“A scholar must first doubt.” Cheng Yi②

“Those who do not doubt when they are doubtful have never learned; learning requires doubt.” Zhang Zai③

< p>The basis of knowledge is facts and evidence. There are two sources of facts and evidence: one is what you see with your own eyes, and the other is what you hear from others. For example, in times of national crisis, there must be a lot of oral news from various places. No matter how dangerous it is, it is other people's legends and may not be reliable. To know the actual situation, you can only rely on your own observation. The same is true in learning. The most important and reliable material is the factual basis that you have seen with your own eyes; but sometimes this kind of evidence cannot be seen in person, so you can only rely on other people's legends.

① Selected from "Collection of Popular Treatises". Gu Jiegang (1893-1980), a native of Wuxian County, Jiangsu Province, is a historian.

② [Cheng Yi (1033-1107)] Philosopher and educator in the Northern Song Dynasty.

③[Zhang Zai (1020-1077)] Philosopher of the Northern Song Dynasty.

We should think carefully about the legend and not just believe it casually. We believe it because it "is"; we don't believe it because it "is not". This kind of thinking beforehand, the attitude of not being credulous, is the spirit of doubt. This is the basic condition for all learning. When we hear that there were three emperors and five emperors in ancient China, we have to ask: Who said this? In what book was it first seen? When and by whom was the book we saw written? How did the author know? We also heard that "rotten grass" "For Fireflies②", we must also ask: How can a dead plant turn into a flying beetle? What is the scientific basis for it? If we can ask this question, all false theories will be self-defeating.

No matter which book or knowledge we have, we must go through our own doubts: think because of doubt, and distinguish right from wrong because of thinking; go through the three steps of "doubt", "think" and "discriminate" From now on, that book is your own book, and that knowledge is your own knowledge. Otherwise it is blind obedience and superstition. Mencius said, "It is better to have all faith in books than to have no books at all", which means to teach us to have a spirit of doubt and not to blindly follow or be superstitious.

①[Three Emperors, Five Emperors] The legendary chiefs of ancient tribes. There are different legends about who exactly he refers to. Some say that the Three Emperors refer to Fuxi, Nuwa and Shennong. "Historical Records" records that the Five Emperors refer to Huangdi, Zhuanxu, Emperor Ku, Tang Yao, and Yushun.

② [The rotten grass is a firefly] This is what is said in the "Book of Rites·Yue Ling".

Doubt is not only a necessary step to identify falsehoods and eliminate falsehoods from the negative side, but also a basic condition for building new doctrines and inspiring new inventions from the positive side. Accepting what others say without thinking or discounting is ideological laziness. Such a mind will always be passive and will never be able to study. Only a mind that is always doubting and asking questions has problems, and only when there are questions, it wants to seek answers. Only through constant questioning and seeking solutions can all knowledge be developed. Many great intellectuals and great philosophers were trained through doubt. Dai Zhen, a great scholar in the Qing Dynasty, read Zhu Xi's "The Great Learning" when he was a child, and asked when "The Great Learning" was written and when Zhu Zi was born. The school teacher told him that "The Great Learning" was written in the Zhou Dynasty, and that Zhu Xi was a great Confucian in the Song Dynasty. He then asked how people in the Song Dynasty could know the author's meaning more than a thousand years ago. All scholars are often skeptical not only of popular legends, but also of the doctrines of past scholars. They often argue with the doctrines in books, often judge the doctrines in books, and often revise the doctrines in books: only in this way can there be renewal. Better doctrines arise. Throughout the ages, new inventions in science, new theories in philosophy, and new styles in art have all come into being in this way. If later scholars stick to the old theories of their predecessors, there will be no new problems and no new inventions, all scholarship will stagnate, and human culture will not progress.

① ["The Great Learning"] "The Great Learning" is a chapter in the "Book of Rites". Zhu Xi divided it into chapters and sentences, added annotations, and made it independent into a book called "Great Learning Chapters and Sentences".

②〔Great Confucianism〕In the old days, it referred to a famous scholar with profound knowledge.

③[Customs] refers to general customs.

Exercise

1 Read the text carefully and silently to find out the central argument and two sub-arguments of this article.

2 Demonstration by examples is to cite conclusive, sufficient and representative examples to prove the argument; argument by reason is to prove the argument by using recognized theorems and formulas as well as famous aphorisms of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign celebrities. Give an example of each example and argument used in the text.

3. Speak to your classmates for two or three minutes with the topic "I have tasted the sweetness of doubt". The examples given are required to illustrate the point.

Four. The following is also a short article discussing "Doubt and Learning". Answer the questions after reading it.

Studying is expensive. Zhu Xi, a man from the Song Dynasty, said: "Those who have no doubts in reading must have doubts in teaching, and those who have doubts must have no doubts. Only here can they make progress." Chen Xianzhang, a man of the Ming Dynasty, said: "The predecessors said that learning is valuable with doubts. Small doubts will lead to small progress, and great doubts will lead to small progress." Great progress. Doubts are the opportunity for enlightenment. "

Doubt can break superstition. Blindly believing in books is a taboo in reading. Mencius said: "It is better to believe in books than to have no books at all." Therefore, in order to break the superstition of books and avoid falling into blindness, we must be bold in questioning when reading. Not everything in books is beyond reproach. When Xu Xiake, a famous geographer in the Ming Dynasty, was reading the book "Yu Gong", he raised questions about the statement in the book that "Minshan guides the river". Later, through on-the-spot investigation, he finally made a new conclusion that the Jinsha River is the source of the Yangtze River, which was a step further than the traditional statement in history books.

Suspect can increase interest. If you can understand your doubts, reading will be of infinite interest. The great scientist Einstein was always interested in reading throughout his life. The important reason was that he always read with questions.

Doubt is often the precursor to gaining true knowledge and the key to the treasure house of knowledge. The famous scientist Li Siguang has a famous saying: "You cannot see the truth without doubting". This sentence is quite profound. Generally speaking, bold opinions and scientific explanations of doubts are often connected together. Questions are raised amid doubts and will inevitably be solved through in-depth research. The solution of the problem is the beginning of obtaining true knowledge and insights. The reason why the famous mathematician Hua Luogeng was able to achieve outstanding results one after another in the field of mathematics was precisely because he could boldly identify doubts and scientifically answer doubts based on the formulas, theorems and conclusions found in books. His first step towards climbing the peak of mathematics began here.

Reading is expensive, but the valuable thing is to emancipate the mind, think independently, and dare to explore and pursue boldly. However, advocating reading with suspicion is not based on objective reality and violates scientific principles. You must be able to doubt correctly, make progress when doubting, and be good at doubting. Otherwise, if we do not doubt when we doubt and doubt when we should not doubt, not only will we not gain any knowledge and progress, but we will also lead our thoughts astray. This is by no means the academic attitude we should adopt.