Everyone should read the classics. But in different age groups, the meaning of classics is certainly different.
Take my daughter on a trip during the summer vacation. Along the way, my daughter pestered me with stories. She had already emptied her inventory and had to start talking about the Three Kingdoms. I turned around and found that there were not many stories suitable for little girls in the Three Kingdoms. She tried her best to scrape a "Jiang Gan's plan", but her daughter listened with relish. After she fell asleep, my wife said to me seriously, "In the future, don't tell your children stories like Jiang Gan's plot. For one thing, the plot is too complicated; besides, it's not good for children to hear too many stories of deception.". Think about it carefully. Trick is deceit, isn't it? For 6-year-old children, they should not be exposed to these contents too early.
My wife finished speaking, but my occupational disease broke out. Since I became obsessed with education, I can't help thinking about education in everything. If "Jiang Gan's plot" is not suitable for children to listen to, what about other stories in the Three Kingdoms? Further thinking, the bookstore is full of all kinds of versions of the "Four Masterpieces", and parents move them home one by one for children to read, thinking that children can be influenced by traditional Chinese culture in this way. However, is the "Four Masterpieces" really suitable for children to read?
Four masterpieces or not suitable for children to read
First, let's look at The Water Margin and The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. These two books are widely known in China, especially the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Even illiterate old ladies know several stories, such as "The Marriage in Taoyuan" and "Three Visits to Maolu". When I was young, I was busy running home at noon every day. The first thing I did was turn on the radio to listen to Yuan Kuocheng's storytelling The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. However, the old saying that "young people don't look at the Water Margin and old people don't read the Three Kingdoms" has long been popular among the people. The Water Margin is full of robbers, bandits and conquerors. Young people are just like monkeys because they are not determined; The Three Kingdoms were full of intrigues, tricks and intrigues. "Reading the Three Kingdoms is a thief". The old people who are well versed in the world become more sophisticated and cunning after reading it. Such values and spiritual connotations should be guarded against for adults, not to mention children who cannot distinguish right from wrong and are vulnerable!
Normally, Journey to the West should be the most suitable for children to read. The images of Tang Monk, Monkey King, Pig Bajie, Monk Sha and various immortals and demons are lifelike, and the plot is tortuous and moving, which is most likely to arouse children's interest in reading. However, this book basically tells about Buddhism and life, and its implied meaning is extremely far-reaching, far beyond children's understanding. The words "practice", "bodhi", "primordial spirit" and "zen heart" can be seen everywhere in the book, which contains a strong Buddhist color, but is not suitable for children to read.
Finally, let's look at A Dream of Red Mansions. This work, known as the peak of Chinese classical literature, also enjoys a high position in the history of world literature. His profound thought, exquisite writing and high artistic value are almost unparalleled. From princes, generals and ministers, scholars and masters, to peddlers and footmen, savages and village women, they are all obsessed with it. However, from the perspective of education, this book may not be suitable for children to read, especially adolescents.
First of all, although a thousand people have a thousand interpretations of A Dream of Red Mansions, the theme of "color", "emptiness", "illusion" and "extinction" is universally recognized. For children, these concepts are either not understood or will affect their expectations of future life. Education should ignite the hope in children's hearts, encourage them to pursue a better life in the future, rather than remind them how cruel the reality is. Secondly, according to Cao Xueqin's original intention, the society and family described in the book went from prosperity to collapse step by step, and finally, "the vast land is clean after falling into white". Such sadness is extremely sad and cold to the bone marrow. Although it deeply reveals the world and life, it is not necessarily conducive to cultivating children's optimistic outlook on life; Finally, the paragraphs about sex description in the book should not let children contact too early. Of course, I am not a pedantic guardian. Physiological hygiene courses have already been set up in schools. However, it is not inappropriate to scientifically understand the structure of the human body and sex, but it is precisely those sex descriptions in literature books that are both true and false that are most likely to attract young men and women. This is the key reason why "pornographic books and pornographic books" are harmful to people. In fact, The Story of the Stone, which was born out of The Plum in the Golden Vase, was indeed banned as an "obscene book" when it was first copied. Confucius had already listed "lust" as the first of the three precepts of a gentleman because of "the blood is uncertain when it is young". In terms of children's sex education, we cannot go from one extreme to the other. Open mindedness does not mean laissez faire, and guidance should pay more attention to methods and ways. Today, teenagers' ignorance and irresponsibility of sex, as well as the concomitant proliferation of campus rape cases, are a major problem worldwide, which is a headache for the world's top universities, including Harvard and Stanford. Although the community and many scholars have done a lot of research and discussion, there is still a lack of effective countermeasures.
The above analysis is about the content. As far as words are concerned, I don't think they are necessarily suitable for children - especially children - to read. The four masterpieces are half written and half written. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is more like a complete classical Chinese, which is quite different from the modern vernacular. It is very difficult for children to read it. Even if I reluctantly read it, I would devour it and finish the story alive. As for the grand and exquisite structure and layout of the novel, the vivid and distinct characters, and the magical and meaningful use of language, these aesthetic values cannot be understood and comprehended by young children.
Literary classics suitable for children are also limited
In fact, the so-called "four famous works" has not been popular for long. On the one hand, the great influence of Outlaws of the Marsh and A Dream of Red Mansions is directly related to the "New Culture Movement" in the early 20th century. Hu Shi and other new cultural giants praised these two books, although based on their own ideological and artistic values, more importantly, the theme of "officials forcing people to revolt" and the criticism of feudal families objectively matched the political demands of revolution and anti feudalism at that time. On the other hand, although Chen Duxiu, Hu Shi and others carried the banner of "literary revolution", advocated vernacular, opposed classical Chinese, advocated new literature, and opposed old literature, they could hardly find other classic vernacular works except for a few fine works such as Outlaws of the Marsh and A Dream of Red Mansions. Therefore, at least before 1949, there was no such thing as "the four famous works". The "Four Wonderful Books" and "Four Talented Scholars Books" in the Ming and Qing Dynasties do not completely coincide with the later "Four Famous Books". The large-scale popularity of this saying was a cultural phenomenon that emerged after the publishing industry boomed in the 1980s. Of course, famous works have their own values and positions in ideology, literature and art. Due to the limitations of the times and society, as well as the fate of writers, even excellent representatives in traditional culture inevitably mix the dross that is not suitable for modern civilized society. We should not and cannot expect writers to take children's reading and education into account when writing. They have no such obligation. However, as educators and parents, when guiding students to read, they cannot help children critically choose works suitable for their reading, regardless of whether these works are classic or non classic, without considering the children's age, physiological and psychological characteristics, and the guidance of values. We have this responsibility.
To expand the scope a bit, in addition to the "four masterpieces", in our literary classics, there seems to be very limited works suitable for children to read. The "Book of Songs", "Songs of Chu" and "Records of the Historian" are too difficult to understand, and the Tang and Song poems are not easy to understand. The "Strange Stories from a Lonely Studio" is full of ghost stories, and children may have nightmares after hearing it. As for "Shuo Tang", "Shuo Yue Quan Zhuan", "Seven Heroes and Five Righteousness", etc. Yes, these literary classics are indeed classics, but they are all classics of adults, not children. Of course, people should read classics, but not all people of all ages should read the same classics.
In addition, there are other stories that are very popular, which may not be suitable for children to contact early. For example, "Tian Ji horse racing". The reason why Tian Ji was able to defeat Qi Weiwang was that he secretly tampered with the competition rules and did not provide race horses that met the competition requirements according to the requirements of "top four to top four, middle four to middle four, and bottom four to bottom four". In fact, this is cheating. After listening to many such stories, children will inevitably think that it is not important to be honest and abide by the rules of the game as long as they can win the game. Another example is the "thirty-six strategies" widely spread among the people, many of which describe how to cheat the opponent and win the final victory. Although the "thirty-six strategies" have military value in the age of cold weapons, in modern society, if they are applied to daily life, they will seriously damage mutual trust and social harmony between people. Some tactics, such as "killing by borrowing a sword", "looting by taking advantage of fire", "hiding a sword in a smile", "drawing stairs from the house", and "counter plot", are creepy in literal terms, regardless of their specific contents. If children are exposed to these tricks too early, what a terrible picture it will be for their spiritual growth!
Let more modern and contemporary Chinese classics be placed on children's bookshelves
So, which literary classics are suitable for children to read? I searched the Internet and found that most of the results were four famous works plus some world literary classics, such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Andersen's Fairy Tales, and Twenty Thousand Miles Under the Sea. Not that children should not be allowed to read foreign literary classics, but that the translated works are always separated from the original works. Even if the level of the translator is high, it is difficult for children to experience the charm of Chinese literature, let alone the broad and profound Chinese civilization. When I read "Virginia Rabbit" to my daughter, I had no idea what "Virginia" meant to her. I would rather tell her about the "rabbits in Ningxia". At least she knows that it is where her grandparents live. Where have our vernacular classics gone? Why are there so few literary works in vernacular written by modern and contemporary writers among the literary classics recommended for children to read?
This question may be answered by scholars specializing in literary history. I guess one reason may be that in the 5000 year cultural history of the Chinese nation, the vast majority of literary works have been handed down to today in the form of classical Chinese and traditional poetry. Since the "New Culture Movement", the history of real vernacular literature has not been more than 100 years. A short period of time will lead to fewer works, fewer classic works, and fewer classic works suitable for children to read. Just like Latin in the West, classical Chinese is very far away from today's real life. It is difficult for students to establish an effective connection between them and real life. Now there are few opportunities for people to do a high-level classical Chinese or poetry. In fact, students cannot master the writing and expression of vernacular by learning classical Chinese. Why are students "afraid of writing classical Chinese and writing compositions"? Fear comes from not being familiar, and not being familiar comes from lack of application. Of course, I don't mean that students should not learn the classic works in Chinese classical literature. On the contrary, students' traditional Chinese cultural skills are almost lost and must be strengthened. This is our context. I mean, in order to effectively improve students' reading and writing abilities in real life, we need to pay more attention to the dissemination and reading guidance of the vernacular literary classics. This is a more urgent task.
Another reason may be that we seldom start from children's education and reading psychology to provide them with literary works suitable for their reading. Such works are not necessarily children's literature works - of course, excellent children's literature works are even rarer - but that is to say, from the children's age and characteristics, we should provide them with works that are easy to arouse reading interest, help to establish correct values, and improve literary appreciation. These works should at least have the following three characteristics: First, the text should be as simple as possible. The simple meaning is that characters have fewer strokes, are easy to remember and have a single meaning. The most elementary reading book can only have a few words, and then step up and gradually deepen the difficulty. Let children recognize words in the process of reading, and cultivate the habit of reading in the process of reading; Second, the story should be vivid and tortuous, which can arouse children's desire and interest in reading; Third, values should be positive. Children's spiritual growth needs to be guided and protected. Let children experience love and kindness, integrity, honesty, responsibility, independence, courage, and the brilliance and greatness of human nature as much as possible in the process of reading; As far as possible, children should be kept away from the ugly side of human nature, such as hypocrisy, insidious, cunning and deception, even if they truly reflect the cruel reality of society. Life will teach children how to see the society clearly, but it is hard for them to have a chance to regain their beauty.
These jobs are not easy, but must be done, and should be done consciously by professionals. In my opinion, in order to effectively improve children's Chinese reading and writing ability, the following three aspects need to be strengthened.
First, the scholars engaged in modern and contemporary literature research in universities should take more active actions to continue the work of the great masters of the "New Culture Movement", guide the society to pay more attention to children's reading life and experience of vernacular literature, recommend and form a batch of new vernacular literature classics, and assume greater social responsibility. As far as I know, Mr. Cao Wenxuan's works in the Chinese Department of Peking University are very popular with children. Unfortunately, there are too few writers with such high level of feelings. More outstanding scholars should join Mr. Cao's ranks. They should not only recommend classic works of modern and contemporary literature to parents and children, but also create a batch of excellent works suitable for children to read. Just like Mr. Hu Shi 100 years ago, he wrote "Trial Collection" to spread vernacular literature.
Second, scholars engaged in children's psychology research, scholars engaged in modern literature research, and literary creators should work together to promote literary works suitable for children's reading from the perspective of children's psychological characteristics and cognitive ability. Writers have the desire and ability to create, but often lack the professional knowledge of child psychology. Their works are imaginative and artistic, but may not conform to science. Child psychologists can provide effective professional support and help with "correction", and provide children with works of higher quality and better educational effect.
Third, the publishing industry should be soberly aware of and shoulder its cultural mission. It should not give up its moral responsibility and educational responsibility for economic interests, nor should it blindly cater to social hot spots and wrongly contribute to the flames. At present, under the banner of "Classics of Chinese Studies", there are numerous publications for parents and children, among which the fallacies and shoddiness are shocking. Parents often lack the awareness and ability to recognize this. It is good to guide children to read, but if the direction of reading is wrong, it is better not to read.
I think that after years of efforts, if more excellent modern and contemporary Chinese classics can be placed on the children's bookshelves, even more than foreign classics, then perhaps we can be pleased to say that we have fulfilled our educational responsibilities, at least not let down this era and the children living in this era.
