说开卷有益
郁达夫

开卷有益，是古人奖励读书的一句成语。从前读到一册坏书，读后每觉得为古人所欺；现在多了一点智识，反过来又觉得古人的不欺我了。总之，好书读了，原有所得，就是可以知道它的好处在哪里。可是坏书读了，而知道它的坏的原因与地方，岂不也是一得？从前孔子说的“三人行，必有我师”之意，也不一定是从正的一方面着想，反过来在负的一方面，也何尝不可以为鉴戒。因此，从前是非有定评之书不读的，现在却马勃牛溲了，一例的都想看看了，这大约总也是一种进步的现象。

On "Reading Is Always Beneficial"
Yu Dafu

"Reading is always beneficial" is an old idiom first used by our ancients to urge people to do morereading. I used to blame the ancients for misleading me whenever I finished reading a bad book. Now I know better than to do that. Of course we profit from a good book because, by reading it, we know why it is good. But, on the other hand, after reading a bad book, we know all the whysand wherefores of its being bad. Isn't that something of benefit to us too? Confucius says, "Whenthree walk together, there must be one who can be my teacher." However, it doesn't necessarilyfollow that one of the three is always a teacher by positive example; on the contrary, he could bea teacher by negative example for us to take warning from. Therefore, that people nowadays havetaken to reading whatever books they like, trashy or not, including those already generally judgedto be good or bad, is probably an indication of social progress.