How to learn the Chinese classics

How to learn the classics of Chinese culture

The classics are the source of national spirit, the treasure of human culture, the historical inheritance of the highest wisdom recorded in the national genes, is the nation's millennium old man to the future generations of children and grandchildren of the wisdom of the great thought of the sages, carried by the light of the sages. However, our Chinese culture has a long history, and our national classics are vast and splendid. How can we utilize our limited time to learn the Chinese classics as well as possible? This is a question worth thinking about.

First, the traditional way of learning the classics of ancient Chinese culture

The traditional way of learning the classics of ancient Chinese culture is mainly "rote memorization". Most of the ancient private schools adopted this method, and the ancient children began to be trained in memorization and recitation from the time they were enrolled in school. Generally divided into the following three steps:

The first step, the book. This is from the point of view of the gentleman. From the student's point of view, called "on the book". Because the students have to take the book to the gentleman's desk, so it is called "on the book". There are three sub-stages to the teaching of the book.

The first stage, called the "point of the book", that is, the student took the book, turn to the page to learn, hand over to Mr., Mr. point out to him to read the sentence. If the student is old enough to read, he or she will point out the sentence and give it to the teacher for modification.

The second stage, called "reading", that is, Mr. model reading, the students follow the reading, sentence by sentence imitation. In general, Mr. read three times, there are also read six times, there are also read two times.

The third stage, called "book", that is, Mr. to explain. Not only the meaning of the words, but also the meaning of simple chapters that can be understood by students at that age, that is to say, a series of lectures.

The second step is to memorize. "Satirical recitation" as a way of teaching ancient classics has a long history in China. "Satirize and recite", "Zhou Li - Chunguan - Dazhi music" note said: "times the text is said to satirize, with the sound section is said to recite." Therefore, "satirize" that is, recite, "recite" for out loud recitation. Teacher point sentence lead reading, students read with, is the initial completion of the task of teaching reading, and then the students themselves to familiarize themselves with reading and reciting, over and over again, until the recitation of the flow.

The third step, repeat. Repeat the lecture is that the student memorized the book, recite the book to the gentleman to listen to the content of what the gentleman said in front of him to listen to the gentleman. If the check is passed, the book can be taken up again, so it is the student's intelligence that determines the progress of learning.

China's thousands of years of traditional learning methods put special emphasis on familiar reading and memorization, "the mouth does not stop chanting in the six arts of the text, the hand does not stop Phi in the hundreds of compilations," reading and memorization is the main method of learning Chinese scholars of the previous generation, who grew up familiar with memorizing the "Four Books", They memorized the "Four Books" and "Five Classics" from childhood, laying a profound foundation of Chinese studies. Mr. Cai Shangsi, a master of Chinese national studies, said that he entered private school at the age of seven, and experienced a period of eight years of "memorizing Confucian scriptures": "After I entered the private school to study, and was dragged to perform the rite of commencement in front of the 'divine seat of Confucius, the supreme master of the Great and Sacred Scholarship,' it was After being dragged to perform the rite of commencement in front of the 'Divine Seat of the Great and Most Holy Master Confucius,' I was forced to memorize the Confucian scriptures day after day, and the most familiar ones were the Four Books, which I just memorized without understanding their significance. It was really painful; it was only after I understood its content that I realized the benefits of rote memorization at an early age, and I hated myself for not having memorized more ancient books. Now, whether it is my own or someone else's relevant writings, even if there is only a difference of one word, I will know that it is not the original text as soon as I read it. This is an advantage over some of the middle-aged and young people, me and those who have read private schools." This traditional method of reading still has positive reference significance for us to learn the Chinese classics today. Read more, read familiarly, and repeatedly savor in reading in order to enhance the sense of language. However, this method pays too much attention to the ancient classical recitation, ignores the students' independent experience, cuts off the aesthetic value of poetry and literature, and makes a flesh and blood article be dismembered and fragmented, thus making the students produce a considerable degree of fear and aversion to the study of ancient poetry and literature, which is precisely its shortcomings.

Second, the correct method of learning Chinese classics

We believe that the study of Chinese classics must be a good combination of perceptual and rational understanding, pay attention to the integration of aesthetic pleasure and cultural cognition, and not only highlight the importance of the traditional Chinese culture and concern for the concept of the reality of life, but also take into account the completeness of the humanistic connotations and the personalization of the learning process, so that learners can get deep humanistic spirit cultivation in the study of Chinese classics. The study of the classics of Chinese studies will enable learners to get a deep cultivation of the humanistic spirit.

(a) We should emphasize the importance of familiarizing ourselves with the basic books of Chinese studies

China's writings through the ages have been numerous and vast, and the number of books that have been "recorded" by the historical books "Arts and Letters" and "Books of the Scriptures" alone has been very considerable. According to the "Siku Quanshu General Catalog" included books are 3470, 7918 volumes; in addition, the "inventory" part of as many as 6819, 9434 volumes. Such a large number of ancient books, even if a person exhausts his life's energy, but also can not read all, in fact, there is no such need. Because a person's life is limited, its reading and study time, only a few decades, therefore, on the vast as the stars of the ancient books should be selective, focused to read. There are some basic texts that must be read no matter what profession one is going to pursue in the future, and some of them need to be familiarized with. These basic canonical books are included in the classics, history, son and collection, such as "Analects", "Mencius", "Poetry", etc. in the "classics"; "History" in the "Historical Records", "Book of Han", etc.; "Collection" in the "Xunxun". In the "History Department", there are "Shiji" and "Han Shu"; in the "Zi Ji", there are "Xunzi", "Han Fei Zi", "Laozi" and "Zhuangzi"; and in the "Jibi Department", there are "Chu Rhetoric", "Selected Writings", "Tang Poetry" and "Song Lyrics". These basic texts not only have important academic value, but also contain valuable philosophies of life. Not only should those who specialize in Chinese studies read them thoroughly, but also those who deal with other disciplines, such as science, engineering, agriculture, business, and management, should also study them well.

(2) to grasp the path of academic development

The so-called path of academic development, mainly: (1) refers to the process of each academic development. Such as China's poetry, from ancient poetry to music, from music to poetry, the process of its development should be clear, in order to grasp the characteristics of the development of each academic or literary style. (2) Refer to the research results and academic origins of scholars at each stage. Understanding the academic achievements and sources of important scholars at each stage can show the focus and direction of research in each era and clearly recognize the process of scholars' governance. (3) Refer to the academic style of each era. Understanding the academic fashion of each era helps to understand the reasons for the formation of the academic course of scholars in each era and the background of the era of their achievements. There are two ways to grasp the path of academic development: one is to familiarize oneself with the catalog literature in the history books about the Yiwen Zhi or the Jingji Zhi. For example, in the Han Book of Arts and Letters, the Sui Book of Arts and Letters, the New Tang Book of Arts and Letters, and the Song History of Arts and Letters, these historical records not only record the writings of the current generation, but also record the writings of the previous generation. Through the categories and documents of these historical records, we can understand the writings of each era and the academic style of the time. Secondly, we should familiarize ourselves with the books that describe the biographies of scholars or their academic origins. The biographies of scholars are generally included in the history books of the "Confucian Biographies"; books that introduce the academic origins of scholars, there are Liu Yuanqing's "Confucianism Case", Feng Congwu's "Yuan Confucianism Kaojiao", Huang Zongxi's "Song and Yuan Confucianism Case" and "Ming Confucianism Case", Xu Guangqi's "Qing Confucianism Case", and Jiang Fan's "Han Dynasty Han Dynasty Teacher's Record" and "Song Dynasty Scholarship Record", etc. From these works, we can clearly understand the writings of each era and the academic trends at that time. From these works, we can clearly understand the academic origins of each scholar, so as to understand the process of academic development of a certain school of thought and a certain era. For example, The Case of Ming Confucianism is a work of academic history that systematically summarizes and describes the development and evolution of academic thought and its schools in the Ming Dynasty.

(C) to have a minimum of general knowledge of ancient culture

The classics of Chinese studies involve a lot of people, things, things, learning the classics of Chinese studies, you need to understand some of the necessary general knowledge of ancient culture. Ancient cultural knowledge mainly includes ancient astronomy, calendar, geography, music, rituals and customs, patriarchal law, officialdom, imperial examinations, names, palaces, food, clothing, horses and carts and other aspects of knowledge. Only by mastering certain general knowledge of ancient culture can one better read and understand the Chinese classics; only by possessing rich knowledge of ancient culture can one ascend to the top of the hierarchy in the study of the Chinese classics, and be successful in both left and right. For example, in the ancient books, there are many documents involving astronomical knowledge, if you do not understand the minimum knowledge of ancient astronomy, it is difficult to have a more thorough understanding of the ancient books. For example, Li Bai's "The Road to Shu" in the poem "look at the ginseng and experience the wells, sit down and sigh with your hand on your breasts" and Su Shi's "The Former Red Cliff Fugue" in the poem "the moon is out of the eastern mountains, wandering between the bulls". Among them, "Sen", "well", "bullfighting", despite the explanation in the book, but the students are still not very clear. This requires knowledge of the ancient astronomical "star field". The Shiji - Book of Heavenly Officials" said that "the sky is a host, the earth is a state", it can be seen that the ancients are the stars in the sky and the earth's state linked to look at. In the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, people according to the region on the ground to divide the stars and hosts in the sky, the stars and hosts in the sky were assigned to the states on the ground, so that they correspond to each other, saying that a certain stars and hosts is a certain state's subfield; there is also the other way around, saying that a certain place is a certain stars and hosts of the subfield. According to the list of 28 star constellations and 12 states, we can see that the phrase "to climb a well" not only describes the high and dangerous Shu Road, but also explains its location. Similarly, the two stars "Dou Niu" also indicate the location of Red Cliff. After mastering this cultural knowledge, in reading Wang Bo's "Preface to Tengwang Pavilion", the first four lines "The former county of Yuzhang, the new capital of Hongdu. Star points wings and square, the land connected to the Henglu", according to the table can be found that "wings and square" two stars is the division of Chu, Tengwang Pavilion in Nanchang, Nanchang Han belongs to the Yuzhang County, the Warring States period belongs to the Chu. The late Ming and early Qing scholars Gu Yanwu has noticed the lack of astronomical knowledge of later generations of readers. He said in the "Day Knowledge Record": "Above three generations, everyone knows astronomy. The 'July fire', the farmer's words. Three stars in the house', the woman's words. 'The moon is away from Bi', the work of the garrison. The 'Dragon's Tail' is also a children's song. Later generations of scholars and scholars, there are asked and blankly do not know."

(D) to learn to use the tool

Confucius said: "Workers want to do a good job, must first sharpen their tools." To learn the classics of Chinese studies, we must be familiar with the style and usage of common tool books. Tools for us to prepare the basic knowledge of various aspects or information clues, can be read at any time to consult the study. To give full play to the effectiveness of tool books, we must be diligent in turning over and checking. The so-called independent reading ability, in a sense, is the good use of tools to solve difficult problems. There are many types of Chinese tools, according to the purpose of preparation, content and functional use, generally can be divided into dictionaries and lexicons, class books, political books, yearbooks and manuals, bibliographic indexes, tables and charts and other categories. Among them, the class book is a compilation of historical facts and tales, famous objects and systems, poems and fugitives, articles, words and phrases of the tool book; political books specializing in the record of rules and regulations, some of which are similar to specialized books; yearbook compilation of important current literature and statistics within a year; manual compilation of a certain aspect of the literature of the frequent examination; bibliography recorded book titles, volumes, authors, editions, and other items of the directory; the index reveals the source of the literature content to provide literature to examine the clues; tables and tables include chronology, indexes, tables and charts. The index reveals the source of the literature content and provides clues for literature research; the table of contents includes chronology, calendar and other tables, which are used for checking the history of the year, month and day, historical events, the birth and death of people, as well as official positions and geographic history; and the atlas includes maps and other atlases. For words and phrases we do not know in the classics, we can solve them with the help of dictionaries and lexicons; the use of tools such as class books, political books, almanacs, manuals, tables and records, and atlases can help us to find a certain material from the complicated and complicated materials of names, systems and allusions. Therefore, mastering tools is a necessary condition for reading Chinese classics.

How can we make better use of the tools? We believe that we must pay attention to the following points: First, we must understand the compilation of tool books. The first is to understand the preparation style of the tool book. Third, to understand the similarities and differences between similar tools. Fourth, to keep abreast of new tools and new information. Fifth, the interpretation of the tool book for specific analysis, not blindly follow. Our country has a long history of tool book compilation, if we count from the earliest dictionary "Shuowen Jiezi" and the earliest dictionary "Erya", there is a history of more than two thousand years now. Historically, the compilation of tool books was subordinated to certain purposes, adapted to the needs of the ruling class, and also reflected the understanding of people at a certain stage of social development. Therefore, the contents of tool books inevitably bear the imprint of class and era. For example, the Shuowen Jiezi explains the character "San" as "the way of heaven, earth and man". The word "king" is interpreted as "the way of the world". The word "Shen" is interpreted as "the God of Heaven who brings forth all things". All these reflect the consciousness of people in Han Dynasty. It can make us understand the awareness of people in the Han Dynasty, but it can not be applied to today's life, not to mention that this interpretation is correct. With the development of society, the level of people's awareness is also improving, therefore, the newly compiled tool books have made great progress compared with those compiled in ancient times, and the explanation of the meaning of the words is not only scientific, but also popular. Therefore, in general, we should try to utilize the newly compiled relevant tool books. In a word, the tool books can only give us some references or clues for solving difficult problems, and we have to rely on ourselves to analyze the materials provided by the tool books in combination with the specific language environment to solve the problems. As the level of learning improves, our ability to use tools to solve practical problems will certainly improve.