Last month, a special seminar attracted a lot of well-known scholars, such as the nonagenarian educator Si Xia, the historian Pang Pu, Yang Yi, head of the literature institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and the famous writer Jing Yong. The scholars spend a whole day to study an unpublished book entitled Thousands of Chinese Idioms. The book has less than 10,000 characters, and 2,000 idioms in the book are all normal ones that should be mastered even by those with middle education. The following is an excerpt of the seminar.
Jing Yong:The structure of the book is well arranged. It is simple and reasonable, like the Thousand Character Reader. The book contains a lot of traditional culture, so it is of significance to popularize it among teenagers. It is not only a good textbook, but also a contribution to Chinese culture, helping us to remember and promote the merits of ethnic culture.
Teng Chun: It is a good textbook for studying traditional culture. The book is an inheritor and developer of the traditional textbooks of Three-Character Textbook, Book of Family Names and Thousand Character Reader.
Xu Yongguang: This is a time of globalization, so why do we write such an “only-to-Chinese” book? In my opinion, globalization does not conflict with multiculturalism. The book not only helps children study Chinese and China’s history, but more over, helps to cultivate their culture aspirations and national dignity, and arouses their sense of the Chinese spirit, ethics and style.
Yang Yi: With the coming of the new millennium, and the trend towards economic globalization and the knowledge economy, many people think deeply about how to inherit, transform and develop Chinese culture. When I look at this book, I find a good way of using a mode of connecting idioms. The book describes, explores and tries to master the spirit of China.
Si Xia: Today’s teenagers know little of history and traditional culture. They even do not know who is Confucius. This book reflects Chinese history and culture as a whole. It can help young people to make up these shortcomings. It also has a high quality.
Zhu Zuoshen: The book is very helpful to children’s study. Ancient poems and idioms are useful to the whole life. It is proficient and profound, along with China cultural inside.
Yang Yi: The idioms are very concise, so they are very fit for communicating information and preserving cultural. In some sense, these idioms from thousands of years ago are Chinese culture’s vitamin. The idiom of the Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains reflects the tough will of the Chinese people to overcome difficulty. Another idiom of Mao Sui Recommending Oneself for a Position encourages talented people to show themselves. Teacher a Person in Accordance with His Aptitude displays teachers’ outstanding wisdom; while Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained shows the courage of intrepidity.
Wang Li: The ancient Chinese required outstanding eloquence and loved the beauty of words, while modern language has become more and more simple and vulgar. The book arranges idioms into ballads to help them to be remembered and used.
Wang Hai: I suggest the book’s name be changed to Four-Character Reader to correspond to the Three-Character Textbook and Thousand Character Reader. The Four-character includes idioms and other four-character words. Another disadvantage in the book is the confusion of “n” and “ng”.
Liao Kebin: The book has three features that are beautiful, new and lofty. Beautiful here refers to the tongue and rhythm. Some idioms and paragraphs are precise and flawless. The rhythm is like floating clouds and running streams. The New refers to the writers’ views. They survey ancient history and culture with a modern view, eliminating the dregs and highlighting the elite. Although all the idioms appeared in ancient time, after selection and arrangement, the book has a new look on the whole, full of an active and open, modern air. The lofty refers to its spirit. The whole book reflects patriotism and humanitarianism without any vulgarity.
Zhang Junsheng: Among the four world civilizations, only the Yellow River (or the Chinese) civilization has continued uninterrupted. As the inheritors of the Chinese culture, we need to remember history in order not to hinder the development of ethics. I am a science and engineering major, but I find the edification of culture very useful. At the same time, in high education, science and engineering are far removed from the culture. This situation should be changed. A merit of the book is that it combines science and engineering with traditional culture.
However, my suggest is that the book should be added with modern science and technology. For example, when it depicts the Silk Road, one can use “east come and west go.” In olden times, people only used the idiom of “south come and north go” because in that time, the connection between east and west was sparse.
Li Ming: The center of the traditional education is to teach people to speak and act truthfully. The idioms are the essence of the traditional education. In order to develop traditional education today, we need to be familiar with the idioms. The book is a good tool. At the same time, it should avoid current affairs, or it will not last long.
Yang Yi: I suggest to classify the book into some categories such as the originality of the universe, Chinese ancient history, Chinese modern history, civilization achievement and culture feature. The part of “contention of numerous schools of thought in the period of the spring and autumn annals, and of the warring states” lacks some schools of logicians. In the part of “literature elite,” it should add some important propositions of the Confucian school of idealist philosophy. In the part of “rise and fall of the Ming Dynasty,” it needs some propositions such as Wang Yangming. And the part of “the coming of Western knowledge” must add descriptions of Japanese Aggression to show historical truth.
Xu Yinong: Using the “Thousand Character Reader” to recapitulate Chinese traditional culture is only a matter of good will. In fact, it is very difficult to do. The book’s structure is unequal. The time of Three kingdoms is unimportant in Chinese history, but it occupies too much of the book.
Qing Hui: The book is arranged by idioms, so it has to cater to the idioms. For example, many idioms relate to the Period of Three Kingdoms, so this period occupies much in the book. The book can spread the thought of value, but it cannot be a classic of value; it also will spread knowledge, but it cannot become an encyclopedia. In some places, it reflects too much orthodox thinking.
(CIIC 02/20/2001)
