Cheng Yi on How to Read the Analects and Mencius

Cheng Zi said, "People today can't read." If you read the Analects, you are such a person when you have not read it, and if you read it, you are only such a person, you have not read it. ”

Cheng Ziyi said: "The reader should look at the meaning of the saint so he writes the scriptures, and the saints are so attentive, and the reason why the saints are saints, and the reason why I have not yet arrived, so those who have not yet received, ask for it sentence by sentence, recite it day and taste it, think about it in the middle of the night, calm their hearts, change their breath, and quench their doubts, then the meaning of the saint can be seen."

Cheng Zi said: "Whoever reads the language and Meng, and must be familiar with reading and playing." The words of the saints must be taken to the letter, and not just one word. People only read two books to cut themselves, and they will do as much as they want in their lives. ”

In Cheng Yi's view, to read the Analects and Mencius, we must seriously understand the original meaning of the scriptures written by Confucius and Mencius, and the profound meaning of the remarks cannot be read in general. Read carefully and think carefully. What should be paid more attention to is that we must truly regard these two books as works of self-cultivation, and we must know and act in unity, and demand ourselves according to the method of self-cultivation in the book in daily study and life.