The book is finished
Text |Li Yinchu
Night reading
When I was in college, one of my teachers would often say a sentence when his eyebrows were dancing in class: I really want to live another 500 years!At first glance, all the beings in the audience were shocked.
Seeing that everyone was stunned, the teacher was quite proud, and explained the reason unhurriedly: it turned out that he had a collection of 50,000 books, and even if he read 100 books a year, it would take 500 years to read them, so he wanted to live another 500 years. I am very impressed by the teacher's dream. But I can't help but think of a question: Will I finish reading the book in this life and this life?
Before I was sixteen, I was convinced that I could read all the books in the world.
My primary school is in a small remote mountain village, the school is very small, but there is a library with no more than 100 books, and by the time I graduated, I had already finished reading them.
Later, I went to a small town to go to middle school, and there was only one grocery store in the whole town that also sold some popular ** and tutoring books, and there was no second place to sell books, and the school library had a complete collection of books. Of course, I soon "swept them up" as well. I'll never forget that hunger pang of not having a book to read. After being "empty", I had to pretend to read Marx's Capital. Although I don't seem to understand it, this kind of performance art makes me feel good, thinking that the world has one stone to read, and if I work hard enough, the remaining two buckets will be in my bag sooner or later. Thinking about it today, I was so naïve and cute at that time, and it is very appropriate to describe it as "the well frog can't speak the sky, and the summer insect can't speak the ice"!
The book will be read, and this paranoid belief lasted until I was in high school. I went to the provincial capital for the first time in the first semester of high school, and after the exam, my father said that it was rare to come to the provincial capital, so I would take you to Xinhua Bookstore. When I arrived at Xinhua Bookstore, I looked at the rows of bookshelves, four floors up and down, and I was instantly stunned by the huge bookstore where books were still books. When I came to my senses, I suddenly felt an unprecedented sense of disillusionment: it turns out that there are so many books in the world, and what I have read is just a drop in the oceanWith so many books, how can you read them all in your lifetime?It was as if my heart had fallen into the depths of the ocean.
This sense of despair haunts me deeply. For the next three years of high school, I completely gave up reading and spent all day immersed in the sea of questions, focusing on getting into college. Later, I successfully entered the university, perhaps because the pressure of going to higher education disappeared, or because the quiet atmosphere on the university campus was perfect for reading, and my hunger for books reappeared!During those years, I read countless ** poems freely and freely. The time between the east-facing window of the library and the wandering bookshelves has become my most dear memory. At that time, I was no longer entangled in the doubt of whether I could finish the book: what does it matter if I can't finish the book?When I wake up every day, I think that there are still endless books to read, and this is happiness.
Later, when I was studying for my master's degree, my tutor would routinely ask me what I had read recently before each class. I'm always imaginative, with a hammer in the east and a mallet in the west. Because I always feel that there are so many good books that I can't finish reading, and I don't need to limit myself to a small area. Eventually, however, my mentor spoke, and he said, "You may be a good reader, but you will never be a good scholar." Books can be read to the end, as long as you master the methods and read them selectively and purposefully. Then he told another story: Chen Yinke, who had just returned from studying abroad, went to visit the older generation of historians Xia Zengyou, and Xia Zengyou said to him: "It's good that you can read foreign books;I can only read Chinese books, I have read them all, and I don't have to read them. Chen Yinke was shocked when he heard this, thinking that Xia Zengyou was confused. But it wasn't until a few decades later that Chen Yinke found that he had reached the realm of having no books to read, and he realized that what Xia Zengyou said was true, because "China's real original classics are only more than 100 books, and the rest of the books are just references to them".
After listening to this story, I couldn't help but feel a shock in my heart: it turns out that the book can really be read to the end!I think of the arrogance when I was a child and the anxiety of thinking that I can't finish reading when I was a teenager, and I haven't even touched the door of reading!If I work tirelessly in this life, will I be able to say "I've finished reading" like Xia Zengyou and Chen Yinke?The book is finishedWhat kind of realm would that be?Is there only a high wind and a sad whirlwind, and the blue sky is hanging down, will I be so happy that I can't speak!?
*: Yangpu, Shanghai.