In the first issue of Reading magazine, which is quite famous in academic circles, there was a famous article "Reading without Forbidden Zone", which directly targeted at many rules and regulations at that time. It is not necessarily effective to artificially delimit the restricted area and say that these books can be read and those books cannot be read. Throughout the ages, so many books were banned, and none of them worked. The more books banned by the imperial court, the more interested readers are. Didn't you say "reading forbidden books behind closed doors on a snowy night"? That's very elegant. Let's say "Jin Ping Mei", which is often banned, can be edited by literati and not on the table.
There is no forbidden area for reading, but there is a path for reading. In other words, some people can read, others can't, or they can't read very well. It is not enough to say that "opening books is beneficial". Reading, what books to read and how to read them? There are two sentences worth recommending. First, it was written by the late scholar Sun Baoxuan. He said in the diary of forgetting the mountain that books are old and new, and there is no distinction between elegance and vulgarity. It depends on your eyes. Look at old books with new eyes, old books are new; On the other hand, if you look at a new book with an old eye, it is old.
What Lin Yutang said is more interesting: read only extremely advanced and extremely low-level books. Don't read books in the middle reaches, because those books have no self-image, and people follow suit. It goes without saying that the best books must be read, and everyone thinks so. But why read a very dirty book? In extremely dirty books, there is a mixture of sand and soil, so you can find gold in the sand-because of social prejudice, many works of prophets were initially banned. One more thing, few people read this kind of book. You can show off your erudition by quoting occasionally. Many people who write articles have this habit, that is, to avoid the main road and find a path to make themselves look different. This strategy is good and bad.
Jin Kemu wrote a book, which was included in Swallowing Spring Mud (People's Daily Press, 1987). It is said that the historian Chen Yinque once told people that he had seen Xia Zengyou when he was young, and Xia sighed with emotion: "It is good that you can read foreign books; I can only read China's books, and I have finished reading them, so I have nothing to read. " He was shocked and thought that Xia had a mental illness; When I get old, I think it makes sense: there are only dozens of ancient books in China to read. This is to teach people to read the original classics, not those second-hand or third-hand documents, cut off the crowd and start from scratch.
In fact, the so-called "classic" is not fixed; Different times, different nationalities, different classes and even different genders, the classic definition is moving. Talking about "classics" doesn't have to start with three emperors and five emperors. People who are good at reading are not choosing the self-evident classics of Confucius, Mencius and Zhuangzi, but judging some potential classics that are still on the road and have not been recognized. By the way, I advocate "reading classics", but I don't advocate "reading classics"-the latter has a specific meaning and only points to the four books and five classics of Confucianism, which is too narrow.
When it comes to reading, you can't help but mention the posture when reading. Whether your book is put in the toilet, piled on the desk, put on your knee or held in your hand, sitting still or flipping through it casually, your reading attitude is different and the effect is different. Why? This involves the mentality when reading, and further, it also involves the interest and methods of reading. Give a familiar number and see how Lu Xun reads.
Lu Xun said in his essay "Flip through" that he has a reading habit of "flip through": "No matter what book it is, you must always flip through it, or read the preface, or read a few pages"; I don't care. I don't work hard. I take this thing as a pastime. I know that books that disagree with me should be turned over, and outdated books should be turned over. If they are turned over, they will naturally broaden their horizons and are not easy to be deceived.
The meaning of "browsing casually" is close to what Tao Yuanming said in the biography of Mr. May 6th: "You study hard, but you don't want to know much". It must be remembered that Lu Xun said that this is not all about reading, but "reading for leisure" and "not doing well may harm people". This is the characteristic of Lu Xun's essays. I'm afraid you'll play the violin, laugh at yourself or even dispel yourself, so as to cultivate independent will and skepticism. Indeed, Lu Xun has another reading attitude.
Taking the history of novels as an example, Lu Xun said: "I have my own independent preparation" (not a letter). Comparing these three books, linking ancient novels, Tang and Song legends and old novel notes, it is not difficult to find that Lu Xun's writing attitude is rigorous in A Brief History of China's Novels. Compared with many of his contemporaries who wrote thousands of words, Wan Li and Lu Xun's academic works were too few. Many research projects have not been completed, which is related to their serious and cautious academic attitude. However, after decades, the dust has settled, and many "masterpieces" that were sensational at the beginning have vanished, while "A Brief History of Chinese Novels" still stands, which shows that seriousness also has serious benefits.
Go back to school, and you can be free and easy when you "flip"; But when it comes to "killing villages and fighting hard", we must not be careless. All those who talk about college campus or study life choose funny ones, and those who don't know the details think that reading is easy and effortless at all. If you think so, you are all wet. The real reading life is a combination of speaking easily and pressing heavily on the back of paper.
Fourth, the pleasure of reading.
In the modern society that attaches importance to academic qualifications, there is a certain connection between reading and occupation. In college, it is not enough to cultivate one's mind and cultivate one's nature. It is a pity to turn them into pure vocational training. The ideal state is not only to acquire exquisite "professional skills", but also to cultivate lofty "academic ambition" and mellow "reading interest"
Reading must be solved, but there are three possibilities for how to solve it: study hard and don't seek extraordinary solutions-that is, celebrity reading; Good at reading, seeking great solutions-that is, scholars; If you don't study, you are eager to learn-this is called reading a hero. The latter sentence is a parody of "hero translation" in the late Qing Dynasty. Free play and random misinterpretation, though unique, are not the right way to "read".
Tao Yuanming's "good reading, not seeking very much understanding" must be related to the following sentence: "Every time you know something, you will gladly forget to eat." What is concerned here is the mentality. How to explain the so-called "ancient scholars are for themselves, and today's scholars are human beings"? Studying for one's own fame, for one's parents, or for the prosperity of the motherland is a bit worrying. Reading for the sake of reading-according to Ye Shengtao, Zheng Zhenduo has a mantra "I like it very much" when talking about books (preface)-it is a book of true love, and I really love reading. The act of reading is meaningful in itself, and there is no need to use "Golden House hides Jiao" or "Yan Ruyu" as a drug introduction. It is a last resort to read books as a means of obtaining means of subsistence, or to "write books for the benefit of rice and rice" as Gong Zizhen ridiculed himself.
Ancient scholars, who were knowledgeable in reading, had no choice but to write; Today's scholars study for writing. In today's China, the academic evaluation system is becoming increasingly rigid, following the example of the United States, "publish it or give me death". Therefore, when we meet, we don't ask what good books we have read, but what new books we have published and what topics we have reported. I really don't know if I can continue studying if I don't apply for this subject. My feeling is that this habit of reading for the sake of writing can easily make reading lose its fun.
As a scholar, you can't stop writing books all day. If you just want to find information to write a paper, you will go to the other extreme and forget that reading is a very pleasant thing. I learned this lesson myself. More than ten years ago, I read many good and bad martial arts novels in order to write "Chivalrous Man". Reading hurt me, so that for a long time, I had a headache when I saw martial arts novels. I really hope that one day, I can completely remove the armor of scholars and study freely. I wrote two books and read the diaries of Japanese and British museums. I'm not bluffing, but I hope I can restore my curiosity about the unknown world and enjoy reading.
In my opinion, reading itself has a special charm, which is worth enjoying again and again. In this sense, reading is both a means and an end. It's just that this kind of reading with both means and purpose is not available anytime and anywhere. In the postscript of Diary of the British Museum, I quoted the story of four princes who visited Diana Road at night in Liu Yiqing's Shi Shuo Xin Yu and Ren Dan Pian. I really hope that "reading" can also reach this state: "I left on impulse and came back after excitement", so what is there to test? Why do you want a degree? Why do you have to write? Of course, such carefree and free "reading" is an ideal realm, which is difficult to realize in real life. But although I can't do it, I yearn for it.
Tao Yuanming said that "every time I know something, I forget to eat happily" is the same experience of many scholars; Not only "forgetting food", but also forgetting life and death. Among the "reading history" mentioned just now, there is a photo taken during the London bombing in 1940, which is very touching. In the collapsed library, the bookshelf against the wall did not fall down. In the ruins, three men were still reading happily. Of course, this is to fight against bad luck and strengthen our belief in the future, but it can also be interpreted as: "reading" has become a necessary daily life and a symbol of life. This book is interspersed with many historical images about books and reading, which is very beautiful; Unfortunately, there is only one16th century engraving about China, describing the scene of Qin Shihuang burning books.