Twelve Letters to Youth is an article about life written by Mr. Zhu Guangqian in the form of letters, mainly targeting middle school students during his study in Europe. The "Twelve Letters" involve teenagers' extracurricular reading, composition, further education, course selection, love, social interaction, as well as the bad habits of the people and the disadvantages of education. They talk about self-cultivation, give directions and explain to young people. They are very friendly and reasonable.
? Excerpts are as follows:
1. Whether you can study after class is not a matter of time, but a matter of determination. There are many people who are much busier than you. Many people's knowledge is acquired in busy work. (ps: Because I often use the lack of time as an excuse not to study. )
2. Human knowledge is progressing day by day. It goes without saying that if you don't try to keep up, you will fall behind. It is particularly important to develop the habit of reading and find interest in learning. If you don't have a normal hobby, you have nothing to trust in your spare time, and you may be tempted by bad habits when you leave school to work in the future. But if you find an interest in reading, you will be more able to resist temptation than others in the future. Interest should be cultivated in youth, but it will fade after the normal season. The same is true of forming the habit of reading.
You can't finish reading books, and it's useless to read them. Many books are not worth reading. If you read one more worthless book, you will lose the time and energy to read a valuable book. So you should choose carefully. Everything else can learn fashion, but you can't learn fashion by reading and studying.
? -from "Talking about Reading"
People are naturally active, developing and creative. To be active, develop and create is to conform to nature and enjoy happiness; Don't move, don't develop, don't create, it's destroying vitality, and you can't help feeling annoyed. Sadness is born of depression, and the solution is to vent; Because depression is static, the way to seek relief is exercise.
5. Friends, leisure is the hardest! Trouble has come and gone, life is still life, and the world is still the world. If you regard yourself as great, you should treat your troubles with disdain; If you see yourself as great, you must see your troubles as "unworthy"; I advise you to play tennis more, play the piano more, plant more flowers and trees, and move more bricks. If you don't like these things, it's good to talk and laugh and run and jump!
-Excerpt from Talking about Sports
6. Half the fun in life comes from activities and the other half comes from feelings. In your busy schedule, in the hustle and bustle of the dusty city, you accidentally left everything behind and daydreamed leisurely. Suddenly, there seems to be a flash of light in your heart, and infinite enlightenment comes. This is the quiet fun of stealing time from work.
-from "Talking about Silence"
7. I often think that studying and doing business is only the second thing in life. Life first is life. When I say "alive", I mean "enjoying", "appreciating" and "cultivating vitality" If you forget life for the sake of study and career, that kind of study will lose the true meaning and value of life.
? -Excerpt from "Talking about further studies and course selection"
8. Learning literature is like learning to draw. Learning painting can be temporary or sketching. You can't ignore temporary posts and sketches. The so-called Lin Tie means reading more books. Reading is just a step in preparation. If you really learn composition, you should pay special attention to sketching. Sketching from life requires constant description and narration.
? -Excerpt from "Talking about Composition"
? 9. Although there are many different paths in life, there is actually only one way to go. It is natural to take something and give it up. There are many people in the world who stand on the wrong road and only hesitate and worry. If they refuse to give up, they won't get anything. There are also many people in the world who have embarked on this road and are obsessed with that road.
10. "Unable to get rid of" is the origin of life tragedy. Timid, wandering on the wrong road, feeling more painful, but I can't do my career. Many people's lives have passed in such a vague way. To avoid this kind of life tragedy, we must first "get rid of". The negative theory is "get rid of it", and the positive theory is "lift it" and "catch it". When you set a goal, you go wholeheartedly, and nothing else matters. This is the secret of success and the secret of avoiding troubles.
-from "Talking about Getting rid of"
1 1. The most interesting thing in life is the feeling of activity, that is, the pleasure of success. The happiness of this world lies in its defects, in its promising opportunities and imaginative fields. In other words, the world is flawed and has great possibilities.
? -from "Talking about Life and Me"
Talking about Beauty is also a popular aesthetic reading specially written by Mr. Zhu Guangqian for his "young friends" in China during his study in Europe. Beautiful writing, fresh style, easy to understand. The form seems to be gossip, but in fact it is self-contained. Starting with what is beauty, I made a simple statement about beauty, art and some deep feelings and thoughts about life. The main idea is to talk about aesthetics, but from aesthetics to life, summarize the purpose of aesthetics.
Excerpts are as follows:
1. Farmers often envy scholars, and scholars often envy farmers. People are often dissatisfied with their own situation and envy others' situation, so as the saying goes, "home flowers are not better than wild flowers." People's attitudes towards the present and the past are equally different. It's all differences in views and attitudes.
? -Excerpted from The Distance between Art and Real Life.
2. The so-called "critical attitude" to learn means not to "trust all books", but to judge for yourself what is true, what is false, what is beautiful and what is ugly in books. When we come across a work, it's not enough for us to just say "I think it's good". We should also tell the reasons why I think it's good. Telling the truth is what most people call a critical attitude.
-Excerpted from "The Adventure of the Soul in Famous Books ~ Textual Research, Criticism and Appreciation"
3. Creation is a new synthesis of old experience. Most of the old experience must be imitated, and the new synthesis must be ingenious.
-Excerpt from "If you don't like it, you will lose it as a poem, and then you will lose it for me" ~ Creation and imitation
4. The so-called "inspiration" is Du Gongbu's "god", "reading thousands of books" is Kung Fu, and "writing like a god" is inspiration. According to Du Gongbu's experience, inspiration comes from Kung Fu. However, the cultivation of inspiration does not have to be limited to reading. As long as people pay attention, there is learning everywhere.
? -Excerpted from "Reading is like a million volumes, writing is like a god" ~ Genius and inspiration?
Everyone's life history is his own work. Living a lifetime is like writing an article. Life history is a work. From an ethical point of view, it is divided into good and evil, and from an artistic point of view, it is divided into beauty and ugliness.
6. Whether you know life depends on whether you can appreciate many things. Appreciation is also "out of thin air".
7. Many people live in Ma Rulong, a world with flowing cars, just like taking a ride in the Alps valley, rushing by and having no time to look back at the scenery, so this rich and gorgeous world has become a lifeless prison. What a pity!
-Excerpt from "Walk slowly and enjoy slowly! "~ the art of living"