Reading kung fu achievements of cultural giants

When it comes to reading, I admire the generation of cultural celebrities in the first half of the 20th century the most. They read so much and read so well that they could recite a large book at the drop of a hat.

From Eighty Parents, we know that Qian Mu can recite the Romance of The Three Kingdoms at the age of nine. It's worth recording:

That is one evening, father went to the town smoke shop discussion, and Qian Mu followed. Into the smoke, a guest suddenly asked Qian Mu: "I heard that you can back" Romance of The Three Kingdoms ", is it true?" Qian Mu nodded. Another guest asked: "Can I try it tonight?" Qian Mu nodded again. At the request of the guest, he began to recite the phrase "Zhuge Liang fights a war among scholars". While reciting, while performing, Zhuge Liang and Zhang Zhao et al. Dynamic tone, performance incisively and vividly. The adult is surprised, little Qian Mu certainly can't help but feel a little euphoric.

The next day, Qian Mu still went to Yantai with his father. Passing a small bridge, the father asked: "Do you know the word bridge?" Qian Mu nodded and said, "Yes." "What is the bridge character?" he asked. Answer: "WOOD word next." Ask AGAIN: "WHAT is the word next to the wooden character change horse character, recognize?" Again ANSWER: "RECOGNIZE, be ARROGANT WORD." The father asked, "What does pride mean, do you know?" Qian Mu answered: "Know." Father step by step pressed: "Your behavior last night have this arrogant word?" Qian Mu then understands the meaning of his father, immediately such as hear thunder, bow not a word.

In the 1980s, Qian Mu's granddaughter was studying in the Department of Chinese Literature at Peking University and asked her grandfather for advice on reading. Qian Mu replied: "Besides the Analects of Confucius, we should read Mencius, The Great University, the Doctrine of the Mean, and Notes on Zhu Zi's Chapters and Sentences." Besides Zhuangzi, we must recite Laozi. Outside the Four Books and Lao Zhuang, you should read the Records of the Historian completely, not selectively. If it is difficult to understand, you should skim it. If you can understand and like to read it, you should read it repeatedly, still hoping to recite it..."

From Zhang Henshui's Sketches in the Mountain Window, we know that he could recite the Analects of Confucius, Mencius, Zhuan of Zuo, The University, and other classics before he was 14 years old. The fact that he wrote novels very similar to Liaozhai when he was very young proves that he knew it by heart. From his "Praise of Water Margin Characters" written in the 1930s, we can see that he is very familiar with Water Margin.

As a scholar of literature and history, Cao Juren's principle of reading may not be recitation, but "read a book a hundred times, its meaning will be seen by yourself". In Essays on the History of Chinese Academic Thought, he talked about how many times he had read several classics: The Confucian Scholar more than 100 times, all with a straight face. Reading A Dream of Red Mansions can not catch up with Yu Pingbo, but has read more than 70 times. "Liaozhai" was read 40 or 50 times, and "Water Margin" was read more than 20 times. "Romance of The Three Kingdoms" was read the least, only two or three times, because it was not as fascinating as "Annals of The Three Kingdoms." He did not say how many times he had read "Records of the Historian", but said that it was his favorite book and that he had done some hard work.

How many books are in a person's stomach, like how much money is in a person's waist, that is private? As a result, we don't know how much more people are reading.

It is not ZHOU Jianren's recall article, we will not know that Lu Xun memorized the "Gang Jian" when he was a child. It was reading that made the cultural giants of that generation.