The most taboo thing in seeking knowledge is to deceive oneself and others, and not know how to pretend to understand. If it is only for the sake of reading books to gain knowledge, this kind of "self-deception" is nothing more than harming oneself, and there is nothing wrong with it. But if this kind of person is allowed to lead the enterprise, it is not a matter of harming oneself, it can be said that "if it is small, it will harm oneself and others, and if it is large, it will destroy the enterprise". For this reason, we must not underestimate the harm of not knowing how to pretend to understand. Because it is entirely possible to change a person's quality and degenerate into a social hazard, which can be described as infinitely harmful.

I once heard a joke about someone asking, "What do you think of Shakespeare?" ”

A said, "It's okay, but it doesn't taste as good as 'XO'." ”

B retorted, "Hey! You don't know how to pretend to understand! Shakespeare is a dessert, how can you say it is wine! "It's a ridiculous joke, a few words, and it's full of philosophy. It admonishes us: to know is to know, not to know is not to know, don't pretend not to understand.

In fact, it is impossible for each of us to be proficient in anything, and there must be a lot to make up for and learn. And not knowing how to pretend to understand is like putting a fig leaf on the shortcomings, casting a blinding trick to temporarily block the sight of others, so that you can survive for a long time. As everyone knows, when the truth is revealed, those who don't know how to pretend to understand will eventually have to pay the price for their ignorance. It is said that Su Dongpo served as an official in Huzhou for 3 years and returned to Beijing after his term of office. I want to be degraded because I offended Wang Anshi back then, so I should come back this time to meet him. So, he went to the Prime Minister's Mansion. At this time, Wang Anshi was taking a nap, and the scholar welcomed Su Shi into the east study to wait. Su Shi sat idly and had nothing to do, and saw that there was a plain note under the inkstone, which turned out to be Wang Anshi's two unfinished poems, and the title was Yongdai. Su Dongpo couldn't help laughing and said: "I think that when I was an official in Beijing, he wrote thousands of words without thinking. Three years later, it was Jiang Lang who was exhausted, and he couldn't continue after two sentences. After reading these two sentences, I couldn't help but exclaim: "Ah, it turns out that even these two lines of poetry don't make sense." The poem reads: "The west wind passed through the garden last night, blowing down the yellow flowers and covering the ground with gold." In Su Dongpo's view, the west wind prevails in autumn, and chrysanthemums bloom in late autumn, which is the most durable, even if it is scorched and rotten, but it will not fall petals. As soon as he thought of this, Su Dongpo couldn't hold back, and added two sentences according to the rhyme: "Autumn flowers are not better than spring flowers, and the poet said carefully." After writing it, I wanted to rob the prime minister like this, but I was afraid that it would cause trouble again, if the poem was torn up, it was not systematic, and I felt that it was inappropriate, so I put the poem back and said goodbye and went back. The next day, the emperor issued an edict and demoted Su Shi to the deputy envoy of the Huangzhou regiment.

Su Dongpo served in Huangzhou for nearly a year, in the blink of an eye it was late autumn, one day suddenly there was a strong wind, after the wind stopped, under the chrysanthemum shed in the back garden, the ground was covered with gold, and there was no flower on the branches. Dongpo was stunned for a moment and was speechless for a while. At this time, I knew that the chrysanthemum in Huangzhou really fell petals! couldn't help but say to his friends: "The younger brother was demoted, and I only thought that the prime minister was a personal vendetta." Who knew I was wrong. Remember, don't laugh at people easily, as the saying goes, one thing is wiser. ”

Su Dongpo felt ashamed in his heart, so he wanted to find an opportunity to make amends to Wang Anshi. remembered that when he was about to leave Beijing, Wang Anshi had asked him to take the water from the middle gorge of the Three Gorges to use it for Yangxian tea, but because he was not convinced in his heart, he had already left the matter of taking water behind. So he wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to send a congratulatory watch to Beijing on the Winter Solstice Festival, and brought the water from the middle gorge to the prime minister to make amends.

At this time, it was close to the winter solstice, Su Shi took leave and took his wife who returned to his hometown due to illness to go through Sichuan. After breaking up with his wife in Kuizhou, Su Shi went down the river alone, not wanting to fall asleep because of the fatigue of the saddle horse for days, and when he woke up, he was already down the gorge, and then went back to the boat to get the water in the gorge and was afraid of missing the time to go to Beijing, and listened to the local old man: "The Three Gorges are connected, and there is no barrier." In general, it is difficult to distinguish between good and bad. He packed a porcelain jar and went down to the gorge and took it to Beijing.

Su Dongpo first came to the Prime Minister's Mansion to meet the Prime Minister. Wang Anshi ordered the door official to take Su Shi to the east study. Su Shi thought of changing his poems here last year, and he was ashamed. When he saw the manuscript of the poem posted on the pillar, he was even more ashamed, and he knelt down to apologize.

Wang Anshi forgave Su Shi for not seeing chrysanthemum petals before. When Su Shi presented the porcelain altar, he took water and boiled Yangxian tea. Wang Anshi asked where the water was taken from, and Su Dongpo said, "Wuxia." Wang Anshi smiled: "Come and deceive me again, this is obviously the water of the lower gorge, how can you pretend to be the middle gorge?" Su Dongpo was shocked, and hurriedly excused himself by mishearing the local dialect, the Three Gorges are connected, and the rivers are generally water, but I don't know how the prime minister can distinguish them. Wang Anshi said earnestly: "Scholars must not be hearsay, they must be careful to investigate, if I have not been to Huangzhou and seen the chrysanthemum petals, how dare I mess with the poems in the poem?" The water nature of the Three Gorges is said, out of the "Water Jing Supplement", the water in the upper gorge is too urgent, the water in the lower gorge is too slow, only the middle gorge is slow and urgent, if it is used to flush the sun and envy tea, then the upper gorge has a strong taste, the lower gorge has a light taste, and the middle gorge is suitable for a long time, and the brown color appears for half a day, so I know that it is the water of the lower gorge. Su Dongpo was convinced, Wang Anshi opened the bookcase again, and said to Su Dongpo: "You just take a book from these twenty-four cabinets, read the above sentence, if I can't answer the next sentence, even if I am an uneducated." Su Dongpo specially selected those books that accumulated a lot of dust and obviously hadn't read them for a long time to test Wang Anshi, but who knew that Wang Anshi would answer like a stream. Su Dongpo couldn't help but be impressed: "The old lady has profound knowledge, and it is not within the reach of my juniors!" "Su Dongpo is a generation of writers, poetry and songs, all have excellent works handed down, just because of his arrogance and arrogance, he was succumbed to Wang Anshi three times, and he never dared to be arrogant to others easily. Su Dongpo is still like this, and those who are not as good as Dongpo should be cautious in words and deeds, modest and studious. A person can't read all the books in the world, and he can't read the world's reasoning. As the ancients said, "It is better to be ignorant and clever than to be clever and ignorant." ”

In fact, if you don't understand, you don't understand, so why pretend to understand? If you think about it, there are two general reasons for those who bring this bad habit: one is that they don't have much knowledge in their stomachs, and once they are asked, they want to answer "I don't know", but they are afraid that they will be embarrassed, so they have to pretend not to understand, talk nonsense, answer non-questions, and perfunctory, so as to get out; The second is that his ability is not great, but he can't bear loneliness, so he began to "slap a swollen face and become fat" in front of and behind people, putting on a posture of being well-versed in the past and the present, and opening his mouth is "Zhang Fei beats Yue Fei, and he flies all over the sky", specifically to scare those who are shallow in knowledge, so as to make a name for himself.

In the final analysis, not knowing how to pretend to understand is actually self-deception, and it is also a kind of cover for a person's shortcomings and deficiencies in the process of seeking knowledge.

It can be seen that not knowing how to pretend to understand is not only useless, but harmful. Dong Zhongshu, a Confucian in the Han Dynasty, once wrote: "A gentleman does not hide his shortcomings, he asks if he doesn't know, and he learns if he can't." The so-called "not hiding its shortcomings" is to dare to admit one's own shortcomings and dare to dissect oneself. "If you don't know, you ask" is to make yourself a little less shy and hypocritical, and a little more honest and humble. "If you can't learn", you want to learn what you don't understand, make up for your shortcomings, constantly enrich yourself, and become a person with real talent and real learning.

Only by studying in a down-to-earth manner and behaving realistically can we stand firm and walk well on the road of life.