Classics for Chinese Students (3) 80 Famous Essays You Should Read in Your Lifetime

Author: New Growth Reading Guidance Committee
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features:
1. Gain true knowledge and wisdom through reading.
2. Achieve enlightenment and growth in appreciation.
3. The best gift for yourself.
4. Not to be shared with classmates like a heartwarming soup.
5. A treasure trove of wisdom for parents to give to their children.
6. A spiritual guide for teachers to give to their students.
It is not necessarily true that loving to read is always a good thing. Unselective reading, or reading low-quality, poorly written books, is better than reading less or not at all. For young readers whose bodies and minds are still developing, while reading widely is important, reading classics may be even more so. The renowned French writer André Malraux once said, "Do not drown yourself in the sea of ordinary books"—because life is too short, even reading classic masterpieces is not enough. To British writer Samuel Smiles, reading the best books is like engaging in dialogue with the greatest thinkers of all time and becoming friends with the wisest minds. Both believed that only by reading classics could one truly be considered a smart reader.
Classic works are renowned masterpieces that have been tested by hundreds of years and are universally recognized as the best. Such works are unmatched in terms of intellectual depth, profound insights, and exquisite language. Throughout human history, countless texts and works have been created, but only a very few have survived the test of time. Thus, classic works are the essence of human civilization and the crystallization of human wisdom. Even the famous scholar Qian Liqun has argued that reading classics is the fundamental way of education.
To encourage young students to read more classics, we have selected 400 of the best works from the vast pool of outstanding literature across history, categorized them under five themes— (), , , —and compiled them into this book, titled China Students' Classic Readings. We hope that young readers will find in these timeless words the depth of history and the allure of thought, gaining the motivation and inspiration for life and growth!