Today I would like to casually talk about the method of learning. My personal opinion is that no matter what science – astronomy, geology, physics, chemistry, etc. – there is only one way to do it, and that is to do research. What is doing research? That is to say, whenever we want to study a problem, it is because there is a difficult problem that we have to solve it. So when you do research, it's not hanging research. The motivation and goal of all studies and research are the same. The motivation for research is always because of the occurrence of difficulties, there is a problem that I did not see before, but now I see; I used to think that there was no need to solve it, but now I feel that there is a need to solve it. The real motivation for all scholarship and research is to seek a solution to a certain problem or a certain difficulty; So the motivation is the difficulty, and the purpose is to solve the difficulty. This is not my own statement, anyone who has experience in doing research and learning will admit this statement. Really speaking, to do scholarship is to research; Research is all about finding solutions to problems. The motivation for doing research is the same for all studies, the goal is the same, and so the method is the same. Not only now; If we study the history of Western scientific thought and the development of science, and then look at the history of all kinds of thinkers in China who have been in line with the scientific method over the past 2,500 years, we know that all those who have made achievements in learning and research in ancient and modern China and abroad have the same methods. The methods of Chinese and foreign education are the same in ancient and modern times. Why is it the same? It is because the motivation and goal of doing research are the same. From a motivation to a goal, from discovering difficulties to solving difficulties, there is a process, which is the so-called method. From the day the difficulty is discovered to the time when the difficulty is solved, the process can be long or short. Sometimes it takes decades or centuries to solve a problem; Sometimes it only takes an hour to solve a problem. This process is the method.
I said the same method; How? There have been many times when I wanted to use words to make a formula, a slogan, a slogan, and briefly state the method; But there was never a satisfying way to behave. Now I think of two sentences in my articles on methods in the past twenty or thirty years, which may be regarded as a very simple and concise way of talking about the method of study.
Those two sentences are: "Bold assumptions, careful verification." "Be bold and hypothetical, but you have to prove it. Therefore, it is more important to be cautious and to think of ways to confirm or disprove the hypothesis than to make bold assumptions. These ten words are what I have seen in words for twenty or thirty years, and I often say them to my young friends. Sometimes in my own class, I always want my students to understand. Today's introduction to the method of governance can be said to explain what is called hypothesis; What is called a bold hypothesis; How to prove or disprove a hypothesis.
As I said earlier, the method of study, the method of doing research, is based on a difficulty. Whether it is a problem in chemistry, geology, biology, or social science, it is a difficult problem. When difficulties arise, based on personal knowledge and learning, they unconsciously put forward hypotheses and assume that there are certain solutions that can be solved. For example, in the past few years in Taiwan, you have seen an article in a magazine discussing "Dream of Red Mansions", which is the so-called red studies, what can be studied about "Dream of Red Mansions"? What went wrong with "Dream of Red Mansions"? Ordinary people don't have a problem when they look at the characters in "A Dream of Red Mansions", but some readers feel that there is a problem with "A Dream of Red Mansions": What does "A Dream of Red Mansions" mean? Is there any background to writing the stories of Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu at that time? Is there a "small word" in it? wrote a book of seven or eight hundred thousand words to tell the story of the Jia family, about a hakama disciple Jia Baoyu and many beautiful girls, beautiful sisters and relatives; What's the point of not? This is a problem. How to solve this problem? Of course you have an assumption, and he also has an assumption.
Twenty or thirty years ago, when I was writing The Dream of the Red Chamber, there were many hypothetical solutions to the problems raised by The Dream of the Red Chamber. There is a saying that "Dream of Red Mansions" contains racial thoughts, and the characters in the book are alluding to the ** of Manchuria at that time, and Lin Daiyu is an allusion to a famous man in the history of Kangxi; Xue Baochai, Sister Wang Feng and those girls are all alluding to historical figures. There is also an assumption that Jia Baoyu refers to the son of the Manchurian prime minister Mingzhu, named Nalan Xingde—he was a great genius, a highly regarded writer—and those girls, sisters, and relatives were all a group of literati and Qing guests who represented the prime minister's Mingzhu's family; The beautiful ladies in the book, such as Lin Daiyu, Xue Baochai, Sister Wang Feng, Shi Xiangyun and others, have all been modified to turn women into men. I don't think it's very likely, and I don't need to say that I am transgender.
Later I also came up with a hypothesis. My assumptions are pretty commonplace. From the very beginning of the book "Dream of Red Mansions", the author said that this was my autobiography and the things I had personally seen. My hypothesis is that "Dream of Red Mansions" is the author's autobiography, written about the family he saw firsthand. Jia Baoyu is Cao Xueqin; "Dream of Red Mansions" is to write the history of the Cao family. Who is Cao Xueqin? His father was called Cao, and his grandfather was called Cao Yin; Three generations of four people in a family have been weaving in Jiangning for almost 50 years. The so-called Ningguofu and Rongguofu are nothing else, but refer to the story of Jiangning weaving that their grandfather, father, two sons, three generations and four people have controlled for more than 50 years. The book says, "When the emperor was on his southern tour, our family picked up four times. "If you are in an ordinary family, entertaining the emperor four times may be bankrupt; These things were worth blowing about at the time. Therefore, although Cao Xueqin hid the real thing, she was still reluctant to blow it. Cao Xueqin later went bankrupt and became a beggar, and when she became a huazi, she still read and drank, just like Jia Baoyu in the book. This is an assumption; Let me give you an example.
To solve the question of "what is the purpose of "Dream of Red Mansions", of course, there are many assumptions. It's a good thing to ask for a problem to be solved; But first it depends on whether these hypotheses can be proven. Whenever a difficulty is solved, there must be proof. We look at these assumptions, and some say that this book is a scolding of the Manchurians; It was when the Manchurians ruled China, and the Han people wrote out to scold the Manchurians with hidden national pain. Some say that it was written about a large family at that time, Nalan Xingde, the genius son of Prime Minister Mingzhu's family. Some say that it is a political figure who wrote about the Kangxi Dynasty. And what about my assumptions? I don't think this book is about racial hatred, nor is it about Kangxi's time. Neither! In fact, according to the usual way of doing learning, I put forward a very common hypothesis, that is, the author of the book "Dream of Red Mansions" said at the beginning, he was telling the truth, describing the lovely girls he saw; Therefore, the characters described in the book can fully express their personalities. The "bold hypothesis" that Fang just called is this kind of assumption. I'm afraid that the hypothesis I've put forward is just a cowardly hypothesis!
This should be the case for all scholars, especially in literature and history. For example, if you do a qualitative analysis in a chemistry lab, you are given a box of things, and you have to make a few assumptions about what a certain color thing is, and then you go to the fire and see what has happened to the test tube: these are all problems. This is as problematic as the interpretation of "Dream of the Red Chamber"; The method of learning is the same. Our experience, our learning, gives us a little knowledge for us to make assumptions. So a "bold hypothesis" is a hypothesis that anyone can make. Because everybody's knowledge is different, everybody's knowledge is different, and of course we have to allow them to come up with all sorts of assumptions. What is the use of all knowledge, all learning? Why do you have so many compulsory and elective subjects during your years at school? It's all for you; It is to make you have a hypothesis in the back of your mind when a certain problem occurs, and a hypothesis comes up there. Doing learning, attending classes, all the things that seek knowledge, all the experience - the experience from childhood to the present, all the homework and extracurricular learning in school, are to provide you with all kinds of hypotheses, so that you have hypothetical materials when problems occur. If you encounter a problem and are at a loss, it means that knowledge, knowledge, and experience cannot be applied, so when you see a problem occurring, there is no way to solve it. This is what knowledge cannot provide you with some living material for your assumptions to solve problems.
Assumptions alone are not enough, because there can be many. For example, "Dream of Red Mansions" has caused so many assumptions. So the second step is what I call "careful verification". Before we really verify it, we must make careful choices. These many assumptions are hypothetical solutions, and the hypothetical solution is more reasonable, and it can help us solve the difficult problem that started to happen. For example, what is "Dream of Red Mansions" about? What's the point? There are so many hypothetical explanations to come, and when you choose, you should first look at which hypothetical explanation can help you solve the problem, and then say: For this problem, I think my hypothesis can be solved satisfactorily. For example, my assumption about "Dream of Red Mansions" is that Cao Xueqin wrote a biography of the Cao family, and it is the fact that Cao Xueqin saw. Jia's mother is Cao's mother, and the girls below Jia's mother are also the real people he saw, of course, the name has been changed, and the surname has also been changed. But I put forward this hypothesis, that is, "Dream of Red Mansions" is Cao Xueqin's autobiography, and the most important thing is to ask for proof. I was able to confirm it, and my hypothesis stood up; If it can't be confirmed, it won't stand. Verification is to see if the facts you present can help you solve that problem. To know what "Dream of Red Mansions" is about, it is necessary to do research on "Dream of Red Mansions". Now I can make a confession to you. In the 30 years that I have been doing the research of "Dream of Red Mansions", I have written more than a dozen research articles about **, such as "Water Margin", "Confucianism", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Journey to the West", "Travels of the Old Remnant", "Three Heroes and Five Righteousness" and other books. And what I spent the most effort on was a book about the story of being afraid of my wife, called "Awakening Marriage", which has about a million words. It took me five years to do 50,000 words of research. Some people may ask, is Hu Shi crazy? There are a lot of things to do in the world, and you are studying agriculture, so why not do a little bit of science related to physical chemistry?
Why did it take years to research "Dream of Red Mansions" and "Awakening Marriage"? I would like to make a frank confession now, that is, I want to use the method of tax evasion to advocate a scientific method of study. All my first-class research is based on materials that everyone knows, and uses the method of tax evasion to talk about the method of doing knowledge. For example, when I talk about "Dream of the Red Chamber", at least my attitude towards the study of "Dream of the Red Chamber" is the same as my strict attitude towards it, the strictness of my own criticism, and the consciousness of my method. I regard ** materials as the same as chemical pharmaceutical materials, which are all materials. I used books such as "Water Margin", "Awakening Marriage", and "Notes on the Water Classic" as academic materials. Taking a material that everyone knows and using the method of tax evasion, people unconsciously develop a method of "bold assumptions and careful verification".
Assumptions are open to everyone. It doesn't hurt to make appalling assumptions, for example. The assumption is that the bolder the better. But to make a hypothesis, to think about it to prove it. Therefore, after we have bold assumptions, we should not forget to verify them carefully. For example, when I was researching "Dream of Red Mansions", I got the help of many friends, and I found a lot of materials. The book I've printed.,It's the book that has been changed many times.。 I first have to test whether Cao Xueqin has any other works besides "Dream of Red Mansions"? Did his friends and contemporaries write anything about him? Is there any record of him from his father and uncles? How much material is there about four generations and five members of his family, especially about his grandfather Cao Yin, to know his status at that time? How much money do you have at home? How much wide? Is it really impossible to entertain the emperor to four times? I found all these relevant evidences and analyzed them in detail, and only then did I come up with a relatively satisfactory hypothesis, which determined that Cao Xueqin's writing of "Dream of Red Mansions" was not a trivial matter; It's just a prosaic autobiography - the history of the Cao family. I have the history of four generations and five people in this family, which can help illustrate. Of course, my assumptions aren't entirely correct; But at least it can be shown here that it is important to "verify carefully".
Let me now illustrate with one more example. I just said that the problem occurs first, and then the problem is solved. To really prove something, do research. It is necessary to assume a more satisfactory hypothesis to solve the problem that arose in the first place. For example, "Dream of Red Mansions" just mentioned is more complicated. But I think that after this research, after this collection of materials, and after this process of expressing and narrating materials that ordinary people do not know in a systematic way, I think that my hypothesis is the most satisfactory answer among many hypotheses: "What is "Dream of Red Mansions" talking about? What's the point? ”
I mentioned a ** just now, I'm afraid you haven't seen it, it's called "Awakening Marriage", which has almost one million words, which is longer than "Dream of Red Mansions", and can be said to be the longest in China's old **. This book tells the story of a wife who is afraid. He begged a most terrible wife. The lady used various methods to beat her husband's parents and friends. She was angry with her husband even when she saw it; Not only did she beat, but once she poured red charcoal from an iron into the round neckline of her husband's official uniform, and almost burned him to death; On one occasion he was beaten 600 times with a laundry mallet, and almost killed him. narrated such a story of being afraid of his wife for more than a million words, but there was still no way to get rid of it. Why? said that this was a marriage in a previous life. A small half of the book, almost a fifth of the book, is written about past lives. The second half is about the story of the second life. The person who treated ** in the previous life is the abuser of this life. The problem of marriage is the marriage of the previous life, and there is no way to get rid of it. I can't get rid of it if I want to. As a result, you can only recite scriptures and do good deeds. From the perspective of modern times, this is a very superstitious story. But this book is remarkable. It is witty to describe the characters at that time in a local dialect of Zichuan, Shandong; The description of the famine year is even more vivid. This can be said to be one of the great ** in the world. I advocated that the book be punctuated with new punctuation marks and discussed with the bookstore for reprinting. The person who wrote this book is anonymous, called Xi Zhousheng. Who is Xi Zhousheng? So I made a bold assumption, which can be said to be bold. (As I just said, my assumption about "Dream of Red Mansions" can be said to be a hypothesis of a little guts.) I think this book was written by Pu Songling, the author of "Strange Tales from Liaozhai". What evidence do I have for this hypothesis? Why did I make this assumption? Where does this hypothesis come from? Ordinary experience, knowledge, and learning are all used for our assumptions. My evidence is the ** of the previous article entitled "Jiangcheng" in "Strange Tales from Liao Zhai". The content structure of this story is the same as that of "Awakening Marriage". However, "Jiangcheng" is a short story in literary language**; "Awakening Marriage" is a long story in the vernacular**. The male protagonist described in "Marriage in the Awakening World" is afraid of his wife because he once killed a fairy fox in his previous life, and in the next life, the fairy fox will transform into a woman to be his wife, and it will become very terrifying. The short story "Jiangcheng" in "Strange Tales from Liaozhai" is also described because the male protagonist killed an immortal mouse, and the immortal rat was reincarnated as a woman to be his wife to avenge the grievances of his previous life. The structure of these two stories is too similar, and they are located in Zichuan, Shandong at the same time, so I assume that Xi Zhousheng is Pu Songling. I also used linguistic methods to find out many dialects in the book. Luckily, it happened that several vernacular operas by Pu Songling were discovered in China in those years, especially long-form operas, one of which was a vernacular opera that compiled the story of "Jiangcheng" into a vernacular opera. I found out the dialect in this opera and compared it with the dialect in "Awakening Marriage" in detail, and there were many special characters collected into a dictionary, and finally it was proved that the authors of the vernacular operas of "Awakening Marriage" and "Jiangcheng" were people from the same small area. and then use other methods to prove the famine years of that era; The same was later obtained from the historical record.
Conclusion. After the research was completed, a bookstore came to discuss the printing and arranged the edition. Because I wanted to be more certain, I asked the bookstore to wait; I waited for five years. It was not printed until the fifth year. At that time, Mr. Fu was very happy - because he was a fellow villager of the author, both from Shandong. I'm going to give this example to illustrate the need to make bold assumptions, and assumptions alone are not enough. Later, a student from Gui County, Guangxi Province, came to me and told me that not only did you say this, but someone had already said it before. Bao Tingbo in the Qianlong era, he said that in addition to "Strange Tales from Liaozhai", there is also a "Awakening Marriage". Because Bao Tingbo was an engraver of books, he once engraved "Strange Tales from Liaozhai". What he said was noteworthy. I've been indirectly proving it for a few years, and now there's at least a direct way to help me prove it.
The purpose of taking these examples, and treating them as problems to be solved, is just to take these materials that everyone knows, and to instill and introduce a method of learning. The main point of this method is the two sentences I just said: "Bold assumptions, careful verification." "If a knowledgeable, learned, and experienced person encounters a problem, of course, it is necessary to come up with hypotheses, hypothetical solutions. The most important thing is to carefully confirm it, or deny it. If you don't think the evidence is sufficient, you'd rather hang it out and make a judgment and look for the material. Therefore, it is important to be careful with the verification.
Time is very short, and I would like to conclude this speech by quoting a slogan from the late president of National Taiwan University, Mr. Fu. His slogan is two famous sentences when he opened the Institute of History and Philology in the seventeenth year of **, that is, "go up and down to the Yellow Spring, and use your hands and feet to find things". The first sentence of these two sentences is a sentence in Bai Juyi's "Song of Long Hatred", and the latter sentence was added by Mr. Fu. Today, President Fu has passed away, but Mr. Li Jizhi, a professor present here, still vigorously promotes this slogan, which shows that this is indeed something that we scholars should pay attention to. Assuming that everyone can mention, the most important thing is to be able to verify it carefully; In order to carefully verify, it is necessary to: "Go up and down the Yellow Spring, and use your hands and feet to find things." "Today's talk is very shallow, especially since there are many professors in the Department of Literature and History that I usually admire the most, and I ask them to give me more advice.