looks cool, netizens immediately created a wonderful word to call him-"Brother Sharp". "Sharp" has existed since ancient times, and "Brother" has existed since ancient times. Creative combination-Brother Sharp is so wonderful and vivid!
Fifth, we should also explore the essence, elegance and spirit of our mother tongue.
How good is your mother tongue? Let's look at a letter. It's only nine words, but it's fascinating-
A love that consumes everything, you can go home slowly!
Wu Wang Qian Liu's wife goes back to her hometown in Lin 'an every year and doesn't come back until the following spring. One spring, the flowers bloomed and his wife had not come back. Qian Liu missed her, stood in the field and looked into the distance, but still could not see her shadow. So he wrote her a letter with only nine words-"A exhausted love, you can pay it back slowly!" " What do you mean? Madam, the flowers on the road have already bloomed. Take your time and enjoy them. You don't have to hurry back. "Go back slowly" doesn't mean come back slowly. It means you don't have to rush back and enjoy the flowers on the roadside slowly.
Nine ordinary words, combined together, are as simple as that. There is no word "think" in the whole article. If you want to go back quickly, please slow down, cherish flowers and miss people, but convey the infinite affection between husband and wife. Therefore, Wang Shizhen in the Qing Dynasty said, "Just nine words are colorful and full of vitality." This exquisiteness, elegance and charm of Chinese can't be translated in any language if it is in English, Arabic, Japanese or Korean.
Let's look at the words "the wind and rain are coming, and the chickens crow endlessly", which are from four poems in the Book of Songs. What do you mean? A young woman, where her husband wandered, missed her husband, tossed and turned, and couldn't sleep at night. At this time, it was dark outside the window, and it was stormy, and the crowing was endless. Before her husband came back, her full thoughts turned into these eight words-"It was stormy, and the crowing was endless." What an unforgettable memory it is! God bless her. After she recited these eight words, her husband suddenly pushed the door and came back! She blurted out, "I don't like meeting gentlemen!" "
Nowadays, young people's love letters use a lot of network symbols. Are they worth the eight words that the young woman casually recited in the dark night more than two thousand years ago? The short eight words "the wind and rain are like a gray storm, and the cock crows endlessly" suddenly pull our imagination to a very grand perspective, giving lingering thoughts a broad background, which is very atmospheric, open and profound. So these eight words were later used by intellectuals to describe their moral integrity: this society is very dark, this country is very turbulent-stormy, but I am a gentleman.
There are too many such exquisite languages in Chinese. Let's take another example casually: "When the fruit falls in the rain, the grass insects sing under the lamp." There is beauty of symmetry, spirituality and harmony between man and nature, and the poet's sensitivity and delicacy make people sigh. Qian Mu, a master of Chinese studies, said: "It is better to read a western philosophy book than to read China's poems with the word 10." He said: "sitting in a barren mountain cottage, fruits falling in the rain, insects singing under the lights, and the sound is in my ears, which makes my heart integrate with life in heaven and earth ... as well as natural science and biology." There are not many words, but my heart is very at ease. " Qian Mu recalled a personal experience. He said: "I went back to Suzhou to wait on my mother and lived in the garden. There is a small building with rivers on both sides, called Pavilion Building. A person lying inside, sleeping with a pillow, listening to the sound of the river is no different from listening to grass and insects under the fruit lamp in the rain. It is to know that there is a sound in the world of life, which is above the world of things and there is no other environment. "
Therefore, Chinese is the eternal spiritual home of China people: small bridges, weeping moons, apricot blossoms and spring rains, frosty autumn moons, willow trees in Baqiao, and cold water ... That is to say, Chinese, our mother tongue, is related to soul, aesthetics, sensibility, materiality, nature and spirituality. Once you miss these subtle elements, you will regret it for life. In fact, people's great inventions, university questions and great art are more rationally related to spirituality. The so-called "brainwave, plan" is by no means a joke, so which is more precious to teenagers, especially dolls? Why not let a newly unearthed Xiao Xinwei fully absorb the fragrance of her mother tongue?
Is this passage good? (Applause warmly) Everyone must give some applause, because I didn't say this. It was said by a great translator. It was really good.
Based on the above thinking, from the reading of China's classical poems to the reading of "new classics", we are trying to open up a reading road that is in line with the times, innovative and suitable for children's needs. We sincerely hope that teachers will lead our children to settle down in this impetuous and noisy world through the platform of "New Classics" reading experiment, find a way to return to their spiritual home, rediscover the beauty of our mother tongue, let our children have an international vision and national soul, and become a rooted China person.