Zi Yue: "Knowing the new from the past can be a teacher." ”
In this chapter, I think everyone should also be very familiar with it, the traditional interpretation, generally speaking, Confucius said, familiar with reading, reviewing the knowledge they have learned, and understanding the new truth from it, such a person can become a teacher.
To tell the truth, such an interpretation is boring, and the threshold for the teacher is set too low, then the teacher really becomes a "teacher". We can also understand from the opposite side, if we say that "knowing the new" and "new knowledge", that is, having new ideas can be a teacher, then completely abandoning these "reasons" and creating a new set of new things in the sky, is not a more intelligent teacher? That becomes when everyone comes up with a new idea at random, and everyone becomes a teacher.
"Wen" here is not the meaning of review, but the common kanji of "containment", that is, the meaning of containment and implication. This "reason" is not simply the past, or the knowledge that has been learned. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic, especially around the Time of May Fourth, what we now call Guoxue, at that time, is more accurate to say "the study of the country", that is, the scholarship inherent in Chinese history, to distinguish it from Western studies. This "therefore" actually contains a very rich meaning, including both historical experiences and lessons, as well as wisdom that has been repeatedly verified in history. The "knowledge" here is actually the "wisdom" of "wisdom", which is directly written as "wisdom" in the Dingzhou Hanjian, so the "knowledge" here is not to produce new knowledge, but to be able to flexibly use historical experience and lessons, and the thinking tools and thinking methods we have mastered are used to effectively solve the current problems at that time. Yes, and it is not what we now understand as yes, "can" is the meaning of what should be, and in this way, "to be a teacher", does not refer to a specific person as a teacher, refers to "taking this as the object of emulation, the goal of the teacher.". We can also interpret that being able to fully grasp and flexibly use all kinds of wisdom that has been precipitated over time to effectively solve the problems of the present at that time is a vivid present manifestation of wisdom, which can be used as the object and goal of teaching and emulation.
Therefore, we should not understand the "reason" here as knowledge, but should be the wisdom of history, the wisdom that has been tested by time and precipitated.
I have also repeatedly stressed to you before, many of us read the classics, it is always easy to fall into a misunderstanding, that is, a hundred passes, not to learn and can, these are delusions, after reaching the realm of moderation, neutrality, but to learn a variety of specific experiences and methods more quickly, and to be able to fully grasp the applicable conditions of these experiences and methods, to be able to use flexibly, the Tao and the art are originally integrated, can not be separated, only master the method, no experience, no thinking tools, thinking methods as a support, There is no way we can really solve the problem effectively.