Author profile: Zhang Xiang, professor at the School of Law of Peking University and doctoral supervisor.
Article source: This article is reproduced from the Academic Department of the Student Union of the Law School of Renmin University of China, Summary of the series of lectures and the WeChat official account of Fayuan Shuxiang.
There is no shortcut to reading, and you need to reflect on your own
Freshmen are confused about the issue of studying when they first enter university - but the real answer is mainly left to individuals to explore. As Xiong Shili said: "Learning is summarized." The so-called "shortcut" does not exist. What teacher Zhang Xiang can do in is to share his experiences and feelings and provide reference for everyone.
What book do you read?
Unknown fields hide a bigger world: "Reading is a very personalized thing", Mr. Zhang Xiang emphasized, "As a scholar, you should have basic humanities literacy, and you cannot 'long live the book list after reading'. Take a while every week to spend in the library, no matter which area you are interested in, take it down and try it - because we always know what we know, not what we don't know." As a liberal arts student, Mr. Zhang Xiang is very interested in literature, history and philosophy, and he also studied psychology in college. Teacher Zhang Xiang said that to be an excellent scholar, one cannot be bound by a narrow "field" and look at the sky.
Five points of vision, five points of emotion: "Life is not just about doing the current daily life and 'profession', but also having a spirit of transcendence, doing things that transcend the present, and reading books full of emotions." Teacher Zhang Xiang talked about "The Record of the School" by Mr. He Zhaowu , "The Lamp Burning Master" by Zhao Yuesheng , Lu Jiandong 's "The Last Twenty Years of Chen Yinke", talked about "The Record of the Five Years of Teacher" by Mr. Luo Ergang , "The Record of the Five Years of Teacher" by Mr. He Bingdi "Sixty Years of Reading History and Reading the World", how these books deeply touched him. Against this backdrop of the rampant trend of "utilitarianism first", Teacher Zhang Xiang shows us the vision and feelings of scholars.
Book review trilogy: Of course, when reading the book collection, how can you better and faster understand whether a book is for you? Teacher Zhang Xiang summarized the following steps:
As shown in the picture above
Book title and author: The first information obtained by seeing a book.
Preface and postscript: Preface, and there are also author's self-preface and other prefaces. Through the preface, we can understand what this book is to "explore"; if it is his preface, we can see the review of this book by different perspectives. The postscript often contains the author's summary and evaluation of the book.
directory and index: Through the directory, we can understand the system structure of a book; indexing can find the points you are interested in. It is easier to find the entry point by flipping to the place of interest.
How to read?
01
"Four categories of reading, a brief summary of leisure essence"
So, after talking about "what book is read", we need to discuss "how to read". Teacher Zhang Xiang first quoted Mr. Wang Yunwu's "How I Read", which divided reading into four types: "idle reading", "intensive reading", "skimming" and "excerpt reading".
and explained:
"Idle reading is to read for entertainment. Idle reading is not unreadable, such as Jin Yong 's novel.
intensive reading means to analyze the content of the book: for example, some classic masterpieces. Intensive reading is the basis for skimming and excerpting.
skimming, that is, "see the general outline", roughly understand the meaning of the author to express.
excerpting is used for some books that only "partial chapters" need to be read."
Intensive reading consciousness: the core of reading
02
Intensive reading is the starting point of judgment: "No matter how big or small books are, you can make this book familiar, and every word is interpreted transparently. All the scholars can distinguish right from wrong. This one is the root and can understand other books. "When talking about the standards and functions of intensive reading, Teacher Zhang Xiang quoted it like this. "Hiyan student Huang Kan asked the teacher for the study of text interpretation. The gentleman just asked him to comment on "Shuowen Jiezi" first. After Huang Kan finished annotating, Zhang Taiyan said, "You go and find a brand new book "Shuowen Jiezi" and make annotation again." ’Huang Kan did as he did, and repeated this and bet three times. The gentleman said, "You have already started, don't have to come to me anymore." Huang Kan then realized something. "
" Many students say that they have no opinions when they are studying, because they lack knowledge background. If you are truly proficient in a book, you will naturally get started - In a field, you must first have a vision to have judgment . ”
Suggestions on intensive reading put forward by Teacher Zhang Xiang:
How to gracefully bite the "big thing": " Many students read many famous books at the beginning of their freshman year, such as "The Spirit of the Law", but they found that they could not understand the profound connotation of the text. When I was doing my doctoral research, I studied hermeneutics, so Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics works have become an inescapable book. I also thought this book was obscure at that time, so I found friends who studied Western philosophy. After understanding the background of this book and its position in the philosophical system, I gradually developed a concept of it. If you continue reading this, you will gradually get better. "
Interestingly, "After reading Gadamer's work, I found that the introduction was not completely correct either. And I have a very wonderful feeling that after reading this book, everything I read becomes smooth. "Essential Reading" After the big picture, the vision will become broader and the comprehension will naturally improve accordingly. "However, the reason why classics are classics is that you will have a new feeling when reading them at every stage. There is no need to demand 'ultimate understanding'. Each stage will have a specific experience, which is very natural." Teacher Zhang Xiang added.
Aftertaste, the reading of ancient and modern times is a big deal. Those who become a great scholar must go through three realms of :
03
Try to give the book "memo"
Comprehensive reading · Let's start with notes: "There are two main ways to take notes, one is to use Mr. Chen Yinke, who directly criticizes it on the book. In this way, you can form your own system after reading the book." Teacher Zhang Xiang said. "The other is like Mr. Qian Zhongshu, , who makes a notebook, pick it while reading, and come back to read it. This is more convenient to record and reference."
"What people have seen will always be forgotten. From this perspective, only by leaving notes can you truly see it." Teacher Zhang Xiang's emphasis on notes can be seen.
Skipping·To do "book flipping": "It's hard to know when a book will come in handy. Make a book flipping account for yourself, remember your favorite paragraphs or your thoughts, and read them when you have nothing to do. After a long time, I suddenly realized that 'I have read this book', which is really an interesting thing." Speaking of skimming, Teacher Zhang Xiang suggested that students make a simple book flipping "memo".
Read books·Make cards: "After reading the book, you need to make a small card memorandum. One is to index the card, write the title, author, publisher, year of publication, general content, and number the book, sort by letter; the other is to draw cards, excerpt the views and opinions: write the classification in the upper left corner, and write the number in the upper right corner, sort by topic." Teacher Zhang Xiang preached.(As shown below)
Daily small accumulation
04
To accumulate interesting things in daily life, you can create a document on your mobile phone to save some interesting content. Only by accumulating more can you improve your writing skills and make these "use me for your own use". "
It is always shallow to learn from this. Youth is good for being a companion to read
"No matter how much I have said, the method needs to be practiced by myself," Zhang Xiang emphasized, "Many students are busy with club activities and student work, hoping to cultivate their work ability, but work ability does not need to be deliberately cultivated. In the practice of work, we will naturally have work ability ." "The best thing that universities can do is to read, broaden their horizons, enrich their experiences in reading, and find what they want in the 'bigger' world. To measure a person's achievements, it may not be possible to do well just through his current "practice". You also need to see if he has his own vision and do things that seem to "transcend" the present. There is no absolute ‘method’ for reading . It is great to take a step and start reading. "Don't treat books as tools, but treat books as a colorful world, and know yourself and life in it.
Attachment: Excerpts of questions during the questioning session
Q
If I read a book carefully, will it only have an impact in this field?
Answer: Yes, in terms of some professional books. If books that can promote our cognitive ability as a whole are usually philosophical works, such as Foucault and Luman . It will be more difficult to read, but students can also try it.
h Are these methods also applicable to reading papers?Answer: Yes. Students can use it flexibly. The methods mentioned today are not necessarily only suitable for reading, but can also be used for reading literature.
Q
If I read some popular and "not so academic" books in my daily life, would it be helpful?
Answer: Zhou Zuoren said: There is nothing that can't be readable. Any book will have its readability. As long as you carefully study it according to today's method, I believe you will gain something.
Q
How to deal with the relationship between textbooks and extracurricular books?
Answer: According to the current system, the quality of our textbooks is not very satisfactory. I have heard of a classmate who has had very good grades before, but when I asked him what books he had read, he replied that he had only read textbooks. I was quite disappointed at that time, because I think it is difficult for him to become a truly excellent legal person. Reading textbooks only makes people narrow the horizons. You should read a lot of books in college and broaden your horizons. You should also read more other good books.
Q
How to use knowledge of non-professional subjects to your major?
Answer: This question is very complicated. I have read Huang Renyu 's "The Fifteenth Year of Wanli" by Mr. Huang Renyu, which describes the legitimacy of Li Zhi to support his family. It means that in Li Zhi's era, the whole family needed to provide a scholar, so Li Zhi should also support his family accordingly. Later, when I read a Western theory of property science, I found that although it was a Western theory, it could be proved by this. So there is It is difficult for you to know which professional knowledge will come in handy. I hope that students will slowly experience it in the next study.
(The lecture is organized and invited by Huang Zhijie, Zhou Leili, He Yunjin and other students, and Zhang Yuxin is responsible for writing the summary. I hereby thank you)
Related links: Zhang Xiang: Specific operations for writing legal papers
