25 古人谈读书

Lesson Twenty-five

The Ancients Talked About Reading

One

1. Quick-minded and eager to learn, he is never ashamed to consult his inferiors.

2. To say you know when you know and say you do not when you do not, that is knowledge.

3. To keep silently in mind what one has seen and heard, to study hard and never feel contented, to teach others tirelessly.

-Analects of Confucius

Notes

① Refer to diligence.

② Refer to preferences.

③ Refer to be ashamed to.

④ Refer to ask for advice from people who are lower or inferior to themselves.

⑤ Refer to knowledge, the same as wisdom.

⑥ Refer to remember.

⑦ Refer to be pleased because you have achieved something or because something that you wanted to happen has happened satisfaction.

⑧ Refer to make somebody feel or think in a different way.

Two

1. I often said: there are three kinds of reading, that is, the heart, the eyes and the mouth.

2. If your heart is not here, your eyes will not look carefully, and your heart will not be single-minded, but you will only read aloud, never remember, and remember for a long time.

3. Among them, the heart is the most important.

4. When you read with heart, you also read with the eyes and mouth.

[Song] Zhu Xi

Notes

① Refer to said.

② Refer to at will.

Three

1. So when scholars study, they should be ambitious, knowledgeable, and persistent.

2. People who are ambitious will not want to fell behind. People who have knowledge will know that learning is endless, and will not be able to be self-sufficient. .For example, people like He Bo who compares the lakes with the sea and the frog in the well are those who lack of knowledge. People who are persistent can do anything successfully.

3. All three are indispensable.

-[Qing] Zeng Guofan

Notes

① Refer to scholars.

② Refer to perseverance.

③ Refer to inferior.