text | Zheng Liangen
"Learn history to understand the truth, learn history to increase confidence, learn history to respect morality, learn history to practice it". It is very important to learn history, which has become a consensus among people. However, China has a long history and profound content. How can it be more efficient? How can we truly achieve the goal of "reading history to be wise"? As a historical writer, I use five-dimensional historical writing method to help young people build a historical framework in my new book "The History of the Minimalist Chinese" (Five Volumes) and is a concise and popular Chinese history reading material that is very suitable for young people to read. In addition, based on my own experience, I have summarized the five keywords of learning history: memory, understanding, expansion, emotion, and imagination. These five keywords are linked together, forming a set of in-depth historical learning methods from low to high.
The first keyword is memory.
Learn history and must not memorize it by rote. I have emphasized this on many occasions. This principle must be explained first. In fact, you cannot memorize rote not only by studying history, but you cannot memorize rote even by learning any knowledge. But saying this does not mean that learning history does not require memory. If you want to learn history well, remembering core knowledge and core concepts is the first step, which is probably no one can deny. What historical knowledge is core? It roughly includes the following parts: the time, place, characters and significance involved in important historical events; major scientific and technological inventions in history, such as papermaking , compass, gunpowder , etc.; major institutional creations in history, such as feudal system in the Western Zhou Dynasty, county system in the Qin Dynasty, county system in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, etc.; important historical and cultural common sense, such as where are those famous ancient battlefields today? What are the main things in those ancient official names mentioned repeatedly? What kind of power do you have? etc. It should be noted that the memory and accumulation of historical knowledge is a process like a snowball. The bigger the snowball, the bigger the snowball, the more we accumulate historical knowledge. The more historical knowledge we accumulate, the deeper our understanding of history will be and the stronger our interest in learning history will be. This is a process of constant positive cycle.
The second keyword is understanding.
As we remember historical knowledge continues to increase, we will naturally find that the numerous historical knowledge is not isolated and scattered, but related. At this time, we must consciously build a link between knowledge points and knowledge points, and make scattered knowledge organized, modular and systematic as much as possible.
For example, if we learn the history of the Qin Dynasty, we can link many important knowledge about this dynasty through the character Qin Shihuang . For example, what are the major differences between the county system created by Qin Shihuang and the feudal system in the Western Zhou Dynasty? How powerful was Qin before Qin Shihuang unified the six kingdoms? This goes back to Shang Yang’s reform . Therefore, the relevant contents of Shang Yang and Shang Yang's reforms were linked to Qin Shihuang and Qin Dynasty; for example, from Shang Yang's reforms to Qin Shihuang's unification of the six kings, Qin State experienced several generations of monarchs. What are their respective actions? Why did the Great Qin Empire founded by Qin Shihuang "dead in two lifetimes"? What is the historical lesson of the rapid collapse of the Qin Dynasty? If you have another gossipy heart, you can also pay attention to the following information: What is the relationship between Qin Shihuang and his mother Zhao Ji ? What is the relationship between Qin Shihuang and Lu Buwei and ? What is the relationship between Qin Shihuang and his eldest son Fusu ? What is the relationship between Qin Shihuang and Li Si and ? Why didn’t Qin Shihuang make an empress? Why did Qin Shihuang like to go on tours so much? After Qin Shihuang died on his way out, how did the history of the Qin Dynasty develop? etc. After understanding all the above questions, you can establish a modular knowledge system in your mind, and the keyword to activate this module is "Qin Shihuang". In the future, as long as you encounter something related to Qin Shihuang, you can search, compare, supplement and correct it in this modular knowledge system.For example, if you encounter questions related to Qin Shihuang during the exam, you can quickly search in your mind. What are the contents related to Qin Shihuang when you want to test this question? How should I answer to the question most closely? If you encounter new books related to Qin Shihuang and Qin Dynasty when you were studying, then you can think about it: What are the new information written in this book? What is the relationship between these new content and the knowledge you have mastered before? What old knowledge can be used to explain these new content? What knowledge can it explain?
often uses this method to learn history, so we can easily connect scattered knowledge and integrate it into systems to form cultural modules. Moreover, there are logical relationships between different modules, some are causal relationships, some are parallel relationships, some are progressive relationships, and some are turning relationships. Therefore, links are generated between different modules. In this way, the entire Chinese history has formed a whole that is closely linked to each part. At this point, we will have a deeper understanding of the underlying logic of historical development.
For example, we need to take a bunch of loose beads, which is not easy to take, but also easy to throw away. So what should I do? We use a thread to tie them up and string them into bracelets, so it will not be easy to lose them and will be easier to carry. We must focus on understanding in the process of learning history, which means we must thread scattered knowledge into strings, and then complete the modular work of connecting dots into lines and lines into surfaces in our minds. This is a process of organizing and systematicizing knowledge.
If primary and secondary school students learn history, if they do both the steps of memory and understanding, then their historical achievements will definitely not be bad. Moreover, the abilities he has learned in learning history can also be transferred to the study of other disciplines - memory and understanding can be said to be an indispensable ability to learn any discipline well.
The third keyword is extension.
The so-called extension is to use history as the entry point, expand the boundaries of knowledge, and learn to use multidisciplinary knowledge and perspectives to re-examine and explain history. History itself is a highly comprehensive discipline, involving various aspects such as politics, economy, culture, science and technology, and social life. When I write history, I have always adhered to the principle of multi-dimensional narrative, and advocated the use of multi-disciplinary achievements and perspectives to examine history. I must strive to write the vividness and vividness of history, the roundaboutness and excitement of history, the richness and breadth of history, and the heaviness and depth of history. I write history like this, and I hope everyone can learn history the same way. We cannot be satisfied with talking about history about history, and we must also see a bigger world through history. When we study history, we cannot be satisfied with knowing some interesting historical events and historical knowledge. We must expand our cultural territory again and again through history; we must extend our spiritual path again and again through history.
The fourth keyword is emotion.
In addition to using reason and learning specific knowledge, we also need to use emotions. The so-called use of emotions requires us to have a sense of awe of history. "Respect history and respect culture" is the prerequisite for a person to learn history and culture well. If a person does not care about history in his mentality, disrespect culture, and even has jokes and ridicule between his words and deeds, then he will definitely not be able to learn history well. History is the crystallization of human survival experience and life wisdom for thousands or even tens of thousands of years. When we treat such a long accumulation of predecessors, we must be warm and respectful. The reason why we can have rich material and spiritual life today is due to the contributions of the ancients. If there is no exploration and accumulation of the ancients from generation to generation, we may still live in a primitive society today.
In addition to being in awe of history, we can also combine historical learning with daily life well. For example, when we go to a museum and see the cultural relics in the museum, we have to think about: Which dynasty does this cultural relics come from? Is there any interesting historical stories behind it? When we are traveling, when we visit the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an, we must think of Qin Shihuang, the battle formation of the Qin soldiers, and the creation and destruction of the Qin Empire.When we go to , the Great Wall , we must think of the history related to the Great Wall. For example, what famous battles have occurred along the Great Wall? Why does the direction of the Great Wall coincide with the 400mm annual precipitation line? Why has the Great Wall become a symbol of unity and mutual resistance to foreign humiliation? etc. The great poet of the Tang Dynasty Meng Haoran once said: "People and things have metabolism, and the journey has become ancient and modern times. The mountains and rivers leave great traces, and we will climb again." The Mount Tai and Huangshan we climb today have countless sages in history. The land under our feet has left the footprints of the hard work of our predecessors; the bright moon above our heads is the bright moon in the poems of Li Bai and Su Shi . When we are moved by the scenery, we will naturally feel the past and miss the ancients. When the real life scenes can constantly arouse our nostalgia, the channel between history and reality will be opened, and today's people and ancient people will also empathize with . Today's people can empathize with the ancients again and again, so history learners have a mind and wisdom.
The fifth keyword is imagination.
We must consciously train our historical imagination. The reason is that we live in different eras from the ancients. As latecomers, we know much more information than the ancients, and the technology we master is much more advanced than the ancients. Therefore, it is too easy for people today to laugh at the failed ancients. However, we must know that if we let you travel back and return to the specific historical scenes experienced by the ancients, what we do may not be really smarter than the ancients. If we don’t pay attention, we will also make the mistakes made by the ancients. For example, if you travel back to the late Eastern Han Dynasty, you will transform into Cao Cao , do you have the ability to unify the north? After unifying the north, will you expand your ambitions and launch the Battle of Red Cliffs ? If you command Cao's army to fight the Battle of Red Cliff, will you definitely be more skilled than Cao Cao? I believe that as long as we dare to face ourselves sincerely and not deceive ourselves, most people dare not say confidently that we will definitely do better than Cao Cao.
This is a way for us to train our historical imagination, which is to imagine that we travel to a critical moment in history, in the situation of an ancient man, what kind of psychological struggles will you experience, and what choices will you make in the end? There is another way to train historical imagination, which is to imagine an ancient man you admire. If he traveled to this day and was in your position, what choice would he make?
For example, you especially admire Confucius . Then, when you encounter difficulties and hardships in your life, you can imagine: If Confucius traveled to this day and was in my current position, what would he make a choice? What actions will he take? If you think about what Confucius would do, then you stand with Confucius and take the same actions as him. This method will keep us awake when facing major choices in life and avoid many detours. I call this method "the method of the sages in the body", which is an efficient empowerment of the wisdom of the ancients to modern people. I have used this method and it is effective for personal testing. I hope everyone can try it too.
uses historical imagination, and I think this is the core password that history empowers reality. By using this method to learn history, we can deepen our understanding of society and life by putting ourselves in our shoes; we can meet a better selves by meeting ancient sages and wise men.
I think this is the effect we want to achieve when we learn history - the emotions we bet on history, on the one hand, make history perceived and touchable. On the other hand, our historical imagination can also ferment knowledge into cultural cultivation and life wisdom. The ultimate goal of our efforts to learn all kinds of knowledge is not just to deal with exams, nor to get rid of ignorance, but to make us humble.This humility is not cowardice, but a simplicity after abundance, a calm and confident after being cautious of arrogance and impatience, just like the posture of a grain of rice bowing its head to question the earth in autumn - it is a posture of a wise man, full of heavy harvests, and is grateful to the heaven and the earth.
