When I was studying in Changsha, my teacher, Yang Changji, had just translated a history of Western ethics. When Mao Zedong knew this, he quickly borrowed the manuscript and returned it a week later. The teacher warned him to read carefully and not to swallow all the dates. Mao Zedong explained that the book was badly needed, so I didn't have time to read it carefully, so I copied it word for word. The teacher was even more surprised that hundreds of thousands of words of manuscripts were actually transcribed by Mao Zedong in a week!
During his stay in Jinggangshan and Ruijin, Jiangxi, after the troops captured the Kuomintang county, others were searching for property, but he was obsessed with searching books and let soldiers search books and newspapers everywhere. The romance of the Three Kingdoms was found in a local tyrant's home. The old newspaper collected by the soldier, even a small piece of paper, he will cherish it.
1On April 3, 932, Mao Zedong attacked Zhangzhou, and the soldiers collected a large number of books, including Two Strategies of the Social Democratic Party in the Democratic Revolution and "Left-leaning Infantile Diseases in the Production Movement". Mao Zedong regards it as a treasure and always carries it with him.
During the Long March, considering the difficulty of marching and the displacement from different places, the Central Military Commission ordered everyone to go into battle lightly and carry limited items. Mao Zedong would rather take less other things than leave a box of books. During the journey, he took out his book from time to time to read. Even if I ride a horse when I am sick, I will read on horseback when I am awake. Lenin's "State and Revolution" was written on horseback. During a break, Wang Jiaxiang found that Mao Zedong had thrown away his rice cooker and toothbrush, but he was carrying many books, including Lu Xun's works. These heavy books followed the team to climb the snow-capped mountains and cross the grassland all the way to northern Shaanxi.
During the Yan 'an period, Mao Zedong purchased books and newspapers from Kuomintang-controlled areas through various channels. 1August, 938, The Complete Works of Lu Xun was first published. He transported the complete works of Lu Xun to Yan 'an through the underground organization of the Party.
On weekdays, he is untidy and doesn't care much about food and clothing. Many good clothes were given to the poor, but he was stingy with his books. Even if it is worn out, he must take it with him.
Slowly, his books increased and someone took care of them for him. At first, his books were placed in a row of bungalows not far from his residence. Later, they were bombed by Japanese planes and transported to a deep cave for protection.
At the beginning of 1947, Hu Zongnan led a massive attack on Yan 'an, and the central authorities decided to take the initiative to evacuate. When the central authorities evacuated, Mao Zedong just got on the horse and jumped off it. Originally, I was worried about his boxes of books, fearing that they would be destroyed by the Kuomintang army. I specially arranged for the guards to send the books to the nearby mountain village and bring them back after Yanan recovered them.
Later, these books traveled thousands of miles to Beijing.
After the founding of New China, the reading conditions became better, and his books gradually increased. In order to facilitate the collection of books and reading, he installed a bookcase in his bedroom and customized a double-headed wooden bed. On one side of the bed are two big bookcases, and on the other side is a small table and a large table with all kinds of books and documents on it. Usually he leaves half a bed for books, and he can read books when lying on his side.
After years of collection, his bookshelf is full of all kinds of books, from social science to natural science, from Marxist-Leninist works to western bourgeois works, from ancient times to modern times, from China to foreign countries, with a total volume of 65,438+10,000, which is difficult for even knowledgeable experts and scholars to compare with him. Many of them were preserved by Mao Zedong when he was young. His book has long been yellow and illegible, but he still regards it as a treasure and refuses to throw it away.
Not only the books in the bedroom, the books in the office, the books in the toilet, the books in the swimming pool lounge, but also the books in the place where I lived in the suburbs of Beijing are kept, which is convenient for me to read at any time.
Even so, he often borrows books from Beijing Library, Beijing Normal University Library and Capital Library. According to statistics, as of September 1966, he has borrowed more than 2,000 books and more than 5,000 volumes from the library. Among his relics, Mao Zedong's library cardNo. 1 in Beijing Library is still well preserved.
When Mao Zedong goes out for a meeting or an inspection, even if it is only a short business trip of 3 to 5 days, he will definitely make a list of books in advance. The staff will take books according to the list, ranging from a few boxes to more than a dozen boxes to more than 20 or 30 boxes. He is not afraid of many and is tireless. On the train, on the boat and on the plane, Mao Zedong will never stop his reading activities.
Mao Zedong is addicted to reading. He always reads, thinks, notes and records. When he saw the highlights, he picked up the pen circle and commented.
His method of taking notes is unique. He seldom uses a notebook, but annotates his reading experience and witty sentences between the eyebrows and between the lines of the book. The top of the sky, the middle seam of the edge, and the lines at the end of the paragraph left his handwriting everywhere.
When he was studying in Hunan No.1 Normal University in his early years, he studied the German book Principles of Ethics with hundreds of thousands of words, among which he made more than 12,000 words of notes. He also wrote comments in the blank with a small brush, and wrote "to the point", "this statement is very accurate" and "this statement is very close to me" at the agreed point of view, and "if not" and "this section is not appropriate" at the doubtful or negative places.
During the Yan 'an period, Mao Zedong extracted more than 3,000 words from the philosopher Ai Siqi's Philosophy and Life for research and discussion. He also specially wrote to Ai Siqi, saying, "Your philosophy and life are more profound books in your works. I benefited a lot from reading it and copied some. Please send it to me. Is there any mistake? There are some doubts (not basic differences). Please reconsider. "
Among his philosophical works with many annotations, five are more important, namely Dialectical Materialism and Historical Materialism, Outline of Sociology, Course of Dialectical Materialism, Selected Works of Philosophy and Course of Dialectical Materialism, with a total annotation of about 20,000 words. These annotations in the book are tightly circled, with continuous words, continuous strokes and overlapping words, which reflects his concentration, nuance and thoughtfulness when reading.
Until the last two years before his death, when he was reading the Book of Jin, he wrote in red ink on the covers of several volumes with trembling hands: "Read again in August 1975" and "Read again in September 1975".
Mao Zedong's reading focuses on some books, some of which he only knows a little, while others need to be studied deeply and repeatedly to explore their true meaning.
Some classic monographs have been read for decades, such as Manifesto of the Productive Party, Twenty-four History and Works of Lu Xun. And they have never tired of reading for decades. Because he looks at it from a different angle every time, he will get different gains. Naturally, he reads tirelessly, and the more he reads, the more he loves reading.
He first read a manifesto of the * * * production party from 1920 to 1976, and has read it many times. In his later years, there were several "Manifesto of the Productive Party" in his closet: the thread-bound version of the big-character poster, the small-character poster published in Yan 'an period, and the foreign language version.
The same is true of the Complete Works of Lu Xun. 1938 After the Complete Works of Lu Xun published in Shanghai was sent to Yan 'an, I read it happily for the first time and didn't put it down until 1975.
Mao Zedong likes reading China's classic books, such as The Analects of Confucius, History as a Mirror, A Dream of Red Mansions, Historical Records, The Book of Songs and The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Four Great Classical Novels/KLOC-started reading at the age of 0/3, and still studied in his later years, spanning 70 years.
According to Meng Jinyun, who worked as a nurse beside Mao Zedong in his later years, there was always a copy of Zi Tongzhi Sword at the chairman's bedside, which he tore up. A lot of paper is stuck with transparent adhesive, and his comments are everywhere. When Mao Zedong read The Purple Tongzhi Sword, he was fascinated. He picked up the book and read it for a long time, turning it over for several hours. He often keeps company with books day after day.
Mao Zedong said to Meng Jinyun with emotion, "I have read this book 17 times. Every time I read it, I benefited a lot. A rare good book. I'm afraid it's the last time, not because I don't want to read, but because I don't have time. "
Zi Zhi Tong Jian is a masterpiece of 3 million words, and Mao Zedong has read it 17 times!
In his later years, reading became his greatest pleasure and hobby. Every day, except for sleeping, eating, reviewing documents and meeting foreign guests, he spends almost all his remaining time reading books, sometimes for more than ten hours a day.
1976 in the first half of the year, Zhou Enlai and Zhu De passed away one after another, and Mao Zedong suffered an unprecedented blow to his body and mind. Even so, he still doesn't forget to read.
One morning, he was lying in bed and asked his secretary, Zhang Yufeng, to find him an article called Ode to a Dead Tree. The general idea of this article is: In the Jin Dynasty, a man walked under a big tree and remembered that it was once flourishing, but now it withered and withered, giving birth to a sad and sentimental feeling.
In his later years, due to cataract and other diseases, Mao Zedong could only read by himself with a magnifying glass at first, and then he could only ask Zhang Yufeng to read to him.
Zhang Yufeng read sentence by sentence, slowly and lightly.
Close your eyes slightly, as if you are savoring the scene in Fu, and as if you are reviewing the road you have traveled in your life.
After reading it several times, Mao Zedong said to Zhang Yufeng feebly, "Take the book and see if I can recite it."
So, Mao Zedong pulled himself together and tried his best to recite word by word: "This tree is dancing, and all business is done! ................................................................................................................................................................................., if the tree is still like this, why are people inferior! "
The full text is nearly 600 words, and Mao Zedong recites almost word for word. Although her voice is weak and her speech speed is slow, she is still full of frustration and emotion. Zhang Yufeng heard clearly, looking at Mao Zedong's old face, and tears slowly moistened her eyes.
1976 On September 8th, the day before his death, Mao Zedong was filled with tubes. He was in a coma and awake for a while, but when he woke up, he needed a book for his secretary to read to him. He wakes up 1 1 times and reads 1 1 times, with a total time of ***2 hours and 50 minutes. The last reading was at 5: 50 pm on September 8, and he was unconscious after only seven minutes.
The next morning, the great leader Chairman Mao passed away and bid farewell to his study career.