Handbook of Bible Reading and Education

Section 3 Basic Theory of Bible Reading for Adults Basically, anyone can and should read the Bible. Basically, anyone can and should read the Bible. However, there are some differences between adults and children in terms of the mindset and the way they read the Bible. Although this book aims to promote children's reading of the Bible, adults can also read the Bible, and if they can agree to start reading the Bible, they will have a deeper understanding of children's reading of the Bible. First of all, let's talk about how adults can read the Bible: Due to the influence of the times, it is very difficult for a modern person to think of reading the Bible. Even if one has the will to do so, he or she will not be able to overcome the first obstacle: how can he or she read the scriptures if he or she does not even understand them? This dilemma involves a great deal, if not explained in detail, in order to lift the psychological obstacles, a person will never be able to read the scriptures, please explain as follows: Hu Shizhi wrote an article to prevent us from reading the scriptures, entitled 'We are not worthy of reading the scriptures'. He cited Wang Guowei as an example: Wang Guowei is a master of Chinese literature, his own lifelong study of canonical books, have admitted that there are still four or five tenths of the book of the Bible do not understand, poetry and the Bible and one tenth of the second do not understand. Who are you and how much do you know? How dare you talk about 'reading the scriptures'! This article is so powerful that until now, if anyone in our society wants to 'read the Bible', there will be people who will laugh at him: How dare you read the Bible if you don't understand it? Even the person who reads it will hint to himself that he cannot read it if he does not understand it, and so he will not dare to try. In fact, Hu Shizhi confused academic specifications. Wang Guowei's not understanding refers to the difficulties in 'textual exegesis', whereas since ancient times, what readers call 'reading the scriptures', its main intention is to take on culture and open up life, not to weigh in on textual exegesis. Therefore, even if some of the words in the classics are mysteries of the past, they do not hinder the emergence of sages and philosophers from generation to generation, so why can't we read them if we don't understand them? Further, Hu Shizhi's logic does not make sense. If, according to him, one cannot read if one does not understand, then we should ask him: If one does not read, when will one understand? In other words, we should ask him, "Do I have to understand before I read, or do I have to read before I understand? If you don't read if you don't understand, you can't understand for the rest of your life, so you can't read for the rest of your life, and the more the whole society doesn't understand the more they don't read, and the more they don't read the more they don't understand, which results in the fall of the classics, and the disintegration of tradition. This is exactly the hope of Hu Shizhi, and his hope has been fully realized today! The May Fourth Movement did not only make Chinese people afraid to 'read the classics'. The result of Hu Shizhi's and others' excessive promotion of the vernacular language has even caused the whole population to lose the ability to 'read the literary language'. Since ancient times, Chinese readers have been good at both the written language and the vernacular. Formal written texts were written in the literary language, and games were played in the vernacular. To the main language, the vernacular as a supplement, so not only good writing in the literary language, to write the vernacular language is more comfortable. For example, Hu Shizhi particularly admired the vernacular language masters Shi Nai-an, Cao Xueqin, they would have been well read poetry of the ancient masters! Hu himself, for example, thought he was a natural with his vernacular writing and extensive knowledge, but in fact, he had forgotten that he had been reading literary texts since he was four years old, and that he had read Ziji Tongjian at the age of eleven and Zuozhuan at the age of thirteen! Those other people who thought they were good at writing in the vernacular language in the May Fourth Era were all full of classics. However, Hu Shizhi and others did not care about the fact that the literary language and the vernacular language could have co-existed, and forgot that the literary language was the basis of the vernacular language, and he did not take into account the fact that since ancient times, the scriptures, history, and the collected works of Confucius, and almost all the books were written in the literary language. Originally, as long as the ancients could learn to read the literary language in three to five years, then all the books of the last three thousand years could be read with ease, and the 'literary language' was not only not an obstacle to the spread of culture, but also a design to make the cultural inheritance great and long-lasting. If you cannot read the Chinese language, you cannot read classical books, and you will never be able to learn traditional culture. This will lead to a break in the cultural heritage of the nation, or even to its demise. People who have lost their traditional cultural upbringing will easily lose their rational introspection and creativity at the same time, and this effect is already evident today. If not rescued in time, our society will gradually become 'a society without culture and unfit for human habitation'. To establish a religion on the basis of a short history of the vernacular language is to reduce oneself to shallowness; to learn only from the West is to dwarf the culture, and from then on China will never be able to cultivate great talents. It must be realized that the consistent cultural mentality of the May Fourth Movement is the word 'parochialism'. Parochialism cannot tolerate things, and parochialism and excesses become 'hegemony'. The 'hegemony' is the reckless destruction of cracks, all those who do not agree with their own views, all 'knocked down', completely lost the rationality of the inclusion and development of the nature. So the cry for 'modernity', you have to knock down 'tradition'; the cry for 'westernization', you have to knock down 'China'; the cry for 'modernity', you have to knock down 'China'; the cry for 'modernity', you have to knock down 'tradition'; the cry for 'westernization', you have to knock down 'China'. If we cry for 'modernization', we must knock down 'tradition'; if we cry for 'westernization', we must knock down 'China'; if we cry for 'science', we must knock down 'metaphysics'. These are and shouting to 'vernacular', you must defeat 'literary' the same mentality of abnormal psychology. This kind of mentality, which must be 'defeated' and then be willing to do so, has become the fundamental source of chaos in Chinese society in the past 50 or 60 years! You can't see that up to now our society is still full of the sound of 'knocking down' each other! Now, in this devastated situation, we advocate the 'reading of the Bible', first of all, we have to correct this kind of parochial mentality. We should give full play to the spirit of tolerance, and be sure that not only the literary language and the vernacular are not harmful to each other, but also, by extension, cultural literacy and science are not harmful to each other, oriental and western culture are not harmful to each other, and traditional wisdom and modern life are not harmful to each other. Not only do they not harm each other, but they are also values in human reason, which a rational person should respect, learn, develop and integrate. The study of the classics is the most direct and effective education to improve language ability and to inspire rationality and open up the mind. Because in terms of language, the 'classics' are the most beautiful literary texts, the so-called 'great texts come from the six scriptures', with the classical language training, reading other ancient books will not matter, can read the ancient texts, the appreciation of the vernacular language of the writing will be much help. The 'classics' are also the roots of culture, and with rooted cultural upbringing, it is easy to develop a person's rationality and cultivate a broad mind and the virtues of mutual respect and honor. We are convinced that a Chinese person with his or her own traditional background will be welcomed and respected by Westerners, and that a Chinese writer, lawyer, doctor, pianist or scientist with a strong Chinese cultural background will not be hindered in his or her professional achievements, but will be enriched by his or her creative mind. As we all know, Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein are also people with considerable cultural literacy, and Russell, whom Hu Shizhi admired, grew up memorizing ancient poems since he was a child. I hope to adopt Thank you.