True scholarship means being able to explain the reasoning behind a problem and having one's own ideas. Although it seems everyone has ideas, in reality most people's minds are chaotic and they simply echo others, agreeing with any viewpoint, which is equivalent to having no ideas. I never intended to pursue scholarship; I took this path simply because I enjoy asking questions. Starting around age fourteen, questions constantly occupied my mind, leading from one to another, and I kept trying to answer them, unable to stop until I found solutions. Being able to ask questions and then wanting to solve them is probably the starting point of scholarship.
Below I explain the path I have taken, divided into eight levels:
First Level: Forming a Clear Opinion When you think carefully about a problem, you will form a clear opinion and your own judgment on it. Whether you call it an opinion or a prejudice, it is still your own. Your opinion may be shallow, but even if shallow, it is ultimately your own view. Many philosophers' philosophies are also shallow, and that is sufficient. Hu Shih's philosophy is shallow, yet it works. Because it is his own, even if not profound, it is his insight and feels intimate and meaningful. Therefore, when he speaks, he can move people, and that is enough! He can form his own school, while others cannot, because they do not even have a shallow philosophy.
Second Level: Discovering Things You Cannot Explain Only with your own opinion do you have yourself; only with yourself do others exist, and you begin to notice that people around you hold different opinions. At this point, you feel various conflicts, contradictions, things that seem unreasonable, yet all seem reasonable. So you must engage your mind further. When faced with various problems, you cannot explain them yourself, are unwilling to blindly follow others, and dare not easily trust yourself—then you have embarked on the correct path of seeking knowledge.
Third Level: Achieving Integration and Understanding From then on, you will not easily let go of the ideas of predecessors or contemporaries; whenever there is a slight difference from your own, you will pay attention. When you see ideas similar to yours, you feel close; when you see different ones, you feel estranged. If there is difference, you must seek resolution; if there is estrangement, you must seek understanding. Thus, the thoughts that ancients and moderns have used gradually merge into your own. Your initial opinion becomes the seed of future great scholarship. From this seed, you can absorb nourishment, grow branches and leaves upward, and take root downward. When the branches are lush and the roots deep, scholarship is achieved. This is the only correct way to read; otherwise, reading is useless. Those who know how to read speak their own words, not piling up jargon or quoting extensively; conversely, the more one quotes, the less one knows how to read.
Fourth Level: Knowing Your Insufficiency After engaging your mind, you learn to be humble. Your initial insights are too shallow to solve problems. Progress in scholarship is not only about improved insights but also about refining your mind and cultivating a humble attitude. A humble mind and meticulous thinking are necessary conditions for learning. Regarding the learning of predecessors, never say you understand it all. Because if you feel you don't understand, you can eliminate all superficial views and humbly seek to understand it first. When encountering different opinions or thoughts, I always suspect they are wiser than I, suspect they must have knowledge I lack; otherwise, why wouldn't they make the same judgment as I? I suspect they must have deeper thoughts and insights than I; otherwise, why do I see things this way and they see them that way?
Fifth Level: Using Simplicity to Control Complexity The more opinions you encounter and the deeper you study, the more fragmented knowledge and partial views disappear; your mind becomes a coherent system, an entire organization. At this point, you can be considered successful. Only then can you use simplicity to control complexity, and you can have much learning without feeling it is too much. All systematic thoughts are simple in the mind, as if only one or two sentences. All great philosophers do not have much to say, always just one or two sentences. The very complex and heavy universe is exceptionally light in their hands—what is called lifting heavy weights with ease. If a scholar says he carries heavy learning on his shoulders, that is wrong; if he says that initially he felt there was something, but now he realizes there was nothing, that is correct. The clearer the truth, the less there is to say; it is better to say nothing. The mind understands, but the mouth cannot express it. Conversely, those with shallow learning speak more, and those with unclear thinking use more jargon. If a person without learning saw this, he would be frightened! In fact, when the truth is clear, jargon can be used or not, or picked up at will.
Sixth Level: Applying with Ease If there are still unsolvable problems outside or inside, then your scholarship is not yet mature. If your scholarship is thorough, there are no problems. Those with true scholarship can fully apply their learning to themselves. Those with false scholarship cannot use their learning at all.
Seventh Level: Seeing All Mountains as Small After tasting all the sweetness and bitterness of scholarship, you can see the strengths and weaknesses of others' views and propositions. You can tell which is shallow, which is mature, what score this one gets, what level that one reaches—you know clearly, because you have been through all levels of depth and refinement yourself.
Eighth Level: Complete Penetration After precise thinking and familiar reasoning, there is nothing in your mind that is not thoroughly understood.
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