How to read biographical books

The third category is biographical books. Why do I take this category out alone? Because biographical books are more story-telling, unlike novels, they are based on facts. Moreover, when people read biographies, they not only read this person's story, but also sum up some truths from this person's story for their own reference. For example, I have read a book called Du Zhuan. Some people say that Du is a tycoon in old Shanghai, while others say that he is a gangster. This biography of Du Fu does not comment on whether he is a good person or a bad person, but truly restores Du Fu's life experience.

There is a story in the book that impressed me deeply. Du Yuesheng called his family to the bed before he died. He took out a stack of IOUs and burned them in front of his family. The family doesn't understand, because the money on these IOUs has to be paid back, and it's a lot. Why burn them? Du said that if others want to pay back the money, they will pay it back without a loan; But if others don't want to pay back, you take the iou to collect debts, and he may still hurt you, so burn it.

The story is so simple, but it can be understood from three levels. On the first level, you know Du's story and find it interesting, that's all. On the second level, you know Du from the story. It seems that this man is very smart and loyal to his friends. On the third level, you have learned some truth from Du's story. For example, if you come out to mix and leave a back road for others, you will leave a back road for yourself.

These three levels of understanding actually determine the level of your writing. If you only understand the first level, you see a story, and when you write a manuscript, you will repeat the story; On the second level, you summed up several principles of Du Fu's life from Du Chuan, which others can understand without reading this book. On the third level, you have learned something useful for yourself from Du's way of doing things. When writing an open manuscript, you can draw inferences from others and synthesize your own thoughts and feelings.

If you are an editor in charge of receiving and opening manuscripts, which of the above three levels of opening manuscripts would you prefer? I think most people will choose the third, or at least the second. Nobody wants the first one. Because the first one is just a porter of content, there is nothing new for everyone.

From this example, we should also be able to see that the main point of reading biographies is to sum up the truth through stories, and then understand the truth in combination with ourselves and use it flexibly. In this way, this biography is no longer just a story book, but a book that is really useful to you.