After saying goodbye to the era when I was a child, when there were no books around me or I could buy any books I could read, I began to choose my own reading.

This period can be divided into several phases, the beginning of which is about the beginning of high school and the period after I became the manager of the natural gas company, during which time I basically read only the ancient classics. The reason for this choice is that in the thousands of years of history of the Chinese nation, there are too many ancient classics. The second is that the cultural wave that flourished in the later period has not yet begun, which results in the fact that there were still very few new books in the eighties.

Therefore, as an ancient classic, it has become the first choice of many publishing houses, and there are relatively many such books in bookstores, and as bookstores as the main source of books, we also think we should read them.

As mentioned earlier, I like to go back to the roots in everything I do.

After preparing to read the ancient classics, after thinking about it, I felt that for Chinese people to understand the history of China, Confucianism must not be able to bypass.

So at first, I wanted to read the Confucian classics seriously.

This brings us to the question of how to read a book.

Because it is impossible for us to read the original text written in classical Chinese (of course, if we have the time to read it every day, I guess we can read it).

So no matter what the situation, if you want to read these classical Chinese, you have to look at the interpretation in the book.

The choice of interpretation is different for everyone.

I have many friends who love to read, and they like to read books such as "XXX (generally a famous author) interpreting XXX (a famous book)", and have recommended to me many times that XXX is really good and so on.

If you're close (in fact, if you don't have a good relationship, you won't recommend a book to me), I'll ask you if you want to read the book or just want to get a general idea.

If I just want to get a general idea, I won't say anything.

If you want to read this book carefully, I will persuade you that there is nothing wrong with the "XXX Interpretation XXX" you read, and some of them are still everyone, even authoritative experts in this field. But there is a problem with reading this way, that is, what you read is not the original work itself, but the interpretation of this famous master's own understanding.

If you understand the original book according to the understanding of this famous master, there will be a deviation.

In particular, the subsets of the classic classics and histories in China are all written in classical Chinese, and a paragraph, a sentence, a word or even a broken sentence will produce completely contradictory meanings.

Therefore, it is impossible for anyone, including the author himself, to fully decipher the true meaning of an article.

Therefore, reading the interpretation book will basically solidify your understanding, so that you only feel that you can only interpret this paragraph, this sentence, this word, and you can only break the sentence in this way, and so on.

Once you get used to it, it is very harmful to read ancient texts and classics in this way.

I'm not a big guy, and my reading method is not a guideline, it's just a habit I've developed over the years of reading books.

I can't say that my method is correct, but at least it can add an option for friends who want to read.

A choice not to read "XXX Interpretation XXX".

Here's my approach, using the Tao Te Ching, which I spent seven months reading, as an example.

Let's start with why it takes so long to read the Tao Te Ching.

I still said earlier that I want to read Confucianism, but Confucianism and Taoism itself have an intersection.

Because Confucius once greeted Lao Tzu, the original text is as follows:

"Confucius is suitable for Zhou, and he will greet Lao Tzu."

"When Confucius went, he said to his disciples: 'Birds, I know they can fly, fish, I know they can swim, and beasts, I know that they can walk. The walker can be reckless, the traveler can be the lun, and the flyer can be the arrow. As for the dragon, I don't know, but it rode the storm to the sky. I see Lao Tzu today, and he is like a dragon!'"

So back then, I came to the conclusion that Taoism was the first place.

So before I read Confucianism, I decided to read Taoism first.

Taking stock of the books I have read in recent years, it should be said that there are three books that have had the most profound impact, and what I need to emphasize here is that I am talking about books, and there are many articles.

At the top of the list is this "Tao Te Ching".

Because I wanted to study it carefully, not just read it, so I finally decided to read it in the way I came up (I wrote about this feature of mine before, I always like to think about it and come up with some crooked ideas).

I found all the books of the Tao Te Ching that I could buy at that time, and I focused on the Zhonghua Book Company edition, which I personally recognized with the Zhonghua Book Company and the People's Literature Publishing House.

Of course, it's not that other publishers are bad, but my own opinion.

After finding the Chung Hwa Book Company edition of the Tao Te Ching, I took this one as the basic book, and then used the remaining seven editions as reference books, which have other people's interpretations, extended editions such as "Lao Tzu and the Business War", pocket books that can be put in my pocket every day for easy reading, and even comic versions.

The Tao Te Ching is divided into two parts, 81 chapters, and more than 5,000 words.

Then I started reading one chapter a day, which was basically a natural paragraph, just a few dozen words.

When I read it, I opened these eight editions, turned them all to this paragraph, and then turned them back to the table and read them one by one.

Let's take a look at how each book breaks the same sentence for this paragraph.,If it's all consistent.,Don't consider the segment.,If it's different.,Then take a closer look at how they're broken.,Which is more in line with the consistency of most versions.,Which is closer to my own understanding.。 Then go to the book by book and sentence by sentence to read the interpretation. I read all eight books, and finally I thought about which version of each sentence was closer to what I approved at the time, and then finally translated this natural passage myself.

It's hard to read, of course, but the benefits are obvious.

That is, the "Tao Te Ching" that I read in this way is the "Tao Te Ching" that I interpreted myself, that is to say, the "Tao Te Ching" that I understood, and I was not influenced by anyone.

If there are more than two interpretations that cannot be distinguished, the two interpretations coexist together, and the two meanings are recognized together.

For example, "governing a big country is like cooking small fresh".

There are two completely different interpretations.

One is that it is not difficult to govern a country, it is no different from cooking a small fish, cooking a small fish needs to be organized, first scrape the scales, disembowel, remove the gills, pickle, and then put it into the pot or steam or boil or fry, etc., it must be done step by step, each step has the rules of each step, can not mess up, can not mess up the order, can not get out of the pot before remembering that the scales are not scraped. As long as you can only do it step by step and follow the rules, you will be able to eat delicious fish in the end. Governing a country should also be done step by step according to the rules, one thing at a time to deal with government affairs, and not mess up the priority and order, so that the country is easy to govern, there is no difficulty.

This is mainly said on the level of difficulty.

The second interpretation is that governing a country is no different from cooking a small fish, but the focus of this interpretation is that the fish should be quietly and waiting for the fish to cook after it is cooked, because the preliminary work must be done in the early stage, and the fish cannot be put into the pot and remember to forget this and that, and then take a spatula and turn it around, if so, the fish will be crushed, and finally the fish will not be eaten. Governing the country is the same as this, when governing, people should not feel that someone is governing, and they can't disturb the people when they have nothing to do. This is one of Lao Tzu's most important propositions, Wu Wei, that is, there is no manager to stir the fish after it is put in the pot.

This is mainly from the rule of inaction, of course, inaction is not inaction, it is not to feel inaction.

Personally, I think both interpretations make sense, so I agreed with them at the time and didn't have to choose one or the other.

It's about letting the two coexist.

It's not a matter of principle.

This is the method I have decided after thinking about it that I should use when I want to study a book seriously.

The effect is naturally extremely obvious.

I have read this pocket book "Tao Te Ching" published by Shaanxi People's Publishing House countless times because of its ease of carrying, and the excerpts in it are about to have more original texts. So books like this can't be borrowed, and there is no place to cry once you lose it!

Later, I also read "The Art of War" carefully in this way.

It took me more than seven months to read the Tao Te Ching in my way, and I was able to memorize every chapter at that time. It can be seen that the hard work is deep.

It's a pity that I didn't consolidate it for a long time, so I can't memorize it now.

I think this book has basically explained the traditional Chinese culture very clearly, and it is breathtaking, and other schools of thought are basically just the expansion of his chapters, paragraphs or sentences.

The only unresolved problem in his point of view is how the Tao gives birth to one (don't raise the bar here, if you have to ask how to make braised pork, Lao Tzu didn't say it, and I'm speechless).

Yes, how did nothing give birth to something! It can only be explained in four words out of nothing. This is not a derogatory term. I've always felt that science doesn't have a convincing answer to this question now, and I can only say that the Big Bang was like before the explosion, and where did the energy that accumulated enough to explode to the point where we now explain that it was still expanding? What are the boundaries that are constantly expanding outward? Even nothingness should be a thing! Still can't explain it. This country, that nation, this sage, that power, this saying, that principle, this legend, that writing, and so on. They all tried to explain it but didn't understand it, and a lot of paper was wasted.

Now it seems that it is still only four words out of nothing, and the most appropriate expression is made.

Because of the meditation, coupled with more than seven months of memorization study (this really has to be described by study, unlike other books that use reading words, the only literary works that can make me worthy of study should be "Tao Te Ching", "The Art of War", "Morning Starts at Noon" plus Mr. Yi Zhongtian's "History of China" Volume 1 "Ancestors" four books), which consumed too much energy, so I did not continue to read the "Analects" as originally planned, after all, according to my understanding after reading the "Tao Te Ching" at that time, the Analects It's just that the articles of Confucius students recording his words and deeds are less systematic than the Tao Te Ching.

Think about it later!

As a result, the consequences of this postponement have not yet begun to be seen today.

When it comes to study, I feel it is necessary to say that there are three levels of reading that I read. One is the method used to read the Tao Te Ching, which is mainly based on research; The second is to read books, similar to "Ordinary World", which focuses on understanding or simple learning; The third is to look at books, take away the meaning of horses and flowers, mainly to read some pastime books, a glance and 20 lines of speed reading.

When I first started to read ancient classics, I didn't have the concept of editions, and I didn't know which books to read, so I began to slowly buy various books to read, but except for the "Tao Te Ching" and "The Art of War", which were systematically read, almost all the other kinds were some chapters.

For example, one of the "Jia Yi Treatises" in the "Guwen Guan Zhi" that touched me deeply was read during this period. Jia Yi is the Jia Sheng in Li Shangyin's poem "Poor in the middle of the night, don't ask the common people to ask the ghosts and gods". Generally, people with a little talent have a common problem, and they always feel that they have no talent. I am not exempt from vulgarity until the week of meditation in my first year.

It wasn't until I read this article that I was deeply moved by it, and it can be said that it was this article that triggered the decisions I made after serious reflection in 1999, and these decisions basically guided my big actions for more than 20 years, making me the person I am now, that is, the result of my hard work.

It can be seen that the impact of this article is profound.

The article directly began: "Jia Sheng, the king's support, and can't use his own talents." It was clearly said that Jia Yi was a talent to assist the emperor, but he failed to display his talents. And gave that the root of the problem was caused by himself: "It may not be the sin of the king, or it is self-inflicted." "Some people end up failing to use their talents in 1 in 10,000, not necessarily through the fault of the kings of the day. The text says that saints are like Confucius, and if you want the king of Chu to accept his concept of governing the country, you must first send Ran You and then Zixia to contact, and then personally lobby for your own ideas, so that it is possible (I use it here is possible, I mean even if you say so, it may not be completely possible) to make people understand your concept, instead of taking it for granted that I am a saint, you should use me to govern the country, and it is your loss not to use.

A lot of talented people make this mistake.

Thinking that you are talented (usually comparing your strongest point with others, and turning a blind eye to others' strengths), others must know, not to mention whether your talent has reached the point where the world has attracted attention, even if you can achieve it, everyone is obliged to understand you, appreciate you, and recognize you. Then these people will be dissatisfied, they will complain about the heavens and the people, and they will complain about the injustice of the world.

Then the vicious cycle continues. Although I didn't have it so serious before, I still have this problem in my bones, and since reading this article, I have thoroughly understood myself, and if you don't have the ability to let people know that you are talented, then you are not called talented at all.

From that moment on, I began to work hard to improve myself, to find my own problems when no one was criticizing me. The main thing is to learn to never complain.

If the work is not evaluated, the painting is not good enough! It's not that the judges are shady, it's not that the audience can't do it this time, it's not that someone is jealous that I won't let me judge the award! If you lose the game, you don't play well! It's not that the referee is unfair, it's not that the venue is windy, it's not the audience who is heckling, it's not that the whole world is against you!

If someone else is promoted to the section chief and director, there must be something better than you! Even if he doesn't have any ability, it's just a pie in the sky, that's because people's luck is stronger than you (I always believe that luck is also a kind of strength, and it is a very important one)! My daughter looks for her mother every day and ignores me...... This must be her little conscience!

.......

When I wrote this article today, I once again reviewed "Jia Yi's Treatise", and I have another experience!

Learn from the past! The ancients were honest and did not deceive me!