-- "Leading Cadres Should Love Reading, Read Good Books, and Be Good at Reading-Speech at the Opening Ceremony of the Second Batch of Advanced Classes and Special Seminars of the Central Party School in the Spring Semester of 2009" and other articles

■Interpretation

Comrade Xi Jinping attaches great importance to the role of thinking in learning, and regards it as the most important embodiment of "good reading". Thinking is the deepening of reading, the inevitability of cognition, and the key to reading books alive. If you just read mechanically, passively accept, and simply browse, without thinking, everyone will follow the clouds, and no matter how good the knowledge is, it will be difficult to absorb and digest it. As far as leading cadres are concerned, in particular, only through in-depth thinking can they strive to turn scattered things into systematic, isolated things into interrelated, superficial things into profound, and perceptual things into rational, so that they can apply their knowledge to the reality of reform and development, and to learn to enrich their morality, increase their wisdom, and learn to start a business. Human society has created more knowledge in the last 50 years than in the past 3,000 years combined. In the face of the exponential growth of knowledge, how to learn becomes an urgent problem. The key to combining study with thinking is to combine book knowledge with fiery practice and to prevent dogmatism and bookism. Comrade Xi Jinping demanded that "leading cadres should prevent the two phenomena of learning without thinking and thinking without learning at the same time."

■Original text

Zi said: "If you learn without thinking, you will be reckless, and if you think without learning, you will die." ”

——(Spring and Autumn) Confucius, "Analects and Politics"

■Definition

"If you learn without thinking, you will be reckless, and if you think without learning, you will die." The relationship between learning and thinking is explained. Confused. It means that if you just learn without thinking, you will be ignorant; If you only think, but do not study, you will gain nothing in the end, and you will only be mentally exhausted. Here, Confucius advocated the learning method of combining learning and thinking, believing that only by combining learning and thinking can true knowledge be obtained.

Confucius himself is a model of the combination of learning and thinking. According to Sima Qian's "Historical Records of the Confucius Family", Confucius learned to play the piano with his teacher Xiangzi for ten days. Shi Xiangzi said, "You can learn new tunes." Confucius replied, "I have only learned to play this piece, but I have not yet mastered the technique of this piece." After a few more days, Shi Xiangzi said, "You have mastered the technique of the tune, and you can learn a new tune." Confucius replied, "I haven't comprehended the charm of the song yet." A few days later, Shi Xiangzi persuaded again: "You can already comprehend the charm of the song very well, so learn a new tune." Confucius still said, "I have not yet understood the character of the composer." After another period of time, Confucius's expression was as if he had entered a new realm: sometimes he looked solemn and thoughtful, sometimes he looked forward to it, and his ambition was far-reaching. Confucius said, "I know who he is: a man with dark skin, a long body, and a far-sighted vision, like a king who rules over the princes of the four directions, who can compose this music except King Wen of Zhou!" Shi Xiangzi was very surprised when he heard this, and saluted Confucius and said, "That's right! My teacher said that this piece is called "Wen Wang Cao"! "The story of Confucius learning the piano fully embodies the attitude of attaching equal importance to learning and thinking.