Reading history can clearly tell the origin of the past and the present.

The original sentence of "Reading Shi Kejian" is "Reading Shi Kehui", which comes from the article "On Knowledge" by the British philosopher Francis Bacon.

The original text is:

On knowledge

Author: Francis Bacon

Knowledge can be used as a pastime, a decoration, and can also increase one's talents.

Reading can be a pastime when you are lonely. When you speak, knowledge can be decorated. When you act in the world, the correct use of knowledge means strength. Happy is the man who knows the cause and effect of things. Although people with practical experience can handle individual affairs, if they want to look at the whole and plan the overall situation, they can only do so by mastering knowledge.

Learning too slowly will lead to laziness, studying for decoration is self-deception, and studying completely according to the rules of books will make you a paranoid bookworm.

Knowledge can improve man and nature, and experiments can improve knowledge itself. Human nature is like wild flowers and weeds, and learning is like pruning and transplanting. Practical attempts can test the authenticity of the revised knowledge itself.

Cunning people despise learning, fools envy learning, and only smart people are good at using learning. Knowledge itself does not tell people how to use it, but the way to use it is outside books. This is a skill. You can't learn without doing experiments.

Don't read just for criticism and argument, but don't trust books easily. The purpose of seeking knowledge is not to brag or show off, but to seek truth and enlighten wisdom.

Some knowledge only needs to be tasted, and some knowledge only needs to be learned. Only a few professional knowledge needs in-depth and meticulous study. Therefore, some books only need to read part of them, some books only need to know the outline, and for a few good books, we should read them intensively, carefully and repeatedly.

Some books can be read by someone instead and then read the summary of his notes. But this is limited to books of poor quality. Otherwise, a good book will become as tasteless as distilled water!

Reading enriches the mind, discusses right and wrong, and takes notes to make the knowledge accurate.

Therefore, if a person is unwilling to take notes, then his memory must be strong and reliable. If a person only wants to explore alone, his thinking must be particularly keen. If someone doesn't study and wants to pretend to be knowledgeable, he must be very cunning to cover up his ignorance.

Reading history makes people wise, reading poems makes people wise, calculus makes people precise, philosophy makes people profound, ethics makes people cultivated, and logic rhetoric makes people able to contend. In short, "knowledge can shape a person's character".

Moreover, all kinds of mental defects can be improved through knowledge-just as physical defects can be improved through exercise. For example, playing ball is good for the waist and kidney, archery can expand the chest and moisten the lungs, walking can help digestion, riding can make people react quickly and so on. Similarly, a distracted person can also study math, because math will make mistakes if he is not careful.

People who lack analysis and judgment can learn scholasticism, because this subject is the most complicated and dialectical. People who are not good at reasoning can study law or something. These mental defects can be cured through knowledge.

About the author:

Francis Bacon (1561-1626), a British politician, philosopher and linguist, was contemporary with Shakespeare. Marx called it "the true ancestor of British materialism and the whole modern experimental science."

He comes from a noble family in London. His father, Nicholas Bacon, was Queen Elizabeth's minister in charge of the seal. Bacon was brilliant as a teenager. /kloc-entered Trinity College of Cambridge University at the age of 0/2. /kloc-When he was 0/5 years old, he was attached to the British Ambassador in France. 1582 as lawyer, 1607 as deputy inspector general, 16 13 as chief inspector general, 16 17 as seal minister,16/kloc.

In history, few philosophers have held such a high position except Bacon. 162 1 year later, he was dismissed for taking bribes. After that, Bacon divorced from politics and devoted himself to academic research and writing. His main works are: New Island, Great Rejuvenation, Essays, On the Value and Development of Science, etc.

Extended data

Appreciation of On Knowledge:

first part

(1-6 natural paragraph): Mainly discuss the correct purpose of seeking knowledge. At first, the author puts forward three different types of purpose of seeking knowledge, then discusses "recreation", "decoration" and "increasing talents" in three levels, and points out three kinds of bias in seeking knowledge. Then use metaphor to analyze the function and relationship between seeking knowledge and experiment, and then analyze the different attitudes of different people towards learning, and draw the conclusion that the purpose of seeking knowledge is not to show off, but to discover truth and enlighten wisdom.

the second part

(7- 1 1 natural paragraph): Mainly discuss the method of seeking knowledge. It is pointed out that good books, ordinary books and rough books should be read in different ways, and more reading, discussion and notes should be advocated. For ordinary books, we should only "skim" and "skim", and for good books, we should "read intensively, carefully and repeatedly". For rough books, "just read the summary of other people's notes." Finally, it explains the importance of reading, discussing and taking notes.

the third part

(Paragraphs 12 and 13): This paper mainly discusses the role of knowledge in shaping personality and improving spirit, and encourages people to seek knowledge. This paper discusses the role of six kinds of knowledge in shaping personality and making up psychological defects respectively.