Reading philosophy to a certain stage will, more or less, bring some progress. At first, reading philosophy may be completely bewildering, leaving one utterly at a loss; then, one can gradually understand some things to a limited extent, and turn everything one has read into knowledge to remember—that is a step up the ladder: “knowing.” This is the most elementary step, but it is the foundation. Without the accumulation of knowledge, any “thought” one has can only be rootless thought.
From “knowing” to “thinking of” is a second advance. From my own experience, I believe many people who read philosophy go through such a stage: one becomes able to resonate with some of the thoughts one reads. At that point, the feeling is marvelous—“the saint is of my kind” (圣人与我同类)! Of course one is delighted beyond measure, but at this stage one must be careful not to get carried away. Some amateur philosophers get stuck here and can go no farther, because they grow overjoyed at this point, imagining that they really are on the same level as philosophers. In fact, they are still far from it!
Actually, attaining the realm of “thinking of” is very easy, especially after reading a philosopher’s thought, and then—speaking with hindsight—saying, “I’d already thought of this long ago; I just never wrote it down~” The person who says such things so lightly has no idea how much difference there is between their “thinking of” and that of a philosopher—difference as vast as heaven and earth…… In fact, a philosopher’s thought is not necessarily all that distinctive compared with that of ordinary people in the same era. Whatever philosophers can think of, ordinary people may well be able to think of too; that is hardly surprising. “But they became great philosophers because they eloquently advanced their own ideas, defended them brilliantly, and organized them into a magnificent and imposing—austere as well as grand—edifice. ……” (The Big Questions, p. 22) To discover that, on certain issues, one has “thought the same thing” as a great philosopher is certainly a good thing, but it is by no means something worth making a fuss over. Thinking of something is one thing; voicing it is another. Being able systematically to organize one’s own ideas, to write books and establish a doctrine—that is an entirely different matter!
Therefore, I have always supported “discussion.” The exchange of words—even when everyone is talking at cross purposes and far from the point—can help us organize our own thoughts. When we sort our thoughts out into language and speak them aloud, often, even before waiting for others’ feedback, we ourselves improve in the process—often while speaking we discover that what we thought we had understood was in fact not understood at all, or that something we had not been able to work through suddenly becomes clear…… And writing is a further sublimation: writing a few essays is the easiest thing, but even the smallest article, so long as it is written with care, can bring a gain each time one writes another piece. Of course, writing papers, writing books, and producing a complete theory are all elevations accomplished step by step. It is not difficult at all to arrive at profound thought, but to write a profound work, or even to become a profound person, there is still a very, very long road ahead. And those who can be called saints—those who can interpret profound thought through their own lives—have reached the highest境界.
December 10, 2005
Translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The original text is authoritative.
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