I want to evaluate this book in a simple and easy-to-understand way and narrative, describe it in the most common tone, and tell it in common and easy-to-understand life sentences. Based on my mediocre literary talent, my evaluation is a bit one-sided and superficial.
The author and background of this book.
Meditation, written by the ancient Roman emperor Aurelius, records the author's feelings and thoughts about the world from youth to adulthood. During the author's reign, the Roman regime was in a turbulent period. On the one hand, ancient Rome was constantly invaded by foreign armed forces, on the other hand, philosophical thoughts from Greece were very popular in ancient Rome. Why am I saying this? Because reading a book, to understand an author's thoughts, only by understanding the author's background, culture and history of that era can we better understand the author's thoughts and feelings. As the emperor of ancient Rome, Olelius was in charge of national security, which required him to have tough political skills and outstanding military talents in order to face the troubled times of the empire. On the other hand, the author accepted systematic and perfect philosophical thoughts since childhood, and continued to study hard for this, which became a principle of his future thoughts and behaviors. This is a kind of conflict, on the one hand, it is a love for philosophy, on the other hand, it is a responsibility to the country, the royal family and the nation, which is also a point of the author's ideological contradiction.
2. Contents and opinions in the book
As I said, the book is written by recording some experiences and feelings of the author's life, but this kind of life experience is rarely described, and one thing is often understated, which leads to deep thinking about it. This kind of thought is based on the education received in childhood, and is extended on the basis of this philosophical thought to express one's feelings about life. The writer is a Stoic student. I can't deeply understand the ideology of this philosophical school. Interested friends can learn about it.
Every chapter of the author is written around a point, either morality, life and death or faith, but this description of abstract things is not easy to understand. The reason is that the values of the author and the reader are different and difficult to understand. Besides, I'm not used to the way foreigners speak. The different logical structure of this sentence is an obstacle to the spread of Chinese and western cultures. When describing the author's thoughts, the author will make some visual descriptions of his own thoughts, which I prefer, such as
"Don't beg that the whole world is a good person, because good people and bad people all exist in this world, just like the fruit of a tree, there are good and bad."
There are some thoughts similar to Taoism in reading, such as Invisible Avenue and Life of Heaven and Earth. The avenue is ruthless, and the sun and the moon run; The avenue is nameless, and everything grows.
3. Personal feelings about this book
It gives people a sense of peace, which is based on the nothingness of everything, that is, it is expressed through a long history and many life experiences, because in this troubled and complicated world, no matter what you do, it is insignificant and meaningless in the long life and infinite cosmic time. The book encourages people to be indifferent to fame and fortune, pursue spiritual belonging and tranquility, enjoy emotional communication with relatives and friends, and maintain a "Buddhist" mentality. Of course, this idea of abandoning personal self-interest, sense of honor and utilitarian values, in my opinion, is an irresponsible performance with certain negative thoughts, because for individuals and society, too much pursuit of spiritual peace will turn a deaf ear to the things around them, will not strive to pursue and change the difficulties in life, and will only wait for redemption in situ, which is unfavorable to families and society. Of course, this is my own evaluation, but it is also partly the conflict between my values and the author. On the other hand, it may be that the author's thoughts are not well understood and there are some misunderstandings.
As for recommendation or not, I'll make some other comments. 1. Many people study too much for fame and fortune, and they can only be superficial and can't understand the profound content. Maybe we can talk about it on other occasions, but what can we learn by asking their true feelings? ? 2. Most readers' literary literacy is not high. Someone questioned me, saying that people with literary literacy are not worthy of reading famous books? I'm not saying that you can't read famous books, but some ideas need to be studied, accumulated and precipitated, just like I'm taking an exam now? Riemann conjecture? I will give you a new book. You haven't even studied advanced mathematics, and you don't understand it. What's the use of reading it? It is not impossible to read profound books. Doing some basics and learning other philosophical contents will make you read better and more interested. Personally, I think it is ridiculous to talk about people like Bo Liming after reading a little. Most people run for their lives. Reading is your personal interest, but you have to have your own life! Even heroes have to eat! This kind of philosophy book, in particular, can't give you much obvious improvement, so why read it or not? Just take a look, be interested, and give up if you can't stand it!
Original answer
I have read it, and I can express my opinion, but I personally think it is not suitable for most people.
I bought it for the first time. When I was in high school, I thought its title was unique and I liked philosophy books, so I bought it. There are many comments on the back of this book. I didn't agree that it had such great charm at that time. Now that I think about it, it is true that my level is too low to understand the true meaning of this book.
The preface of this book, like most biographies, is about the author's life, and it is from this book that I learned about the Roman emperor. Writing content is written around the author's growth, because the author has the habit of taking notes with him. At the beginning, I wrote about the author's family situation, reading experience, becoming an emperor, his views on various issues of the empire, and his thoughts on human nature (in fact, there is not much self-narrative about the author's experience in the book, and some may be comments and the like. Personally, I think it is very similar to The Analects of Confucius, but the narrative method is different. The book takes the form of preface and sections, and each section will be written in natural paragraphs. A natural paragraph is about four to ten lines. I suggest that you stand down and think about it after reading a paragraph, because its writing tends to be a little red tape (to be honest, my description is inaccurate, because the translator of The Record of Meditation I bought is Mr. He Huaihong, who has a deep knowledge. I can only say that my literary accomplishment is too low to deeply understand the meaning of the article, but I don't feel sick and groan. It's really thought-provoking after reading it. I don't think reading this book can be like reading a novel. Learning to feel the meaning and thoughts expressed by the author is the most difficult thing.
There are many versions of this book, but two versions are very popular with readers, one is by Stanley Ho and the other is by Liang Shiqiu. We can't compare their translation level, but because of their different styles, the translated ideas are slightly different.
But at that time, I was too superficial, thinking that the author was just a unique person in Nuo Nuo. Because most of the themes in the book are self-discipline, in a complicated and chaotic world, I constantly raise the requirements for personal morality and reason, which was what I hated most at that time. I thought it was just incompetence and self-deception. Besides, I was in a dormitory and could not settle down to study. After the holiday, I slowly read this book, and more and more I feel that the sentences in the book are more and more absurd, which may be caused by my being too extreme. Finally, I burned the book.
Now that I think about it, that book is really right and has a special view on human nature and things. I'm really impulsive.
Finally, I will revise my answer.
Because the original version of this book was written in ancient Rome, it is inevitable that today's translators will deviate from the original according to their own preferences. The literary talent is high, the translation is profound, and the general translation is popular and straightforward. I have bought English and Chinese (translators are different), and I like everything according to my own preferences.
As for recommendation, I don't particularly recommend it, because books on philosophy are difficult to read and a bit boring. Many people think that masterpieces must be read, but some masterpieces are difficult to read. It is boring to read some difficult classics in order to gain fame. This is not only a waste of your time, but also meaningless to you. Your temperament will not be greatly improved by reading this book. Whether you read a book or not depends on your love of such books. Although it is not very recommended, I think you can try it and see if it meets your taste before deciding whether to buy it.
In fact, to put it simply, most people are bored reading philosophy books, such as me. If you really like reading philosophy books, then you will not hesitate to read other people's books. The fundamental reason is that the level of literature is limited, so we can't read anything and appreciate the value and significance of literature. After reading it, there is no feeling or thinking, which is the normal state for most people and me to finish reading this book.
If you are interested, you can look at the following first. Excerpts from Volume II
We should also pay attention to the fact that even what happens after what happens naturally is pleasant and attractive. For example, when bread is baked, there will be some cracks on the surface. Some of these cracked parts do not include the purpose of the baker, but they are still beautiful in a sense and stimulate appetite in a special way. Another example is figs, which will crack when cooked; Ripe olives add a special beauty to the fruit when it is near decay. The drooping ears of wheat, lion's eyelashes, foam flowing from the mouth of wild boar, and many other things, although if you look at them in isolation, people may think they are not beautiful enough, but they are the result of natural things, so they still help to decorate them and make their hearts happy. Therefore, if one has a feeling and profound insight into the things produced in the universe, those things that appear as a result will almost always be arranged in some way that causes happiness. Therefore, when he observes the open mouth of a real beast, he is no less happy than what painters and sculptors imitate. He can see some maturity and propriety in an old man and look at the charm and cuteness of young people with pure eyes. Many such things will happen. They won't please everyone, but they will please people who are really familiar with nature and its works.