This is the most effective way to learn

Chapter 68 "Bo" and "Broken" in Reading

What does "breaking" mean in "reading and breaking ten thousand volumes"?
Yuan Mei, a poet in the Qing Dynasty, once said: "Reading is like eating. Those who eat well will grow spirits, and those who do not eat well will develop phlegm tumors."

Everyone needs to eat, but what to eat and how to eat are very particular.In the same way, everyone should read, but what books to read and how to read are also worthy of serious consideration.

Du Fu, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, said in a poem: "If you read ten thousand volumes, you can write like a god." In this regard, most people often simply understand that the more books you read, the better, but this is not exactly what it means.

In the book "Detailed Notes on Du Fu's Poems", Qiu Guangao of the Qing Dynasty once explained this line of Du Fu's poem as follows: one is "there are thousands of volumes in the chest, so there is a spirit in writing from both sides"; The meaning of the three absolutes is that if you read it well, the volume will be easy to break"; the third is "the principle of seeing through thousands of volumes".

These three sayings collectively reflect different understandings of the word "po", which can be summed up as: break through, break through, and see through.

Read a book, benefit for a lifetime
There are so many books, but human life is limited after all, even if you keep your books in your hands from birth to death, how many books can you read?

Someone once divided books into four categories: one is useful and interesting books; the second is useful but boring books; the third is interesting but useless books; the fourth is neither interesting nor useful books.Of course, "useful" and "interesting" are relative terms, and have different standards for different people.But generally speaking, for interesting books, you can read them appropriately, but if they are interesting but useless, you can read them faster, even ten lines at a glance; but for useful books, even if they are not interesting, you should read them over and over again. Read it slowly, you might as well read through one book first and print it in your mind.

The famous scholar Wang Yeqiu also has a deep understanding of "reading through a book".When he talked about his reading of Lu Xun's "The True Story of Ah Q", he believed that in order to understand "The True Story of Ah Q", he had to read it at least 14 times, otherwise he would not be able to digest it.He said: After reading it the first time, we would laugh so hard that our stomachs hurt; the second time, we only found something that wasn't ridiculous... No. [-] times, maybe it's the alarm...

Fan Wenlan said that he started his studies by studying Liu Xie's "Wen Xin Diao Long".By reading this famous book on literature and art theory in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, he not only mastered ancient Chinese systematically, but also learned something about ancient Chinese history, ancient literature and art theory, Chinese literature history before Wei and Jin Dynasties, astronomy and geography, etc.

"Read a lot of books, read a book"

The purpose of reading is mainly to learn, so we must grasp the relationship between "reading a lot of books" and "reading a book". "Reading a lot of books" is to select books of real value from them; "reading through a book" is to chew, understand, think, digest, etc. the selected good books, and turn other people's knowledge into your own knowledge and your own knowledge. creativity.

When the world-renowned physicist Yang Zhenning was studying at Southwest Associated University, he once read a 20-page article in the book "Modern Algebra Theory" by the mathematician Jun Kexun for more than half a month, and benefited a lot from it.

The famous writer Jia Pingwa said in "Book of Reading Shows My Little Sister's Birthday":

First of all, reading should not be narrow, philosophy, history, aesthetics, astronomy, geography...everything you can find must be read.But don't forget about intensive reading. The real mastery of skills lies in intensive reading.The first time you can swallow the jujube whole, which is called enjoyment; the second time is to sit down and read quietly, which is called Yinwei;Read it three times, put it on for a few days, and read it again, there will often be new enlightenment...

There is an ancient saying: "If you break through ten thousand volumes in reading, you can write like a god." It is very difficult to do this.Even if a person keeps reading books from birth to death, the number of books he can read is very limited.What's more, no matter how much you read other people's books, if you don't digest and absorb them on the basis of understanding, you will never become your own knowledge.Therefore, I really appreciate a sentence that is "read a lot of books, read a book".If you really want to read, I think the first thing you have to do is: read a difficult book seriously.

First of all, I want to talk about the word "serious".

If we really want to improve our intelligence, if we really want to understand an important idea, if we really want to acquire a certain aspect of knowledge or theoretical basis, or even if we really want to have fun, I mean the real refreshing joy of reading, and It is not a temporary superficial vulgar interest, then we only have to study hard.Because whether it is important ideas or knowledge and theoretical foundations, they all exist in important works written by important writers.That is to say, they have all gone through a process of repeated and serious thinking, imagining and writing, or a magical conversion of genius into words, facing such a story that embodies the author's life experience, spiritual feeling or superb intelligence. Only by carefully reading the works of seeking, can we understand and gain something.Only through a serious process of mental activity can our intelligence be improved and we can obtain lasting happiness.

Why mention "one" book in particular?
We should read "one" book seriously first.Put aside those books that others have said so well, together with those advertisements and reviews, use your brains, think carefully, and choose a basic and important book. Seriously, word by word, from beginning to end, read it once, twice or even more times, from language to plot, from argument to argument, from thought to literary talent, from way of thinking to writing style, etc., thoroughly Make it clear.The more seriously you read and the more thoroughly you read, the closer you can get to the author's entire spiritual world.

"Reading finely" is a concentrated summary of "reading through one book". "Essence" is a classic. Although a classic is not worth [-] characters, its ideological connotation and knowledge content are unmatched by non-classics.Although the classics are not read a lot, after reading, they have a solid foundation and pure knowledge, giving people the impression that they have read a lot.

Classic works can be read repeatedly, have regeneration value, and even be used for a lifetime.Therefore, "intensive reading" will inevitably lead to "intensive reading" in reading methods. "Intensive reading" and "intensive reading" always complement each other. , is the "Cross Mantra" of "intensive reading".

How can we "break a volume of reading"?This requires us to use our brains, think carefully, and select truly valuable books to read repeatedly.From language to plot, from argument to argument, from thought to literary talent, from way of thinking to writing style... Only in this way can the knowledge in the book be transformed into living creativity, and the knowledge of others can be transformed into one's own knowledge.

But why should this book be a "difficult book"?

Whenever learning new things, most people like to start with an introductory book.However, is this the correct approach?Really suspicious?
Generally speaking, the so-called introductory book is to make it easy for beginners to understand. The content has been carefully selected and organized into a concise narrative.

It is because the "prime book" is organized into a concise document, only listing the general points, and the explanation is often insufficient, so it appears boring and, at the same time, relatively difficult to understand.In this way, for those who are full of enthusiasm and want to learn new things, it is undoubtedly a bucket of cold water.Full of enthusiasm, in exchange for a basin of cold water, the desire to learn that sprouted not long ago disappeared immediately.

Especially when encountering unintelligible technical terms and theories, the flames of interest that sprouted are often extinguished.Thus, instead of reading a so-called "prime book", it is better to read a novel that focuses on this issue, or a biography of someone in this area, and so on, to expand the scope of your interests, and the effect will be better.

Because, when a person starts to learn something, interest in the unknown, such as "Huh?", "Why?", will become a huge force.After expanding your interest, if you dabble in relevant knowledge from relevant books in a more systematic way, the knowledge you will acquire will far exceed the knowledge in "introductory books".

If you really get pleasure from books, if you really want to improve yourself, and if you really want to make important discoveries, then the book you are reading is definitely not a book that you can easily read at the beginning.This book has to be quite difficult.The author's thoughts and opinions, stories and language, way of thinking and writing style are generally unfamiliar to you.Only when you read carefully, can you surpass your past self and become familiar with things that you were unfamiliar with before, which is improvement.

The breakthrough in reading difficult books is to find the exact keywords.The so-called "keywords" are important terms that are used relatively frequently in a book.It is also the part where it appears, and must be read as a key point.If you mark it at the beginning, you will be more efficient when you read it again.Chinese idioms often become so-called keywords.The Japanese language is well-formed.It uses Chinese characters, Japanese katakana and hiragana, and it reads very well.Because it becomes the key of the article, that is, important concepts are expressed in Chinese characters.Readers can understand [-]% of the content as long as they stare at the Chinese characters.Therefore, the so-called "keywords" can be selected from "Chinese idioms".Also, care must be taken with technical terminology.These terms are also often expressed in Chinese characters, and recently, some people use katakana to express them.Especially in science, engineering and economics, almost all foreign languages ​​are used.Chinese idioms plus professional terminology, as long as you find out the key words, even difficult professional books can be integrated through efficient reading.

How difficult it is to "seriously read a difficult book"!With this experience, you can intensively read some important works; with this habit, your reading life will open up a new realm.With perseverance, with confidence, coupled with continuous improvement methods and continuous enrichment of experience, what else can't be done in this world?

Jia Pingwa's words above can be said to have exhausted the essence of "reading a lot of books and reading through one book".From these words, we can also have a deeper understanding of Jia Pingwa. This famous writer who came out of a small mountain village in southern Shaanxi, the reason why he can achieve literary achievements that fascinate countless people is inseparable from his diligent spirit of being good at reading.

(End of this chapter)