A cute detail about Confucius as a child, like reading that a future saint enjoyed playing Mass. (From Zhu Xi’s preface to the Analects, via the Four Books app).
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1We imagine Confucian scholars as rather sober, solemn people, so Cheng Yi’s description of “unconsciously waving their hands and stamping their feet” is a striking image, even if it’s (I assume) a figure of speech.
(The Discourses is the translator’s name for the Analects).
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To be changed by a book, one has to read carefully and thoughtfully. I think that’s what Cheng Yi is getting at.
Today, most people don’t read at all. Of those who do read anything, it’s mostly slop, and even if it’s not slop, they read too quickly.
There’s a saying attributed to St. Thomas Aquinas, “I fear the man of one book.” That is, a man who’s mastered one (good) book is more intellectually formidable than a man with only a surface level knowledge of many books.
Today, most people don’t read at all. Of those who do read anything, it’s mostly slop, and even if it’s not slop, they read too quickly.
There’s a saying attributed to St. Thomas Aquinas, “I fear the man of one book.” That is, a man who’s mastered one (good) book is more intellectually formidable than a man with only a surface level knowledge of many books.