It was written by the famous litterateur Dong Qichang.

Original source:

In the Ming Dynasty, Dong Qichang's "Essays on Painting a Zen Room—Volume 2" contains: "People in the past commented on New Year paintings and said that they had thousands of books in their chests. Even more surprising, In addition, during the New Year, the clan is not allowed to travel far away. Every time they return to the mausoleum, they have to write about the mountains and valleys in their hearts. If they don’t travel thousands of miles and read thousands of books, how can they achieve the goal of painting the ancestors?”

Translation: Before Some people commented on Danian's paintings and said that he had thousands of books in his chest. What's even more amazing is that on New Year's Eve, because the clan can't travel, they have to come back. Only by writing about the hills and valleys in my heart can I draw thousands of miles and read thousands of books. If I want to draw, can I draw it?

Significance

Traveling thousands of miles and reading are complementary. Reading is static, while traveling is dynamic. The knowledge in books is limited, and only the eyes, ears and knowledge of traveling can make up for it.

1. Travel

"Travel" is understood to mean learning in practice. Human evolution begins with walking. From the trees to the ground, the first thing to learn is to walk. The purpose of walking is to get more food and find a safe place to rest. It also broadens our horizons and learns a lot of useful knowledge. Dayu realized the flood control principle of "it is better to dredge and not to block" while following his father's control of floods.

Confucius attached great importance to the role of practice in learning, and confirmed what he learned by traveling around the world to govern the country. Li Shizhen, Xu Xiake, Marco Polo, Darwin, and Columbus all wrote magnificent works or made major discoveries by "traveling". It can be seen that "traveling thousands of miles" is much more important than "reading thousands of books".

Use an analogy to the relationship between "reading" and "traveling": "Reading thousands of books" is like seeing the golden mountain of knowledge and ability through a window. But if you want to truly get the golden mountain of knowledge and ability, It also depends on getting out of the door and “traveling thousands of miles”.

2. Reading

After "reading thousands of books", only by "traveling thousands of miles", going out to see for yourself and experiencing the scenes described in the book, will you discover the book. What is said in the book is less than one thousandth of the experience. At the same time, you can also understand the author's feelings about this situation and compare it with your own feelings, thereby enlarging the level of knowledge. Only then can the effect of reading be reflected.

So: Reading is like a magnifying glass. No matter whether the knowledge you read is "true" or "false", it will magnify several times (of course, the more you read, the greater the magnification).