Concise one sentence summary of classic literature

Author: He Jiang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-02-01
Features: Long ago, there was a wealthy man who had grown old. Besides leaving his vast fortune to his descendants, he also wanted to leave something truly lasting for generations to come. So, he sent people to post notices in major cities, seeking learned and wise individuals to his estate. After careful and meticulous selection, he chose 16 people from hundreds of applicants. Then he said to them, "I will give you one year to help me compile a book of wisdom. I want to leave it for my descendants." These people settled on his estate and worked diligently and seriously on this task. When the year was up, they completed a six-volume work. The wealthy man flipped through it and said, "I believe these are the essence of wisdom, but they are too much. I worry that my descendants won’t have the interest to read them. Please condense them." After a month, these people reduced the six volumes to a single volume. The wealthy man looked at it and still thought it was too long, so he asked them to condense it further. The 16 people then continued to stay in the wealthy man’s comfortable estate, discussing daily which words and sentences to delete. They gradually condensed the single volume into a chapter, then into a section, and eventually into a paragraph. Finally, only one sentence remained. When the wealthy man saw this sentence, he was very satisfied and said, "This is the crystallization of wisdom from all ages!" This book, The Essence of World Classics in One Sentence, follows this very idea. It carefully selects one sentence from 100 volumes of extensive world classics, hoping to pass it down through the ages and allow people to gain a deeper understanding of the essence of these classics. Many classics leave one or two profound lines lingering in the memory long after they are read. Perhaps years later, the content of the book may have become hazy, but those one or two lines are remembered at every moment. This book carefully selects the essence of one sentence from 100 volumes of extensive world classics, hoping to pass it down through the ages and allow people to gain a deeper understanding of the essence of these classics.