Chiseling through walls to steal light

During the Han Dynasty, Kuang Heng was a very diligent and studious young man.

Because his family was very poor, he had to do a lot of work during the day to earn money. Only at night could he sit down and read in peace. However, he couldn't afford candles, and he couldn't read when it got dark. Kuang Heng was heartbroken for this wasted time, and felt very painful inside.

His neighbor's family is very wealthy, and candles are lit in several rooms at night to light up the house. One day, Kuang Heng plucked up the courage and said to his neighbor: "I want to study at night, but I can't afford a candle. Can I borrow an inch of your house?" The neighbor always looked down on people who were poorer than his family, so he made a vicious mockery. Said: "Since you are too poor to buy a candle, why should you read?" Kuang Heng was very angry after hearing this, but he was more determined to read well.

Kuang Heng returned home and quietly cut a small hole in the wall. The neighbor's candlelight came through the hole. With this faint light, he began to read books eagerly, and gradually read all the books at home.

After reading these books, Kuang Heng felt that the knowledge he had mastered was far from enough, and his desire to continue reading more books became more urgent.

There is a wealthy family nearby with many books. One day, Kuang Heng packed up his clothes and appeared in front of a wealthy family. He said to the master: "Please take me in. I will work for your family for free. Just let me read all the books in your family." The master was moved by his spirit and agreed to his request to borrow books. .

Kuang Heng studied diligently in this way. Later, he became the prime minister of Emperor Yuan of Han Dynasty and became a famous scholar in the Western Han Dynasty.

Gu Yanwu supervised his own reading

"Everyone is responsible for the rise and fall of the world." This well-known saying was first put forward by Gu Yanwu, a patriotic thinker and famous scholar in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. .

Gu Yanwu has been diligent in studying since childhood. He was enlightened at the age of 6 and started reading history books and literary masterpieces at the age of 10. When he was 11 years old, his grandfather Liyuan Gong asked him to finish reading "Zi Zhi Tong Jian" and warned: "Nowadays, some people want to save trouble and think that everything is settled after just browsing a book like "Compendium" , I think this is not worthwhile." These words made Gu Yanwu realize that studying and learning is an honest thing and must be treated seriously and faithfully. Gu Yanwu studied diligently, and he adopted the measure of "self-supervision of reading": first, he set himself a number of volumes that he must read every day; second, he restricted himself to copying the books he read after reading every day. After he finished reading "Zi Zhi Tong Jian", one book became two books; again, he required himself to take notes and write down his experiences every time he read a book. Some of his reading notes were later compiled into the famous "Rizhilu"; finally, every spring and autumn, he would review the books he had read in the first half of the year, reciting them silently and inviting others to read them aloud, and discovered the differences. Check immediately. He stipulated that he should review 200 pages of classes in this way every day. He would never finish the review and never take a break.

Ba Jin’s reading method

The famous writer Ba Jin’s reading method is very strange, because he did it without books. It is indeed a wonder in the world to study without books. What is going on? Ba Jin said: "The second time I was hospitalized, I took a nap for less than an hour every day, then got out of bed and sat on the small sofa, waiting for the nurse to come. I came to take my temperature at 1 o'clock. I sat motionless, but my mind refused to rest. It seemed that it wanted to remember some books and works I had read in the past. Before the decline, keep some good things."

It turns out that his way of reading is to sit there quietly and recall the books he has read. This has many advantages:

(1) It is not subject to conditions and can make full use of time. Ba Jin cited two examples: One was during the Soviet Patriotic War, when Leningrad was besieged by the German army for a long time, a girl wrote in her diary "such and such type, "Anna Karenina"" and the like sentence. There was no electricity or candles at that time, and the entire city was under blackout. She could not read, but sat quietly in the dark and recalled the plot of the book. Tolstoy's novels helped her survive those terrifying nights. Another example is his own personal experience during the decade of civil unrest. He said: "During the 'Cultural Revolution', if the rebels had allowed me to write a diary and allowed me to write a diary according to my own wishes, my diary would have been filled with book titles. People would be surprised: there was a seal in my study, and The lock has been closed for ten years. Where can I find those books to read? They forget that there is a big warehouse in the human mind, which stores things that others cannot take away. "These two examples show that everything is not normal. You can "read" under any reading conditions.

(2) Review the past and learn the new. Through recollection, take out the books you have read in the past and chew them bit by bit, just like a cow ruminating, which can further digest and absorb. Every time you recall, you will have new understanding, new knowledge, and new gains.

(3) Be able to continuously draw spiritual strength from the books you have read. Ba Jin said: "I am fighting against illness now and get encouragement from various works... Even if I don't have the energy to read new works while I am ill, the accumulation of spiritual wealth in the past is enough for the rest of my limited life." Until death, people need light and heat.

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How does Chairman Mao study?

Special hobbies

For decades, Chairman Mao has been very busy, but he always makes time, even if it is divided Every second is spent reading and studying. His former residence in Zhongnanhai is a paradise of books. Books are everywhere on the bookshelves in the bedroom, on the desk, dining table, and coffee table. Except for the place where one person is lying on the bed, They were all occupied by books.

In order to read, Chairman Mao used all available time to move his body for a few minutes before swimming. Poetry. After swimming, he didn't bother to take a rest, so he picked up a book again and never wasted a few minutes on the toilet. Books and periodicals were taken advantage of, reading a little today and a little tomorrow, intermittently.

Chairman Mao would often write to the box when he was out for meetings or inspecting work, and he ignored the vibrations of the train. I always hold a magnifying glass in one hand and press the page with the other, reading non-stop. When I go abroad, just like in Beijing, there are books on the bed, on the desk, on the coffee table, and on the dining table, and I read them whenever I have free time. p>

Although Chairman Mao was seriously ill in his later years, he still continued to read. He re-read a set of hardcover "The Complete Works of Lu Xun" that was brought to Beijing from Yan'an and many other books and periodicals.

Once, Chairman Mao's fever reached over 39 degrees, and the doctor did not allow him to read. He said sadly, "I have loved reading all my life, but now you don't let me read. You tell me to lie here and just eat and sleep all day long. You know me." How uncomfortable it was! The staff had no choice but to put the taken away book next to him, and he smiled happily.

Study seriously and read it over and over again

Chairman Mao has always opposed the kind of reading method that only aims at speed and does not pay attention to the effect. When he read the complete works of Han Changli's poems, except for a few chapters, he carefully considered and studied each one. From vocabulary, sentence reading, chapters to the meaning of the whole text, he did not miss any aspect. Through repeated reading and chanting, he could recite most of the poems in "Journey to the West", "A Dream of Red Mansions" and "Water Margin" fluently. "," "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and other novels, he had read them since he was in elementary school, and he read them again in the 1960s. He had read more than ten different versions of "Dream of Red Mansions" and "Selected Works of Zhaoming". When he was in school, he read it in the 1950s and 1960s, and read it several times in the 1970s. There are currently three editions of his annotations on Marxism-Leninism and philosophy. He read "The History of the Communist Party of China" and Li Da's "Outline of Sociology" ten times each. ", "Lenin's Selected Works", etc., he has repeatedly studied many chapters and paragraphs and made comments and outlines.

No writing or reading