life in a story 144? "I want to charge you twice the tuition fee" and "I want to charge you twice the tuition fee" are the stories of Socrates and a student. The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates has been engaged in education all his life, but he didn't start his own school like other wise men (teachers), and he didn't go to other schools to give lectures. His educational places were squares, streets, temples, shops, workshops, sports fields, etc. His educational objects were all people, whether young or old, poor or rich, farmers or craftsmen, whether noble or civilians, no matter who asked him for advice. His educational content is very extensive, including politics, ethics, war, friendship, art and so on. The basic methods of his education are speech and dialogue. One day, a young man went to visit Socrates and asked Socrates to teach him how to speak. As soon as the young man saw Socrates, he talked about the importance of speech and talked a lot of nonsense. Socrates listened patiently. It was a long time before the young man stopped.
Socrates said solemnly, "I never charge tuition for teaching, but I have to charge you tuition, and it's twice as much."
"why?" Young people are puzzled.
"Because besides teaching you how to talk, I will also teach you how not to talk."
The story of "Asking whether to marry or not" is an anecdote of Master Huang Jinglin, the "Imperial Chef" in the late Qing Dynasty. Huang Jinglin was a famous gourmet and cook in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. He was also the master of the famous "Auntie Banquet" of Sichuan cuisine. He was deeply appreciated by the Western Empress Dowager and was given four top-notch hats (equivalent to the current four-level cadres). He was born in a famous family in Huayang Town, Shuangliu County, Sichuan Province in 1873. Since childhood, he has tasted all the world's delicacies, and since then he has been a scholar, enjoying the treatment of Yuan Wailang. He likes poetry and calligraphy, and is good at couplets. After the Revolution of 1911, he worked as a governor in Yingxing County, Sichuan Province (now Yingjing County). The story happened when he was a county governor. It is said that there is a young widow in this county who wants to remarry and handed a complaint to the county government: "The husband is dead and his wife is few, Weng Zhuang is a big uncle, and Gua Tian is a Li Xia. Why not marry when he is married?" Huang Jinglin, the governor, examines the case and complaint every day, and the articles are lengthy and tasteless. Seeing that this complaint is so succinct, he was moved and immediately sentenced: "Marry! Marry! Marry! "
Lu Cuosheng's testimony: Socrates was very unhappy because the young people who were studying were full of nonsense. They didn't charge tuition at first, but they charged him twice as much when they were angry. The widow who asked for remarriage, with only a few words, stated the reality of "young widowed, surrounded by a mature father-in-law and an adult brother in law", expressed the difficulties of "Gua Tian Li Xia, someone gossips", and put forward the requirement of "remarriage", which was very reasonable and concise, and moved the county magistrate. Without saying anything, the county magistrate said, "Marry!" Marry! Marry! " . Thus, it is useless to talk nonsense and the advantage of not being bored with words.
We tell these two short stories just to talk about the two topics of "talking nonsense" and "being bored with words".
When it comes to talking nonsense, a joke about "doctors buying donkeys" was recorded in Yan Family Instructions Mianxue. The joke said that there was a doctor (an ancient official name) who was familiar with the four books and five classics, and his stomach was full of scriptures. He admires himself very much, and he always talks about everything. One day, one of the doctor's donkeys died, and he wanted to buy another one. He came to the market and looked after a donkey. After the two sides agreed on the price, the doctor asked the donkey seller to write a certificate. The donkey seller said that he couldn't read, so he asked the doctor to write it for him, and the doctor immediately agreed. The donkey seller immediately borrowed pen, ink, paper and inkstone, and the doctor immediately wrote. He wrote very carefully, and it took a long time to write three pieces of paper before he finished writing. The donkey seller asked the doctor to read it to him. The doctor gave a dry cough and shook his head and read it. Passers-by also gathered around to listen. It took a long time for the doctor to finish reading the credentials. After listening to this, the donkey seller asked him inexplicably, "Mr. Wang has written three pieces of paper, but why isn't there even a donkey word?" In fact, just write down how much I sold you a donkey and how much I charged you, and it's over. Why bother to write so much? " The doctor is speechless. The people watching from the sidelines all burst into laughter. After the story spread, someone made up an ironic proverb: "A doctor buys a donkey, and the book has three pages, but there is no donkey word". Later, people described writing articles or speeches as irrelevant, mostly nonsense, which was called "doctors buy donkeys" or "three papers without donkeys" This joke tells us: Speaking and writing should be concise and clear, so that people can understand what they hear and understand what they read, and try not to say useless nonsense.
If you talk nonsense, you must talk more, and if you talk too much, you will inevitably lose. Therefore, the ancients have an admonition that "illness comes from the mouth, and disaster comes from the mouth", and the saying also reminds you that "a word is a blessing in life". Therefore, talking less nonsense, or even not talking nonsense, is only good, not bad.
What needs to be explained here is that we advise everyone to talk less nonsense, or even not to talk nonsense. It means that in the process of life and work, when we express our thoughts and wishes in words, we should talk less or even say things that are useless to the topic, so as not to dilute or even drown out the topic of speech. In daily life, especially in greeting and casual chatting, each of us said a lot of irrelevant nonsense, such as knowing that others are going out to work in the morning, asking "Are you going to work" when we meet, and saying "Boxing" when we meet. This is a kind of greeting, which seems like nonsense, but it is not "useless" at all. It is the carrier of interpersonal emotional communication. The key to the problem is to know when not to talk nonsense and when to talk nonsense.
More interestingly, in the field of literature, there are poems written in nonsense, which are called "wordy poems" and "nonsense poems". There is a story in Feng Menglong's "An Overview of Ancient and Modern Tan": During the reign of Emperor Yongxi in the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a man who claimed to be a "poet". He wrote poems without seeking refinement, and he liked verbosity. He was synonymous with overlapping bedsteads, empty and ridiculous, and people called his poems "verbose poems". "Shibo" has a poem "Staying in a mountain house is a matter", which says: "A solitary monk went home alone, and closed his door to cover Chai Fei. At midnight, the cuckoo thanked the leopard for crowing. " In the poem, "One", "Solitude" and "Alone" refer to the same person, "Closing the door" and "Covering Chai Fei" refer to the same action, "midnight" and "midnight" refer to the same time, and "cuckoo", "Xie Bao" and "Zigui" refer to the same bird. This poem only expresses that "the solitary monk returns at midnight. Although it is very wordy, it is quite interesting to read.
Nowadays, nonsense poems have also been passed down. In late March 2112, the avant-garde poet Qing Wu (real name Zheng Gongyu, born in 1978) became popular on the Internet because of his nonsense poems. Four songs are recorded as follows:
Praise for White Clouds: "The white clouds in the sky are really white/really, Very white/very white/very very white/extremely white/thief white/absolutely white/ah-"
If you really want to give me money: My bank account number is as follows: China Merchants Bank/6225 ××××× 74/Zheng Gongyu/China Construction Bank/4367 ××××× 13/Zheng Gongyu. .....
A Pear: I ate a pear/and then I saw it in the supermarket/I wanted to say it when I saw it/It was delicious/After a few days/It was on sale in the supermarket/I saw it again, and I wanted to say/It was very cheap
How to do it: I called Zhang Jianhua/I answered the phone.
Let's stop talking nonsense. Let's talk about getting tired of talking. To be patient means to say or write succinctly and properly, especially when writing articles, which emphasize the importance of cherishing ink like gold. Please see the following short essays:
Short essay 1: The contemporary poet Kitajima has a poem entitled "Life" with only one word: "net". This word vividly depicts the complicated and inextricable relationship between people and life.
Short article 2: An American magazine once published a fairy tale entitled "A Burning Cigarette", the full text of which was:
"A cigarette puffing with smoke pointed at itself and said,' I am the best visual teaching aid, which proves that smoking will shorten life.'
Make the advice that smoking is harmful to health vivid.
essay 3: during the period of Elizabeth I, a short story competition was held in a British university, which required the story to involve four aspects: religion, royalty, sex and mystery. A girl's story entitled "The Queen Know It" won the championship:
"My God, the queen is pregnant, who did it?"
Elizabeth I is a lifelong unmarried queen. After reading this story, the queen not only didn't blame the schoolgirl, but also met her and praised her for her cleverness.
essay 4: an American magazine won the first prize for an article with short words and twists and turns, and the article entitled "lion hunting" won the first prize. The full text is as follows:
Irina's younger brother, Freddie, went hunting in Africa with her husband, babur. Soon, at home, she received a telegram from her brother: "babur died of lion hunting-Flett". Illivina was overwhelmed with grief and called her brother back: "Take his body home." Three weeks later, a big package was shipped back from Africa, which contained a lion's body. She rushed to send another telegram: "Lion received. Brother, please send babur's body. " Soon, I received a reply from Africa: "No mistake. Babur is in the belly of a lion. "
The essay is full of twists and turns, with telegrams as a clue, linking up the plots of hunting in Africa, killing a lion, transporting the lion home, and lying in the belly of a lion, and the plot comes to an abrupt end, which is memorable.
how to cut the crap and get tired of talking? There are three main ways to do it:
Method 1: Pay attention to it ideologically, and consciously remind yourself when you speak or write, and try your best to keep the words to the essence, and you must leave out what you can say or not.
practice 2: make a good draft first, and then write it after thinking it over.
practice 3: if it is written, revise it several times after writing and delete the redundant words.
The style of writing with neat and concise words has been favored by people since ancient times. Liu Yuxi's "Inscription of a Humble Room" and Zhou Dunyi's "The Theory of Ailian" are both top-grade essays, which can be used as a model for us.