我曾在一次发言中说过,文化出版界要多做些“眼睛向下,情趣向上”的工作。这话虽然在报刊上登了出来,但是我并未设想它会被人认真看待。谁知隔了好几个月,却忽然收到本书编者程裕祯同志的来信,说他因受到“眼睛向下,情趣向上”的启发,所以编了这本“普及性知识读物”,并因而要我为此书写几句话。我虽不敢认为事情果真如此,但又感到写一点感想还是可以的。 我收到程裕桢同志来信时,此书正在编写之中。仅就选题而言,似乎此书并不属于“眼睛向下”一类,因为这些选题都很专门,相当高深。因此照我的理解,本书定为“普及性知识读物”,其普及对象当是专业文化人士,甚至包括人们常说的“专家学者”,因为就算是“专家学者”也不可能样样都懂,所以读一点“普及性知识读物”也是不为无益的。不过,我认为主要的普及对象,还应该是更为广大的读者。本书究竟能不能受到广大读者的欢迎,那就要看它是不是写得深入浅出了。我但愿这本书能做到这一点,以取得皆大欢喜的效果。 谈论中国古代文化,曾经热过一阵,现在好象冷了一点;但这不见得就是冷落,更可能是一种冷静。当人们透过事物的现象向其深处探索的时候,冷静是相当必要的。本书的编写,可能就是冷静的表现。因为就从目录来看,它不是跟着感觉抓到一点现象就大做文章 In a speech, I said in the past that the cultural press should do more with “eyes down and curiosity upward”. Although these words came out in the press, but I did not imagine it will be taken seriously. Everyone knows that after months of publication, he suddenly receives a letter from Comrade Cheng Yu-ching, the editor of this book, saying that he has compiled this “universal reading book” because of his “eyes down, I write a few words for this. Although I am afraid I can not believe it, I feel it is okay to write a few comments. When I received a letter from Comrade Cheng Yuzhen, the book was being prepared. It seems that this book does not belong to the category of ”eyes down,“ as far as the topics are concerned, since these topics are very specialized and quite profound. So, as I understand it, the book is called ”Universal Knowledge Reader,“ and its popularization targets are professionals and even people often referred to as ”experts and scholars“ because even ”experts and scholars“ can not do anything Understand, so reading a little ”universal knowledge books" is not useless. However, I think the main target of popularization should also be a wider audience. Whether this book can be welcomed by the majority of readers, it depends on whether it is written in simple terms. I hope this book can do this, in order to achieve happy results. Talking about ancient Chinese culture, it took a while to heat up, now seems a bit cold; but this is not necessarily a neglect, more likely to be a calm. Calmness is essential when people explore it deep through the phenomena of things. The preparation of this book may be calm performance. Because from the directory point of view, it does not catch the phenomenon of a big fuss