Chapter 5 Chapter 3 Responsibility for Knowledge

To establish a new outlook on life, in addition to developing moral courage, one must also be able to take intellectual responsibility.Originally, everyone has responsibilities, whether they are farming, laboring, serving in the army, or serving as government officials, each has his own responsibilities.Why should I specifically mention the responsibility of knowledge?Knowledge is the crystallization of the highest intellectual development of human beings, and the most precious treasure in human experience, not everyone can obtain it or possess it; therefore, anyone who has the opportunity to acquire knowledge can be said to be blessed and enjoy the special benefits in the world people, and therefore should bear a special responsibility.Moreover, knowledge is the element of spiritual life, the driving force for directing material life, and the highest standard for all our behaviors.If the man of knowledge cannot take up his special responsibilities, then his knowledge is useless, not only useless, but ruined.Rushing knowledge is a crime in the world, because it hinders or stagnates the development and progress of human culture.The question of the responsibility of knowledge therefore deserves our serious attention.We belong to the so-called intellectuals, and we especially feel that this is an immediate issue.

The so-called responsibility of knowledge contains three meanings: The first is to have a responsible mind.Thought is not fantasy, fantasy, or dream, but a careful and systematic spiritual crystallization formed by collecting the basis of various facts and examining them strictly and logically.Therefore, half-knowledge is not enough to be called a mature thought; it is not enough to be called a mature thought.Ideas are not easy to establish; they must go through the Tao Rong of logic and the training of science.Every thinker is a constant toiler.Burn the ointment oil to inherit the sundial, and keep the sundial to live in poverty.His activity of seeking knowledge is non-stop, so he can breed great and mature thoughts to lead his thoughts for a lifetime.All thinkers are born out of hardships.They have suffered no less sacrifices for the truth than those who fought in the field of battle.Take scientific experiments as an example. For example, people who experimented with explosives in the laboratory were injured or killed. It is also like people who went to remote places to investigate geology, biology, and human race. I don't know how many died of diseases or were killed by bandits and barbarians.The thoughts they have gained from such hardships and dangers naturally feel more intimate and responsible.When Western scholars publish an academic report or paper, they have to sign it themselves, which is exactly the performance of responsibility.

Secondly, in addition to having responsible thoughts, one must also be responsible for responsible thoughts.Since thought is a truth that is not easy to obtain, once it is obtained, it should bear the responsibility of advancing and expanding.The truth should not be buried, but must be published.Before publishing, one should first consider whether it is the truth and whether it can be published; but after considering the publication, if no new facts and new theories are discovered and corrected, or you are convinced by other people's more brilliant theories, then you should act fearlessly. His spirit pushes him forward more sharply and expands him more broadly.When we read the history of Western science, we all know that the deeds of scientists who fought and sacrificed for the promotion and expansion of truth are really endless in history.For example, Copernicus was the first to discover the theory of earthquakes, saying that the sun does not move, and the earth and other planets revolve around him, so he was somewhat hindered by the church.Later, Bruno came out, continued to study, admitted this truth, tried his best to spread it, and got angry with the church. He was not only arrested and imprisoned, but also died by lighting a sky lantern.Galileo continued to expound this theory with the proof of physics, and he was still locked up in old age, full of the flavor of the bar.Although they have been oppressed and humiliated, they have always adhered to their original beliefs, and they have the attitude of wanting everything they want.Although they sacrificed for this, the truth in science is confirmed because of their sacrifice.Such a spirit of being responsible for thoughts is truly the great driving force for human culture.

Going one step further, since intellectuals are blessed by nature and have received special favors from the world, they should shoulder even greater responsibilities to the country, ethnic group and social group.In the world, only intellectuals have the opportunity to discover the treasures of human culture, and have the privilege to inherit the best spiritual heritage left by the past era.Intellectuals are the best elements of the nation, and at the same time the luckiest darlings of the country.How can I be worthy of my natural talents if I don't take on more important responsibilities than ordinary people?How to be worthy of the bestowal of the nation?How can it be worthy of the great legacy of the sages of the past dynasties?Intellectuals are called scholars in China.Zeng Zi said: Scholars must be ambitious, and the responsibilities are heavy and the road is long.Isn't it important to benevolence as one's own responsibility?After death, isn't it far away?As an intellectual, one should adopt an attitude of giving up one's life without regrets, and take on the responsibility of leading the group to carry forward the past and forge ahead.When the survival of a nation is at a critical juncture, the responsibility of intellectuals is particularly heavy.Fan Zhongyan advocated worrying about the world's worries first, and enjoying the world's joys later.One must have this kind of ambition to be worthy of being an intellectual.The one hundred thousand armored soldiers in his chest also came from this.

When we mention Chinese intellectuals, we feel very sad.A common problem in Chinese society is irresponsibility, especially in the administrative part (this of course refers to the administrative part).In the past, there was no need for quotation marks in the official document formula; when writing a manuscript, it is not necessary to copy the incoming text, just write the word "Yun Yun", and let the clerk fill it in according to the original text.It is said that when Shen Baozhen was the governor of a certain province, he discovered that in a letter from a certain county, the scribes copied the word Yunyun without adding the original quotation, and the responsible persons at all levels of the county did not notice it either.So he criticized very humorously: "The officials are like this, the screen is like this, and the officials are like this. If you think about what the county has identified, it's nothing more than that."This is a joke, but it is enough to describe the spirit of Chinese bureaucracy.The secret of the old Chinese bureaucracy is to be irresponsible and pass the buck.Therefore, the official business of the higher-level bureaucracy to the subordinate is to push the responsibility to the lower level; the official business of the lower-level bureaucracy to the superior is to push the responsibility to the higher level.Responsibility is like a ball, kicked up and down.The result of kicking back and forth was the same as a section of no man's land in the middle of the line of fire.This is a common problem in the administrative circles. Isn't it true that the intellectual circles don't blame each other for being irresponsible?How many people have stepped forward, based on their own convictions, and taken their responsibilities, saying that this is the truth of my research, this is my responsibility to serve, I will not shrink back, and I will not shirk?The root cause of this irresponsibility, when diagnosed, is due to the following points:

The first is the lack of ideological training. His thinking has never undergone strict discipline, so existing thinking cannot be developed, and fresh thinking cannot be produced.Foreign thinkers often advocate a strict and disciplined thinking (rigorous thinking), that is, a kind of thinking that has been tempered with the fire of logic.Right thinking is not easy to come by, it has to go through a long period of pain and rigorous training before it can be mine.Ideological training is a major issue in education.All previous world education conferences have discussed this issue.Some people argue that a person who studies social sciences must learn advanced mathematics not because he can use these mathematics, but because this kind of mathematics is the training of his mind.Thoughts must be disciplined.The discipline of thought is by no means to restrict thought, but to extend and develop thought.The Chinese intelligentsia is currently lacking this kind of ideological training.

The second is that it is easy to accept ideas. Chinese people have always seldom insisted on their own unique ideas, so they are the easiest to accept other people's ideas.Some people say that the Chinese are the most tolerant and tolerant in thinking. This is a virtue, not a fault.But in the matter of thinking, yes is right, right is wrong, and there is no talk of tolerance and tolerance.Either the east wind overwhelms the west wind, or the west wind overwhelms the east wind.Copernicus advocated the theory of earthquakes, although he was convinced that it was right; even after Branro and Galilei studied this theory and found that he was right, they firmly believed in him and supported him, and did not change until their death.Just look at the history of Western science and religious wars, how many people have worked tirelessly for this theory and sacrificed their lives.This is the attitude one should have towards the truth.The Chinese have always believed that the sky is round and the earth is round, and the air is light and clear, and the one that floats up is the sky, and the one that is heavy and turbid is the earth.However, as soon as the Western earthquake theory was introduced to China, the Chinese immediately said that the earth was round and accepted it immediately, and no bloody tragedy occurred.Another example is Darwin's theory of biological evolution, which also struggled out of suffering after years of religious opposition.Until 1911, there was a university professor in Germany who was dismissed for lecturing on the theory of evolution; even in 1921, a middle school teacher in the US state of Tennessee was sued for lecturing on the theory of evolution.Although this can be said to be the stubbornness of their conservative forces, it also shows that Westerners do not accept new ideas easily.But not so in China.The Chinese originally believed that Pangu created the world with a golden axe.Ever since Pan Gu created the world, and the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors determined the universe, isn't it written in many novels?But when the theory of evolution was introduced later, it immediately talked about natural evolution, natural selection, and the evolution of human beings from monkeys. (Actually, human beings are the cousins ​​of monkeys.) People believe it after undergoing biological experiments.What about us?We just because Yan Fu translated Huxley's Theory of Evolution, the article is excellent, and Wu Zhifu praised him as being as good as the Zhou and Qin scholars, so the whole country followed.Being easy to accept ideas like this is only enough to show our lack of seriousness and lack of consideration. Where is our virtue?If it is easy to get, it is easy to lose; if it is easy to accept ideas, it is easy to lose them.This is the most obvious pathology in the Chinese intellectual circles.Now in China, the more middle school students and half-knowledgeable people, the easier it is to talk about doctrines. This is the reason.

The third is that chaotic thinking has no ideological training and is easy to accept foreign ideas. The natural result is the chaos of thinking.Those who are in the chaotic cloud just cannot mix clearly.Moreover, this kind of mixing is a physical mixing, not a chemical combination.Up and down, ancient and modern, indiscriminate, mixed together, this is the way Chinese thought mixes.I'm not deep-seated and stubborn, and I don't approve of adopting other people's good ideas. I just adopt other people's ideas, and I must exercise myself to form my own thinking system.This is really a chemical combination!Westerners also advocate reconciliation, but reconciliation must be harmonious, otherwise it is just compromise; truth cannot be compromised.I often blame Chinese thought that miscellaneous schools are the most powerful.For example, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, a hundred schools of thought contended, Mohists who practiced extremely, and Laozi who did nothing but do nothing, each had its own style, and the division of thought was very clear.At the end of the Warring States Period, Lu's Spring and Autumn Period appeared, mixing various factions and becoming a miscellaneous family.The Han Dynasty denounced all schools of thought and respected Confucianism and Confucianism, but in fact respected Huang Lao.This mixed situation has remained unchanged until today.Twenty years ago, I coined an ancient and modern Chinese and foreign term to describe this kind of mixed-minded person.The husband believes in Christianity, the wife might as well chant Buddhism, and if the son is sick, he should ask a Taoist priest to explain the Tai Sui.What a tolerance!Tolerance went to Peking for a big funeral, a group of monks, a group of Taoist priests, a group of lamas, and a group of military bands all side by side at the same time, what a spectacle!This is really the epitome of Chinese thinking!

The fourth is unorganized thinking, which refers to fragmented, trivial, and unorganized thoughts.Slack thinking is certainly due to lack of strict training in thinking, but the main reason is laziness.This way of thinking often relies on inspiration, but as soon as the inspiration comes, thinking stops the moment the opportunity arrives, and does not pursue it any further.How can this happen systematic thinking, sophisticated thinking?So it becomes the phenomenon that all things come from few, and all things enter into few.He just let his thoughts go by like flashes of lightning.Sometimes his mind is not bright at first, but that's where his cleverness ends.The sayings of the people of the Six Dynasties came from this.The same is true of the generational popularity of Shishuoxinyu.There is no other reason why the Chinese are good at playing with characters.Therefore, it is difficult to produce a systematic and sophisticated philosophy in China.Therefore, there are few Western-style long poems in Chinese literature that are as costly as Milton's Clouds of Heaven and Goth's Faust.Therefore, notebook novels are the supreme gods for the leisure of scholars.Now there are still people advocating Shen Sanbai's Six Chapters of a Floating Life and sketches of literature and art.If the laziness of thinking is not lost, great systematic thinking will not come into being.

The fifth is decadent thoughts. Decadent thoughts are the opium smoke of the ideological world, the hypnotism of the nation, and the hypnotism has evolved into a hypnotism.A decadent thought is a dead thought, a dead thought.Everything that passes through the sand filter of his mind is languid.The effect of decadent thoughts is decadent behavior.Take today's literature and art works as an example, many of them are for the leisure of the ladies and for the entertainment of the elderly.Rich people can enjoy leisure, this is a style; but our whole nation is at a time when there is no food to eat, no room for survival!An old man's leisure is all right, for his days are numbered, but reading to a young man is very harmful.But now it is young people who like to read these publications!Literati like poetry and wine to enjoy themselves, and they use Li Taibai as a talisman.Yes, Li Taibai likes to drink.Li Baidou's Hundred Poems on Wine.You have drunk wine, but what about a hundred poems like Li Taibai?When we learn Li Taibai, we must not forget that he learned swordsmanship at fifteen, went to the princes, wrote thirty articles, and has reached the ministers. Although he is less than seven feet long, he has a strong heart!And you?If decadent ideas are not eliminated, the vitality of the nation cannot be restored.

Sixth, you can't experience ideas from actual actions, but you can prove them through actual actions. Chinese literati, Chinese taxis, are the best at talking and enjoying.In the Wei, Jin and Six Dynasties, it was a clear discussion, and it degenerated into a clear discussion later.Talking and discussing is the expression of the most irresponsible thinking.The Southern Song Dynasty was the most prosperous era of Qing discussions, so the Jin soldiers had already crossed the river while the discussions were still pending.The end of the Ming Dynasty was also the most prosperous era of the Qing Dynasty, so loyal ministers and righteous men were acquired, and everything could not be carried out in a planned way, and they were forced to die, unable to serve the country.Qingyi is awesome, really awesome!Anyway, if you don't do it yourself, you can always make sarcastic remarks when others do it.Sigh yourself and enjoy yourself.And with joy, and with eternal sun, I will not read it, let alone sympathize with my queen.To be honest, the intellectuals in our country today are not immune to the ethos of the Song and Ming Dynasties, but they just replaced the enjoyment with a modern method.When I went to Beiping nine years ago, I saw that some friends from the intellectual circles had exquisite living rooms, beautiful gardens, and planted famous flowers and herbs; He said with a smile, now that everyone is Huae Jiacheng Tong Yuqi, I am afraid that Furong Courtyard will soon be troubled.Looking back now, every word is tears of sadness.This is not only the case in Beiping, why is it not the case elsewhere?Do we also know that there has been a salon atmosphere in Tongdu Dayi in recent years?Our wife's salon is seen in contemporary novels.Very good, if you have a free afternoon, find a few fashionable ladies in the exquisite living room together, talk about literature and art, and talk about irresponsible politics.Yes, this is the French style. There are many salons in Paris, but France was still relying on the Maginot Line that stretched hundreds of miles across the Rhine!Knowing that the result of being extravagant and deceitful, the impregnable Maginot was completely unreliable.The battle of Sedan made the majestic first-class power repeat the mistakes of the third era of Napoleon, and was reduced to slaves. What kind of tragedy is this in history?I don't deny that pleasure is a part of life, it just depends on the environment and the times.Our suffering has not moved yet!We don't want to suffer, and the enemy still wants to make us suffer.The future is in great trouble, it is now, why wait for the future?We should all repent now.Let's first experience our thoughts from the hard work, and at the same time, radiate our strong and convinced thoughts into the practice. The above words are words of our mutual responsibility and words of mutual encouragement.Because if I had a gramm of knowledge in my head, I might as well be attached to the ranks of intellectuals.I have made too many mistakes, but if we want to reform the nation's thinking, we must first take responsibility for knowledge.Especially now, intellectuals have too much implication for youth.The last thing we should do is to disappoint the young people and make them lose their national self-confidence.When we see a slight setback, we express our helplessness to the young people, which is the last thing we can do.If the intellectuals who lead the youth are like this, how will the youth react psychologically?We want to tell them that there is no way out in the world, that there is no way out for the nation, as long as our own minds are not confused!Knowledge is about solving problems.Knowledge is not afraid of difficulties, knowledge is power.Moreover, this kind of power is so great that wherever material power cannot penetrate, the power of knowledge can penetrate first.After the power of knowledge passes through, the power of matter will pass through.The entire history of human culture can explain my words.As long as we faithfully shoulder the responsibility of knowledge, we can conquer any difficulties and dangers! Gu Tinglin said: Everyone is responsible for the rise and fall of the world, let alone intellectuals?He also said: There are those who subjugate the country, and there are those who subjugate the world. His so-called subjugation of the country refers to the change of dynasties, and his so-called subjugation of the world refers to the demise of the nation.Our problem now is to restore the catastrophe of the ruined world and the ruined nation.At this time, if intellectuals do not shoulder this particularly important responsibility, who else will?I think we intellectuals should create and make contributions in the academic field in the future; we should reform and make achievements in the field of career.We should not only study the truth, but also be responsible for the truth.In particular, we must first work hard to get the country and the nation through this difficulty.Otherwise, we intellectuals must be eliminated first, and even I will curse the demise of our intellectuals!