Gift to graduates of this year

○ Hu Shi

This article was made by Mr. Hu Shi in June 27, 1932. Although the bloody Age of the 1930s s has passed, the present times have been different from those of the time, but I still feel very benefited from reading it, and Mr. Hu Shi's teachings are beyond words. In this article, Mr. Hu Shi believes that there are three ways to graduate from college: Continue to do academic research; find a considerable career; become an official, operate the party, and make a revolution. This article analyzes the "method of falling traps" encountered after university graduation and provides three solutions.

In the past one or two weeks, university graduates from all over the world have graduated, and many graduates have left the school to start their adult career.
The life of students is a kind of life that enjoys special preferential treatment. It may be childish. It may be noisy, and society can indulge them and refuse to strictly take responsibility for their behaviors. Now they have to pick up their shoulders. In the most urgent year of China's difficulties, their burden is really not light! We wish them success, and we can't bear to give them a few gifts based on their own experience-although it may not be a life-saving gift, maybe it's a defensive tip!
After graduation, you cannot go beyond these steps: A few people can continue to do academic research in Chinese or foreign research institutes; a few people can look for a considerable career; in addition, there are three ways to become an official, operate the party, and make a revolution. In addition, you can enjoy happiness at home or stay unemployed.
No one who takes the rest of the road can be at risk of degradation. There are many ways to fall. In summary, there are two categories:
First, it is easy to discard the desire for knowledge in the student age. When you get to the real world, you often do not learn what you use. You often do not have to learn what you have learned. Instead, you can eat and cook at random. In this environment, even those who have always been eager to learn knowledge can't help but get lazy. Moreover, knowledge requires a considerable amount of equipment: books, labs, mentoring, and leisure work are not easy for anyone who usually needs to support their families. Who can blame us for abandoning learning without a learning environment?
Second, it is easy to discard the pursuit of the ideal life in the student age. For the first time, young people may feel that their ideals are too far away from facts, and they may be pessimistic or disappointed. At this time, the ideals of life, the enthusiasm for transformation, and the courage to struggle for many years seem to be different. Small people in the strong social fire, often unable to withstand a long period of roasting and melting, a noble ideal soon lost. With the dream of transforming society, we often abandon the armor and throw the troops, or we are the prisoners of evil. When you are in jail, it seems that you have become a dream of self-error! From then on, you will be willing to give up the pursuit of your ideal life and be willing to be a good citizen in the present society. We need to defend against the degradation of these two aspects, while maintaining our desire for knowledge and our pursuit of life.
What are the advantages? According to my personal observation and experience, there are three self-defense prescriptions worth a try.
The first party has only one sentence: "You must always find one or two questions worth studying !" The problem is the ancestor of knowledge: the generation and accumulation of all the knowledge from past to the present is all due to the need to answer questions-to answer practical and theoretical difficulties. The so-called "seeking knowledge for knowledge" is actually just a kind of curiosity, but it does not need to be directly applied because of the nature of the question, people think it is indifferent to asking for knowledge.
When we leave school, we leave the learning environment. If we don't have one or two questions worth answering, it's hard to keep up with the enthusiasm of our students. However, if you have a really interesting question that reminds you to think about it, you will be tempted to solve it every day, and you will be challenged every day. At this time, you will be in love with a girl crazy, sit down, sleep, have no time to steal time to accompany her, if you have no money, you have to shrink your clothes and diet to get rid of her. If you don't have any books, you will become sellers who buy books in private; if you don't have any equipment, you will buy your clothes and equipment; if you don't have any teachers, you will go to the teacher to visit friends from far away. As long as you have problems that force you to use your mind all the time, you will naturally keep developing your interest in learning. Even in the poorest knowledge, you will slowly, gather a small library or set up a small laboratory. So I said, the first thing is to find the problem. There is no problem in your mind, that is, when your knowledge life ends! The ancients said, "To be prosperous, all the people. If the hero, even though there is no wenwang juxing ." How many books does Galileo and Newton have? How many instruments are there? They just have a problem. When there is a problem, they will create an instrument to solve their problem. People without problems will not use books in the library, nor will they find anything in the laboratory.
The second party has only one sentence: "There is always a lot of non-professional interests ." After leaving school, we always look for a meal career. However, the profession you seek may not be what you have learned, not necessarily what you are happy with, or what you have learned is not similar to your temperament. In this case, work is often hard and you will not feel interested. For the sake of life, it is difficult to maintain the idealism of life that is not "close to the power of nature. The best remedy is to develop legitimate interests and activities beyond the profession.
A person should have his profession or non-professional playmates, which can be called an amateur activity. His spare time is often more important than his career because how a person makes achievements depends on him to take advantage of his spare time. He used his spare time to play mahjong, and he became a gambler. if you used your spare time to do social services, you may become a Social Innovator; or you used your spare time to study history, you may be a historian. Your leisure time is always your life. In the 19th century, the British philosopher Mier is the secretary of the East India Company for life. However, his spare time work has made him a high position in philosophy, economics, and political thought history; spencer is a measurement engineer, but his spare time work has made him an important place of thought in the world in the late centuries. There is almost no one who is familiar with his leisure time. The profession is not suitable for our temperament. If we want to live without suffering or degrading, we only need to develop in multiple ways.
With this beloved playgirl, you will not feel bored after six hours of table wiping. Because you know that after six hours of table polishing, you can go home to do your chemistry research, finish your big landscapes, or write your novels and opera, or continue your historical research, or do your social reform business. If you have such a satisfactory activity, your life will not be dead, and your spirit will not be bored.
The third party has only one sentence: "You have to have a little confidence ." When we were born in this unfortunate age, what we saw in our eyes was nothing more than a pessimistic disappointment. Especially when I graduated from this year, I saw my country and nation sink into this field. Seeing that the world is just a world of power, looking at the sky, it seems like you can't see the light on the front-line. It's lucky that you haven't killed yourself so much in this year. How can you maintain a little calm and an ideal trust? I want to say to you: this is the time for us to cultivate our confidence! As long as we have confidence, we still have to save.
The ancients said: "confidence can be moved to the mountains ." Said: "As long as Kung Fu is deep, Piron is ground into embroidery needles ." Don't you believe it? When the army of Napoleon conquered the Soviet Union and occupied Berlin, there was a professor called feltand who tried to persuade his country to have confidence every day in the lecture hall, to believe that their nation has a special mission of the world, it must be revived. No one could predict when the German unified empire would be able to be realized when Feech died. However, less than 50 years ago, the new unified German Empire was actually realized.
The strength and weakness of a country are not accidental, and they cannot escape the causal tie law. The pain and shame we have suffered today are only the consequences of past evil. To reap the fruits of the future, we must try our best to cultivate the new cause. One grain and one grain of land, there will be a full warehouse to collect, this is what we deserve today's confidence. We must be convinced that the failure of today is due to past hard work. We must be confident that today's efforts will surely bring about a huge harvest in the future.
In Buddhist scriptures, there is a saying: "Do not donate ." Don donate is lost in vain. We should also say: "Do not donate !" No effort will be lost in vain. When we cannot see it, you can't see it! The seeds under you have long taken root, and the leaves have blossomed! Don't you believe it? After France was defeated by the Soviet Union, it cut two provinces and lost 0.5 million francs in compensation. At this time, a hard-working scientist, Pasteur, buried himself in his chemical laboratory for his chemical experiments and microbacterial research. He is the most patriotic man, but he is confident that only science can save the nation. He demonstrated three scientific problems with his life's energy: (1) Each fermentation is due to the development of microbacteria; (2) each infectious disease is a development of microbacteria in organisms. (3) microbacteria of infectious diseases can reduce the toxicity under special cultivation, it turns them from a species to a species for disease prevention.
These three problems seem to have little to do with the National Salvation business. However, from the proof of the first question, Pasteur formulated a new law for vinegar brewing, which reduced the annual loss of the wine and Vinegar Industry nationwide. The second question proves that Pasteur taught the whole country how to choose a kind of silk industry for disease prevention, how to prevent the plague of cattle and sheep, and how to focus on disinfection in the world to reduce the mortality of surgical procedures. From the proof of the third question, Pasteur invented the animal's spleen Heat Treatment medicine seedlings, reducing the loss of 20 million francs for French farmers each year, and also invented the crazy dog bite medicine treatment method, relief of countless lives. Therefore, the British scientist khāli praised Pasteur's achievements at the Royal Society and said, "France has paid 0.5 million francs to Germany, and Mr. Pasteur's scientific achievements are enough to pay off the indemnity." Pasteur has a great deal of confidence in science, so he refused to abandon his microscope and laboratory in the face of national humiliation. He never wanted him to pay 0.5 million francs under the microscope, but he had a miracle of scientific salvation when he could not think of it.
Friends, when you are the most pessimistic and disappointed, you must have strong confidence. You must be convinced that the world is not in vain. Success does not have to be done by me, but the power does not need to be donated.

(Li Donghui, from Hu Shi wencun, 4th episodes, 4th volume Hu Shi education, People's Education Press)