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The Art of Reading 读书的艺术

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2019年06月06日

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The Art of Reading

读书的艺术

Lin Yutang

林语堂

作者简介

林语堂(1895—1976),既是以英文写作扬名海外的中国作家,也是集语言学家、哲学家、文学家、旅行家、发明家于一身的知名学者。他一生著述颇丰,曾主编《论语》半月刊,创办《人间世》《宇宙风》,提倡“以自我为中心,以闲适为格调”的小品文,成为论语派主要人物。1935年后,他用英文创作了《吾国吾民》(My Country and My People)等文化著作和《京华烟云》(Moment in Peking)等长篇小说。

本文节选自1937年出版的《生活的艺术》(The Art of Living)。该书是林语堂旅美专事创作后的第一部书,位居美国畅销书排行榜榜首达52周,后接连再版40余次,被译成十余种外国文字。本文可谓字字珠玑,文中对“风雪之夜,闭户翻书”的描写尤其令人神往。

Reading or the enjoyment of books has always been regarded among the charms of a cultured life and is respected and envied by those who rarely give themselves that privilege. This is easy to understand when we compare the difference between the life of a man who does no reading and that of a man who does. The man who has not the habit of reading is imprisoned in his immediate world, in respect to time and space. His life falls into a set routine; he is limited to contact and conversation with a few friends and acquaintances, and he sees only what happens in his immediate neighborhood. From this prison there is no escape. But the moment he takes up a book, he immediately enters a different world, and if it is a good book, he is immediately put in touch with one of the best talkers of the world. This talker leads him on and carries him into a different country or a different age, or unburdens to him some of his personal regrets, or discusses with him some special line or aspect of life that the reader knows nothing about. An ancient author puts him in communion with a dead spirit of long ago, and as he reads along, he begins to imagine what that ancient author looked like and what type of person he was. Both Mencius and Ssema Ch'ien, China's greatest historian, have expressed the same idea. Now to be able to live two hours out of twelve in a different world and take one's thoughts off the claims of the immediate present is, of course, a privilege to be envied by people shut up in their bodily prison. Such a change of environment is really similar to travel in its psychological effect.

But there is more to it than this. The reader is always carried away into a world of thought and reflection. Even if it is a book about physical events, there is a difference between seeing such events in person or living through them, and reading about them in books, for then the events always assume the quality of a spectacle and the reader becomes a detached spectator. The best reading is therefore that which leads us into this contemplative mood, and not that which is merely occupied with the report of events. The tremendous amount of time spent on newspapers I regard as not reading at all, for the average readers of papers are mainly concerned with getting reports about events and happenings without contemplative value.

The best formula for the object of reading, in my opinion, was stated by Huang Shanku, a Sung poet and friend of Su Tungp'o. He said, “A scholar who hasn't read anything for three days feels that his talk has no flavor (becomes insipid), and his own face becomes hateful to look at (in the mirror).”What he means, of course, is that reading gives a man a certain charm and flavor, which is the entire object of reading, and only reading with this object can be called an art. One doesn't read to “improve one's mind,”because when one begins to think of improving his mind, all the pleasure of reading is gone. He is the type of person who says to himself:“I must read Shakespeare, and I must read Sophocles, and I must read the entire Five Foot Shelf of Dr. Eliot, so I can become an educated man.”I'm sure that man will never become educated. He will force himself one evening to read Shakespeare's Hamlet and come away, as if from a bad dream, with no greater benefit than that he is able to say that he has “read”Hamlet. Anyone who reads a book with a sense of obligation does not understand the art of reading. This type of reading with a business purpose is in no way different from a senator's reading up of flies and reports before he makes a speech. It is asking for business advice and information, and not reading at all.

Reading for the cultivation of personal charm of appearance and flavor in speech is then, according to Huang, the only admissible kind of reading. This charm of appearance must evidently be interpreted as something other than physical beauty. What Huang means by “hateful to look at”is not physical ugliness. There are ugly faces that have a fascinating charm and beautiful faces that are insipid to look at. I have among my Chinese friends one whose head is shaped like a bomb and yet who is nevertheless always a pleasure to see. The most beautiful face among Western authors, so far as I have seen them in pictures, was that of G. K. Chesterton. There was such a diabolical conglomeration of mustache, glasses, fairly bushy eyebrows and knitted lines where the eyebrows met! One felt there were a vast number of ideas playing about inside that forehead, ready at any time to burst out from those quizzically penetrating eyes. That is what Huang would call a beautiful face, a face not made up by powder and rouge, but by the sheer force of thinking. As for flavor of speech, it all depends on one's way of reading. Whether one has “flavor”or not in his talk, depends on his method of reading. If a reader gets the flavor of books, he will show that flavor in his conversations, and if he has flavor in his conversations, he cannot help also having a flavor in his writing.

Hence I consider flavor or taste as the key to all reading. It necessarily follows that taste is selective and individual, like the taste for food. The most hygienic way of eating is, after all, eating what one likes, for then one is sure of his digestion. In reading as in eating, what is one man's meat may be another's poison. A teacher cannot force his pupils to like what he likes in reading, and a parent cannot expect his children to have the same tastes as himself. And if the reader has no taste for what he reads, all the time is wasted. As Yüan Chunglang says, “You can leave the books that you don't like alone, and let other people read them.”

There can be, therefore, no books that one absolutely must read. For our intellectual interests grow like a tree or flow like a river. So long as there is proper sap, the tree will grow anyhow, and so long as there is fresh current from the spring, the water will flow. When water strikes a granite cliff, it just goes around it; when it finds itself in a pleasant low valley, it stops and meanders there a while; when it finds itself in a deep mountain pond, it is content to stay there; when it finds itself traveling over rapids, is hurries forward. Thus, without any effort or determined aim, it is sure of reaching the sea some day.

There are no books in this world that everybody must read, but only books that a person must read at a certain time in a given place under given circumstances and at a given period of his life. I rather think that reading, like matrimony, is determined by fate or yinyüan. Even if there is a certain book that everyone must read, like the Bible, there is a time for it. When one's thoughts and experience have not reached a certain point for reading a masterpiece, the masterpiece will leave only a bad flavor on his palate. Confucius said, “When one is fifty, one may read the Book of Changes,”which means that one should not read it at forty-five. The extremely mild flavor of Confucius' own sayings in the Analects and his mature wisdom cannot be appreciated until one becomes mature himself.

Furthermore, the same reader reading the same book at different periods, gets a different flavor out of it. For instance, we enjoy a book more after we have had a personal talk with the author himself, or even after having seen a picture of his face, and one gets again a different flavor sometimes after one has broken off friendship with the author. A person gets a kind of flavor from reading the Book of Changes at forty, and gets another kind of flavor reading it at fifty, after he has seen more changes in life. Therefore, all good books can be read with profit and renewed pleasure a second time. I was made to read Westward Ho! and Henry Esmond in my college days, but while I was capable of appreciating Westward Ho! in my teens, the real flavor of Henry Esmond escaped me entirely until I reflected about it later on, and suspected there was vastly more charm in that book than I had then been capable of appreciating.

Reading, therefore, is an act consisting of two sides, the author and the reader. The net gain comes as much from the reader's contribution through his own insight and experience as from the author's own. In speaking about the Confucian Analects, the Sung Confucianist Ch'eng YiCh'uan said, “There are readers and readers. Some read the Analects and feel that nothing has happened, some are pleased with one or two lines in it, and some begin to wave their hands and dance on their legs unconsciously.”

I regard the discovery of one's favorite author as the most critical event in one's intellectual development. There is such a thing as the affinity of spirits, and among the authors of ancient and modern times, one must try to find an author whose spirit is akin with his own. Only in this way can one get any real good out of reading. One has to be independent and search out his masters. Who is one's favorite author, no one can tell, probably not even the man himself. It is like love at first sight. The reader cannot be told to love this one or that one, but when he has found the author he loves, he knows it himself by a kind of instinct. We have such famous cases of discoveries of authors. Scholars seem to have lived in different ages, separated by centuries, and yet their modes of thinking and feeling were so akin that their coming together across the pages of a book was like a person finding his own image.

In Chinese phraseology, we speak of these kindred spirits as reincarnations of the same soul, as Su Tungp'o was said to be the reincarnation of Chuangtse or T’ao Yüanming, and Yüan Chunglang was said to be the reincarnation of Su Tungp'o. Su Tungp'o said that when he first read Chuantse, he felt as if all the time since his childhood he had been thinking the same things and taking the same views himself. When Yüan Chunglang discovered one night Hsü WenCh'ang, a contemporary unknown to him, in a small book of poems, he jumped out of bed and shouted to his friend, and his friend began to read it and shout in turn, and then they both read and shouted again until their servant was completely puzzled. George Eliot described her first reading of Rousseau as an electric shock. Nietzche felt the same thing about Schopenhauer, but Schopenhauer a peevish master and Nietzche was a violent-tempered pupil, and it was natural that the pupil later rebelled against the teacher.

It is only this kind of reading, this discovery of one's favorite author, that will do one any good at all. Like a man falling in love with his sweetheart at first sight, everything is right. She is of the right height, has the right face, the right color of hair, the right quality of voice and the right way of speaking and smiling. This author is just right for him; his style, his taste, his point of view, his mode of thinking, are all right. And then the reader proceeds to devour every word and every line that the author writes, and because there is a spiritual affinity, he absorbs and readily digests everything. The author has cast a spell over him, and he is glad to be under the spell, and in time his own voice and manner and way of smiling and way of talking become like the author's own. Thus he truly steeps himself in his literary lovers and derives from these books sustenance for his soul. After a few years, the spell is over and he grows a little tired of his lover and seeks for new literary lovers, and after he has had three or four lovers and completely eaten them up, he merges as an author himself. There are many readers who never fall in love, like many young men and women who flirt around and are incapable of forming a deep attachment to a particular person. They can read any and all authors, and they never amount to anything.

Such a conception of the art of reading completely precludes the idea of reading as a duty or as an obligation. In China, one often encourages students to “study bitterly.”There was a famous scholar who studied bitterly and who stuck an awl in his calf when he fell asleep while studying at night. There was another scholar who had a maid stand by his side as he was studying at night, to wake him up every time he fell asleep. This was nonsensical. If one has a book lying before him and falls asleep while some wise ancient author is talking to him, he should just go to bed. No amount of sticking an awl in his calf or of shaking him up by a maid will do him any good. Such a man has lost all sense of pleasure of reading. Scholars are worth anything at all never know what is called “a hard grind”or what “bitter study”means. They merely love books and read on because they cannot help themselves.

With this question solved, the question of time and place for reading is also provided with an answer. There is no proper time and place for reading. When the mood for reading comes, one can read anywhere. If one knows the enjoyment of reading, he will read in school or out of school, and in spite of all schools. He can study even in the best schools. Tseng Kuofan, in one of his family letters concerning the expressed desire of one of his younger brothers come to the capital and study at a better school, replied that: “If one has the desire to study, he can study at a country school, or even a desert or in busy streets, and even as a woodcutter or a swineherd. But if one has no desire to study, then not only is the country school not proper for study, but even a quiet country home or a fairy island is not a proper place for study.”There are people who adopt a self-important posture at the desk when they are about to do reading, and then complain they are unable to read because the room is too cold, or the chair is too hard, or the light is too strong. And there are writers who complain that they cannot write because there are too many mosquitos, or the writing paper is too shiny, or the noise from the street is too great. The great Sung scholar, Ouyang Hsiu, confessed to “three on's”for doing his best writing: on the pillow, on horseback and on the toilet. Another famous Ch'ing scholar, Ku Ch'ienli, was known for his habit “reading Confucian classics naked”in summer. On the other hand, there is a good reason for not doing any reading in any of the seasons of the year, if one does not like reading:

To study in spring is treason;

And summer is sleep's best reason;

If winter hurries the fall;

Then stop till next spring season.

What, then, is the true art of reading? The simple answer is to just take up a book and read when the mood comes. To be thoroughly enjoyed, reading must be entirely spontaneous. One takes a limp volume of Lisao, or of Omar Khayyam, and goes away hand in hand with his love to read on a river bank. If there are good clouds over one's head, let them read the clouds and forget the books, or read the books and the clouds at the same time. Between times, a good pipe or a good cup of tea makes it still more perfect. Or perhaps on a snowy night, when one is sitting before the fireside, and there is a kettle singing on the hearth and a good pouch of tobacco at the side, one gathers ten or a dozen books on philosophy, economics, poetry, biography and piles them up on the couch, and then leisurely turns over a few of them and gently lights on the one which strikes his fancy at the moment. Chia Shengt'an regards reading a banned book behind closed doors on a snowy night as one of the greatest pleasures of life. The mood for reading is perfectly described by Ch'en Chiju (Meikung): “The ancient people called books and paintings ‘limp volumes' and ‘soft volumes'; therefore the best style of reading a book or opening an album is the leisurely style.”In this mood, one develops patience for everything. As the same author says, “The real master tolerates misprints when reading story, as a good traveler tolerates bad roads when climbing a mountain, one going to watch a snow scene tolerates a flimsy bridge, one choosing to live in the country tolerates vulgar people, and one bent on looking at flowers tolerates bad wine.”

The best description of the pleasure of reading I found in the autobiography of China's greatest poetess, Li Ch'ingchao (Yi-an, 1081-1141). She and her husband would go to the temple, where secondhand books and rubbings from stone inscriptions were sold, on the day he got his monthly stipend as a student at the Imperial Academy. Then they would buy some fruit on the way back, and coming home, they began to pare the fruit and examine the newly bought rubbings together, or drink tea and compare the variants in different editions. As described in her autobiographical sketch known as Postscript to Chinshihlu (a book on bronze and stone inscriptions):

“I have a power for memory, and sitting quietly after supper in the Homecoming Hall, we would boil a pot of tea and, pointing to the piles of books on the shelves, make a guess as to on what line of what page in what volume of a certain book a passage occurred and see who was right, the one making the correct guess having the privilege of drinking his cup of tea first. When a guess was correct, we would lift the cup high and break out into a loud laughter, so much so that sometimes the tea was spilled on our dress and we were not able to drink. We were then content to live and grow old in such a world! Therefore we held our heads high, although we were living in poverty and sorrow….In time our collection grew bigger and bigger and the books and art objects were piled up on tables and desks and beds, and we enjoyed them with our eyes and our minds and planned and discussed over them, tasting a happiness above those enjoying dogs and horses and music and dance.”

读书或赏书一直是文明生活的雅事,那些不大有机会享受这种权利的人往往对此又羡又妒。将读书者和不读书者的生活两相比较,便很容易理解这一点。没有读书习惯的人被禁锢于眼前的世界,无论时间上还是空间上都是如此。他的生活有一套常规,只限于与少数熟人接触交谈,只目睹邻里周遭发生之事,而无法逃脱这个牢笼。但当他拿起一本书时,他会立刻进入一个不同的世界;如果那是一本好书,他会立刻结识世上最佳的健谈者。这位健谈者会引导他前进,带领他进入不同的国度与年代,或是向他倾诉自己的悔恨,或是与他探讨几句妙语名言,或是与他讨论他从前并不知晓的人生感悟。阅读古时作家的著作,就像和多年前已逝的灵魂交谈。随着阅读的进行,他开始想象那位古人相貌如何、性格怎样。孟子和中国伟大的史学家司马迁都表达过同样的观点。如果每12小时能在不同的世界生活两小时,让自己的思想完全逃离眼前的世界,这当然会让困于躯体牢笼的人嫉妒。这样的环境转变就像在不同的心境中穿行。

不仅如此,书总能引发读者思考。即使此书只谈及现实场景,但亲眼所见或亲身经历与从书中所读有所不同,因为书中场景往往成为一种景观,读者则是超然物外的观察者。因此,最佳的阅读体验应将人带入沉思的心境,而非只被事件报道占据。我认为,花大把时间读报并不算是阅读,因为普通的读报者只关注事件报道,而这些事件并没有深思的价值。

我认为,苏东坡的好友、宋代诗人黄山谷1对阅读目的的说法最妙。他说:“三日不读,便觉语言无味,面目可憎”。当然,他指的是阅读使人独具风雅——这就是阅读的全部目的所在。只有以此为目的的阅读才可称为艺术。阅读不能以“提升心智”为目的。如果开始想着提升心智,阅读的乐趣便丧失殆尽。如果一个人说“我必须读莎士比亚、索福克勒斯的作品和查尔斯·艾略特的‘五英尺书架’2中的所有作品,如此一来,我就能成为有教养的人”,那么我确信他永远不会变得有教养。他可以强迫自己挑灯夜读莎士比亚的《哈姆雷特》,但读完就像从噩梦中醒来,除了能说自己“读过”《哈姆雷特》外,就再没有任何益处。出于义务去读书的人并不理解阅读的艺术。这样读书和参议员在演讲前阅读文件和报告没什么区别。那是寻求业务建议和收集信息,根本不是阅读。

依黄山谷所言,为了让自己外表优雅、谈吐风趣而读书,是唯一可采纳的阅读方式。此处的“外表优雅”显然不是指相貌美丽。黄山谷所说的“面目可憎”亦非容貌丑陋。丑人也可能迷人,美人也可能令人生厌。我的中国朋友里有一位脑袋活像炮弹,但我却总是很高兴见到他。在我见过的西方作家肖像中,最美的脸孔当属吉尔伯特·基思·切斯特顿。他的胡须、眼镜、浓眉及眉间的川字纹组合起来简直像魔鬼!我觉得他的头脑里回旋着无数想法,随时会从充满疑惑的锐利的双眼中喷涌而出。黄山谷会称之为“美丽脸孔”,因为这张脸并非由脂粉装扮,而是纯粹由思想塑造。至于谈吐风趣,则取决于一个人阅读的方式。一个人的谈吐是否“有趣味”,取决于他如何阅读。如果读者领悟了书的趣味,他的谈吐就会有趣;如果他谈吐风趣,笔下作品也会流露趣味。

因此,我认为趣味或品味是一切阅读的关键。阅读的趣味就像饮食的品味,必须按照自己的品味选择要读的。毕竟,最健康的进食方法是吃自己喜欢的东西,因为这些东西肯定能消化。阅读正如进食,一个人的美食或许是另一人的毒药。教师不能强迫学生读自己喜欢的书,父母也不能盼着子女与自己品味相同。如果读者对所读之书毫无兴致,那就只会浪费时间。正如袁中郎3所说:“己所不好之书,可令他人读之。”

由此看来,世间并无必读之书。因为我们对知识的兴趣如树木般生长,如河水般流淌。只要有适合的汁液,树木便会茁壮生长;只要有鲜活的泉涌,河水便会向前流淌。水流若遇岩石阻挡,便绕石而行;若遇低洼溪谷,便曲折蜿蜒;若入深山池塘,便怡然停驻;若顺急流而下,便奔腾向前。如此一来,水流并无明确目标,亦未费心劳力,但有朝一日必将抵达海洋。

世间并无人人必读之书,只有一个人在某时某地、某种处境下、人生某个阶段中必读之书。我宁愿认为阅读像婚姻一样,由命运或姻缘决定。即使存在一本人人必读的书,比如《圣经》,阅读此书也有一定的时机。如果一个人的思想和经历尚未达到阅读经典的程度,经典只会让他品出不好的滋味。孔子曰“五十以学易”,就是说一个人哪怕已经45岁,尚不能去读《易经》。孔子《论语》中的格言恬淡温和,只有心智成熟的读者才能欣赏其中深沉的智慧。

此外,同一位读者读同一本书,不同时期能读出不同的滋味。例如,我们和作者当面交谈,或是看过作者肖像之后,能更好地欣赏他写的书。与作者绝交之后再看他的书,则另有一番滋味。40岁时读《易经》是一种味道,年届半百、历经变故后再读《易经》则是另一番滋味。因此,所有好书第二次阅读时都能获得新的益处和乐趣。我大学时被逼着读《西行记》和《亨利·埃斯蒙德》,尽管我少年时已能欣赏《西行记》的妙处,但《亨利·埃斯蒙德》的真谛我却是多年之后才有所体会。我怀疑这本书里还有许多我不曾体察的趣味。

由此可见,阅读的行为包含两方面——作者和读者。书能提供多少益处,取决于读者和作者双方的洞察和经历。宋代大儒程伊川谈及孔子的《论语》时说道:“读《论语》,有读了后全然无事者,有读了后其中得一两句喜者,有读了后知好之者,有读了后不知手之舞之足之蹈之者。”

我认为,找到自己最喜欢的作家,是一个人智力发展过程中最重要的事件。世间确有性情相投一事,读书人必须在古今作家中,找到与自己灵魂相通的一人。只有这样,他才能从阅读中得到真正的收获。一个人必须独立寻找自己的导师。谁是他最喜欢的作家?没有人知道,或者他自己都不知道。这就像一见钟情。不能要求读者喜欢这个或那个作家,但当他发现自己喜欢的作家,自然会一见倾心。关于这一点有很多著名的例子。有些学者生活在不同时代,彼此相距几个世纪,但思考方式和感觉却如出一辙。在书中看到另一位学者的文字,就像一个人看见自己的倒影。

按照中国的说法,我们将这种精神的传承称为“灵魂转世”,例如苏东坡就被认为是庄子或陶渊明的转世4,袁中郎则被认为是苏东坡的转世。苏东坡说,自己第一次读《庄子》时,觉得自己自幼年起就和庄子有同样的思想。袁中郎夜读同辈无名诗人徐文长5的一本小诗集,从床上一跃而起,大喊友人来读,友人读着也开始大喊。两人喊复读,读复喊,直到把仆人完全弄糊涂了。乔治·艾略特将自己第一次读卢梭的感觉描述为“触电”。尼采第一次读叔本华时也有同感。但叔本华是位暴躁的老师,尼采是个坏脾气的学生,后来学生反叛老师是很自然的事。

只有发现心仪作家的阅读才有益处可言。男子对他的爱人一见钟情时,会觉得她的身高、脸孔、发色、嗓音、言笑都恰到好处;读者遇上心仪的作家,也会觉得他的文风、品味、观点、思考模式都恰到好处。接下来,读者便开始贪婪地阅读作家写下的一字一句。由于双方性情相投,他很快就消化吸收了一切。作者对他下了魔咒,他则乐于身陷魔咒。久而久之,他的声音及言笑会和作者越来越相似。至此,他就完全投入了文学情人的怀抱,并从书中获取自己所需的精神食粮。几年之后,魔咒消失无踪,他有点儿厌倦了旧情人,开始寻找新的文学情人。当有过三四个情人并将其“生吞活剥”之后,他自己也和作家融为一体。许多读者从未坠入爱河,正如许多青年男女只会到处调情,却无法钟情于某个特定的人。他们可以读所有作家的作品,却永远得不到收获。

“阅读的艺术”这个概念完全打破了“视阅读为责任”的观点。在中国,人们常常鼓励学生“苦读”。一位著名的苦读学者在夜里读书时,只要一打瞌睡就拿锥子刺股。另一位学者夜里读书时让丫鬟站在身边,一见他打盹就马上把他叫醒。这实在荒谬。如果一个人面前摊着一本书,古代智者娓娓道来时他竟然犯困,那他干脆上床睡觉好了。用锥刺股或让丫鬟叫醒对他并无益处。这种人已经完全失去了阅读的乐趣。真正的学者从来不知道“磨炼”和“苦读”所谓何物。他们纯粹是喜欢书,情不自禁要往下读。

这个问题解决之后,阅读的时间、地点也有了答案。阅读无需合适的时间地点。只要有阅读的兴致,无论何处都可以。如果一个人明白阅读的乐趣,则无论进入何种学校、无论在上学还是已毕业,他都会读书;即便在最优秀的学校里,他也能读书。针对小弟希望入京就读好学校,曾国藩在一封家书中写道:“苟能发奋自立,则家塾可读书,即旷野之地,热闹之场,亦可读书;负薪牧豕,皆可读书。苟不能发奋自立,则家塾不宜读书,即清净之乡,神仙之境,皆不能读书。”有些人准备读书时在桌前装腔作势,抱怨房间太冷、板凳太硬、光线太强害得自己没法读书;也有些作家抱怨蚊子太多、稿纸太反光、街道太闹害得自己写不出东西。宋代大学者欧阳修说自己的好文章都得于“三上”,即枕上、马上、厕上。另一位清代著名学者顾千里则以夏天“裸体读经”而闻名。另一方面,如果一个人不爱读书,则一年四季都有不读书的好理由:

春天不是读书天,

夏日炎炎最好眠,

等到秋来冬又至,

不如等待到来年。

那什么是真正的“读书的艺术”?答案很简单:兴致起时,拿起书就读。完全发自内心才能彻底享受阅读。一个人可以带上一本《离骚》或奥玛珈音6的书与爱人携手出游,在河畔同读诗篇。如果空中云彩飘动,亦可仰视浮云,忘却手中之书,或是既看云也读书。偶尔加上烟斗一柄、好茶一杯便更加完美。或是在风雪之夜,靠炉而坐,炉上有沸水一壶,身边有好烟一袋,将十几本哲学、经济、诗歌、传记堆在沙发上,然后随心所致,翻而读之。金圣叹7认为“雪夜闭户读禁书”是人生最大的乐趣之一。陈继儒(眉公)8对阅读心境的描写最为精彩:“古人称书画为丛笺软卷,故读书开卷以闲适为尚。”如此心境之下,一个人对一切皆有耐心。此作家还说过:“真学士不以鲁鱼亥豕为意,好旅客登山不以路恶难行为意,看雪景者不以桥不固为意,卜居乡间者不以俗人为意,爱看花者不以酒劣为意。”

在中国最伟大的女诗人李清照(易安居士,1081—1141)的自传中,我找到了对阅读之乐的最佳描述。她的丈夫是太学学生。他每月领到俸禄后,夫妻俩便去相国寺(当时卖旧书和碑帖)购置碑帖。回家的路上,他们还会买些水果。回家之后,夫妻俩一边剥水果一边赏玩新买的碑帖,或是一边品茶一边比较不同版本。正如她在《金石录后序》这篇自传体序中所写:

“余性偶强记,每饭罢,坐归来堂,烹茶,指堆积书史,言某事在某书某卷第几页第几行,以中否角胜负,为饮茶先后。中即举杯大笑,至茶倾覆怀中,反不得饮而起,甘心老是乡矣!故虽处忧患困穷,而志不屈。……于是几案罗列,枕席枕藉,意会心谋,目往神授,乐在声色犬马之上。”

* * *

我们对知识的兴趣如树木般生长,如河水般流淌。只要有适合的汁液,树木便会茁壮生长;只要有鲜活的泉涌,河水便会向前流淌。

Lin Yutang 林语堂

* * *

————————————————————

1.黄山谷(1045—1105),即黄庭坚,北宋书法家、文学家。他的诗书画号称“三绝”。其与苏东坡齐名,人称“苏黄”。

2.查尔斯·艾略特的“五英尺书架”,指《哈佛经典》,一套51卷本的经典图书汇集。他曾在一次演讲中说,每天花15分钟阅读放在五英尺书架上的经典图书,就能获得人文教育。出版商看见商机并邀请其选择书目,《哈佛经典》由此诞生。

3.袁中郎(1568—1610),即袁宏道,明代文学家。他在文学上反对“文必秦汉,诗必盛唐”的风气,提出“独抒性灵,不拘格套”的性灵说。

4.陶渊明是苏东坡一生最崇拜的人,苏东坡曾按照陶渊明诗集的韵写了一本诗,并表示自己是陶渊明转世。

5.徐渭(1521—1593),字文长,中国明代文学家,他的诗被袁中郎尊为明代第一。

6.奥玛珈音(Omar Khayyam,1048—1131),波斯诗人,著有《鲁拜集》。

7.金圣叹(1608—1661),明末清初人,著名的文学家、文学批评家。

8.陈继儒(1558—1639),字仲醇,号眉公、麋公,明代文学家、书画家。


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