E46 抄：经史子集，了如指掌

E46 抄：经史子集，了如指掌

课程导读

上节课我们讲到，背诵与朗读在备考科举过程中大有益处。而最用功苦读的学生，还会将经书正史抄写一遍，以求深刻认识书籍中的内容，苏东坡也不例外。那么，幼年的功底会在将来给他带来什么样的好处？那才华焕发的父亲苏洵，又为何难以高中？他在科举考试中的“弱点”会是什么？

英文原文

But the most ambitious of all would do the really hard thing by copying the whole of the classics and dynastic histories once over by hand.

This was actually what Su Tungpo did in his student days.

Considering the severe canons of Chinese prose and poetry, and the constant allusions to names and incidents and metaphors used in the standard histories, such a method had distinct advantages.

For after copying the whole book word by word, one began to know that book in a way that no amount of reading would give him.

This labor served Su Tungpo well in the future, for when pleading with the emperor or drafting an edict for him, he was never at a loss to quote historic examples, used by scholars in those times as "cases" are used by lawyers today.

Besides, in copying, he could practice his calligraphy.

Before the invention of printing this copy work was necessary, but in Su Tungpo's time the commercial printing of books had been in existence already for about a hundred years.

The invention of printing from movable clay types had been made by a certain Pi Sheng, an ordinary businessman.

The method was to have individual types for characters made of a special clay which hardened after carving; these were set on a metal tray prepared with a coating of resin.

When the types had been set in line, the resin was heated and a flat sheet of metal was used to press upon the assembled type and give it a perfectly even surface.

After printing was done, the resin was heated again; the types came off easily from the metal tray, to be cleaned and put in place for the next job.

However, the method of printing from wood blocks, each block representing two pages, continued to be the one in popular use.

While Su Tungpo and his brother Tseyu were storing away this immense knowledge of literature and the classics, their father had failed at the examinations and had come back home.

The civil service examinations went by set standards and formulas.

Like a Ph.D. thesis, they required conformity to certain standards, a certain amount of drudgery, a good memory of facts, and normal intelligence.

Too much intelligence or originality might be a hindrance, rather than an aid, to success at the examinations.

Many brilliant writers, such as the poet Chin Kuan, could never pass them.

In the case of Su Shün, his weak point may have been versification; tests in poetry required a passable virtuosity and aptness of phraseology, and Su Shün was chiefly interested in ideas.

Since, however, an official career was the only road to honor and success and almost the only profession outside teaching open to a scholar, the father must have come home despondent.