Seeking the Full Text of Liang Qichao's Learning and Being a Man

Gentlemen! I have been teaching in Nanjing for nearly three months. In Suzhou academic circles, I have written several times to invite me. Unfortunately, I have homework every day in Nanjing, so I can't come right away. Today, I am grateful to be with the leaders of all schools in the city, but I must ask you to forgive me one thing: I am afraid I can't make a long speech today because I have been ill for a month and barely supported me.

Ask you, "Why did you go to school?" I think everyone will answer with one voice: "To study." He asked again, "Why do you want to know?" "What do you want to learn?" I'm afraid everyone's answer is very different, or they can't answer it themselves. Gentlemen! Let me answer for you: "To learn to be a man." What mathematics, geometry, physics, chemistry, physiology, psychology, history, geography, Chinese, English, even philosophy, literature, science, politics, law, economy, education, agriculture, industry, commerce and so on. All you learned at school was the means to be a man. You can't say that you can achieve the purpose of being a man by relying on these things, and you can master these things.

Human psychology consists of three parts: knowledge, emotion and meaning. These three parts are in a state of complete development, and ancient Chinese philosophers called them "three dads"-wisdom, benevolence and courage. Why is it called "Dade"? Because these three things are the common moral standards of human beings, it takes three things to become a person. What is the completion status of the three works? Confucius said, "The knower is not confused, the benevolent is not worried, and the brave is not afraid." Therefore, education should be divided into three aspects: intellectual education, emotional education and intentional education. -The current intellectual education, moral education and physical education are all wrong. The scope of moral education is too general and the scope of physical education is too narrow. -intellectual education should teach people not to be confused, emotional education should teach people not to worry, and intentional education should teach people not to be afraid. Educators should aim at these three points when educating students. We should also aim at these three points when we educate ourselves automatically.

How can I not be confused? The most important thing is to cultivate our judgment. If you want to cultivate your judgment, you should have at least considerable common sense as the first step. Besides, you must have special knowledge about what you want to do. Furthermore, when things happen, you must have the wisdom to break things. If a person doesn't even have common sense, when he hears thunder, he says it is thunder, and when he sees an eclipse, he says it is toad's greed. Then, you must know nothing. When you encounter a difficult problem, you can ask God for a fortune-telling solution. It is really the so-called "confused" and has become the most pitiful person. Primary and secondary schools in the school teach people to have a lot of basic knowledge, so as not to grope for everything secretly. But just a little common sense is not enough. As human beings, we always have a special occupation. I'm not the only one engaged in this industry. Many people have done it. They have accumulated countless experiences and discovered many truths. This is professional knowledge. I intend to do this job, so I should have expertise in this field. For example, whether I want to be a farmer, how to improve the soil, how to improve seeds, how to defend against floods, droughts, pests and diseases, etc., all of which are learned from previous experience; When we have this knowledge and apply it to these things, we will naturally be confused, but we will also be confused. Workmanship, business and so on have their own expertise, and so on. Do I want to be a financier, what kind of tax can produce what kind of results, what kind of public debt can produce what kind of results, and so on. All of them are learned from previous experience; When we have this knowledge and apply it to these things, we will naturally be confused, but we will also be confused. Educators, military strategists, etc. Everyone has their own special theory, so do they. This is the kind of knowledge we seek in college. But is this common sense and knowledge enough? Not yet. The universe and life are alive, not dull. What we encounter every day is complex and diverse, not just rigid. If you only learn this one and don't understand it, you will be in a hurry when you encounter something you haven't learned. Therefore, it is necessary to cultivate overall wisdom in order to have a fundamental judgment. How to cultivate this universal wisdom? First of all, we should really temper our rough brain and make it fine and practical. Then no matter how hard it is, I can think through his organization, and naturally I won't be confused. Second, I really need to nourish my turbid brain and make it clear. Then when one thing comes to me, I can judge him calmly and clearly, and naturally I won't be confused. Common sense, knowledge and overall wisdom mentioned above are all important elements of knowledge education, with the aim of teaching people to be "the knower is not confused".

How can I not worry? Why don't benevolent people worry? To understand this truth, we must first know what China's philosophy of life is. The word "benevolence" is the full use of Confucian outlook on life. What is "benevolence"? It is difficult to explain it in words, and I can barely explain it. It can be said that it is "the realization of universal personality." Confucius said, "Everyone is benevolent." It means that the completion of personality is called "benevolence". But we should know that personality can not be expressed by a single person, but from the perspective of the relationship between people. So the word benevolence came from two people, and Zheng Kangcheng explained that he was a "doll". In short, I have to resonate with each other and become one, so that my personality can be realized. So if we don't talk about individualism, we have nothing to say; Speaking of this theory, it certainly belongs to the universal personality. In other words, the universe is life, life is the universe, and our personality is no different from the universe. If we experience this truth, we are called "benevolent people". But why can't such a kind person worry? Everything has two concerns, one is success or failure, and the other is gain or loss. If we have a "kind" outlook on life, we won't worry about success or failure. Why? Because we know that the universe and life will never be perfect, the sixty-four hexagrams in the Book of Changes began to "dry up" and ended in "exhaustion". It is in this universe that will never be perfect that we can always create evolution. All we have done is to move forward one inch or two inches in the tens of millions of miles of the evolution of the universe. Where is it worthy of success? But what about not doing it? If you don't do it, you won't even move this inch forward. That's the real failure. "Benevolent people" see through this truth and think that failure can only be counted if they don't do it, and they will not fail if they are willing to do it. Therefore, the Book of Changes says, "A gentleman strives for self-improvement." On the other hand, they think that nothing will succeed. Is it successful to move a few Wan Li inches by inches? Therefore, the Analects of Confucius said, "You can't do it if you know it." Think about it. People with this outlook on life have nothing to worry about. Furthermore, if you have a "benevolent" outlook on life, you won't suffer from loss. Why? Because it's mine, there's nothing to gain or lose. Even personality does not exist alone, so we can't clearly draw this part belongs to me and that part belongs to others, but where can we get it? I have nothing to lose, and certainly nothing to lose. I just study for the sake of studying, and work for the sake of working. I don't take study and labor as a means to achieve a certain goal-I can "get" it for us. So Lao Tzu said, "I was born without it, not relying on it." "I think the more people there are, the more people there are." You think, people with this outlook on life have nothing to worry about. In short, with this outlook on life, you will naturally feel that "heaven and earth coexist with me, and everything is one with me", and naturally "no one is complacent". His life is pure fun and art. This is the highest emotional education, which aims to teach people that "different people have different opinions, and the wise have different opinions".

How can I not be afraid? Without confusion and worry, fear will definitely be reduced a lot. But it's a matter of will. If a person's willpower is weak, he will have a wealth of knowledge, and he will not need it for the time being, so he will have a good sentiment and change his mind for the time being. But how can the will be strong? The first thing is to be clear-headed. Mencius said, "Expedience is paramount. If you don't care, you will be embarrassed. " He added: "I don't flinch, although I am brown and broad, I don't care;" Now that it's shrunk, although there are thousands of people, I still want to go. "As the saying goes," If you don't do anything wrong in your life, you won't be surprised if you knock at the door in the middle of the night. "To keep courage, one must proceed from the fact that all actions can be made public. This is the first step. The second thing, don't stick to inferior desires. The Analects of Confucius notes: Confucius said, "I have never seen an upright man. "Let's reach out and go to yue. Confucius said, "I want it, but I am not strong." "A tired of material things, want to ramble, will become soft. In short, it is easy for a person's will to change from strong to weak, and it is extremely difficult to change from weak to strong. If a person is weak-willed, he is finished. If you can't afford to be your own master, what can you do? Being oppressed by others, being a slave to others, as long as you are willing to struggle, you will eventually be free. My will has become a slave to my own lust, so it is really a disaster, and there is no room for freedom. I was timid all my life and became a poor man. Confucius said, "Harmony without flow is strong and just; Neutral and fair, strong and correct. State-owned road, unchanged, strong and positive; The country has no choice but to die. "I will tell you the truth. If you don't do this, you'll never be a man. But it's really not easy to do this. Always do kung fu to temper your will. When the will is tempered, it is natural to see what you should do and do it without hesitation. " Although thousands of people are going. "Only in this way can we become an indomitable spirit, and there will never be an ugly state of hiding our heads and tails. This is the purpose of intentional education, teaching people to be brave and fearless. "

We regard these three things as the standard of being a man. Please think about it. I have a little confidence in whatever I do now. If you can't even do one thing, you can't even be sure, alas! That's really dangerous. I'm afraid you won't be a man in the future. Speaking of school education, emotional education on the second floor and emotional education on the third floor, it can be said that there is no education at all, and the rest is only intellectual education on the first floor. Even if you are educated, you only have so-called common sense and knowledge. As for the overall wisdom I said, it depends on the development fundamentals, but it is not at all. This kind of education of "selling knowledge grocery stores" makes people shudder to think about his future! Now this kind of education can't be reformed for a while, and our lovely young man has no place to be educated except him. Gentlemen! Do you want to be a man or not? You should know the danger. No one will save you unless you pull yourself together and save yourself!

Gentlemen! You must not think that you have knowledge by getting some fragmentary wisdom. I tell you the truth; If you become a person, the more knowledge, the better; If you can't be a person, the more knowledge, the worse. Don't you believe it? Think of that traitor whom the whole country reviles. Does a person have knowledge or not? Think of the bureaucratic politicians that the whole country hates-people who specialize in helping warlords do evil and being kind to the people. Do they have any insight? Gentlemen, you should know that these people are different from you because they were full of enthusiasm and childlike innocence when they were at school more than ten years ago. Why did it fall into such a field? Qu Yuan said, "What was grass in the past? Now it's Xiao Ai's turn! I don't know if there are other reasons, so I don't want to repair it. " The saddest thing in the world is to watch a group of excellent young people go bad step by step. Gentlemen, wake up! The person you hate now is your warning.

Gentlemen! Do you doubt now? Is it boring? Sadness and pain? Do you think you can't resist the oppression from outside? I tell you: you are suspicious and slow, and you are confused because you don't know; You are sad and miserable because you are heartless and worried; You feel that you can't resist the oppression from the outside world, because you are not brave and afraid. This is because your knowledge, feelings and intentions have not been cultivated and tempered, so you have not become a person. I hope you have a painful consciousness! With self-knowledge, you will naturally succeed. Then, outside the school, there is of course a lot of knowledge. After reading a volume of classics and turning over the history, you can find the mentor and friend of the king everywhere!

Gentlemen, wake up! Cultivate your fundamental wisdom, experience your outlook on life and protect your free will. Whether you are an adult or not depends on these years.