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清 Qing · 文 Prose

习惯说

On Habit

刘蓉

Liu Rong

说理散文Argumentative Prose 习惯Habit 修身Self-Cultivation

蓉少时，读书养晦堂之西偏一室。
俯而读，仰而思，思有弗得，辄起绕室以旋。
室有洼，径尺，浸淫日广。
每履之，足苦踬焉。

When Rong was young, he studied in a chamber on the western side of the Hall of Nourishing Obscurity. Bending to read, raising his head to think, and when his thought did not attain, rising to pace round the chamber. The chamber had a hollow, a foot across, growing wider day by day. Every time he trod on it, his foot was vexed by the stumble.

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Meaning

The opening of Liu Rong's 'On Habit,' from his Collected Works of the Hall of Nourishing Obscurity, a short essay recalling his boyhood study. When young, Liu Rong studied in a chamber on the western side of the Hall of Nourishing Obscurity; he read bending, thought with his head raised, and when his thought did not attain, rose and paced round the chamber. The chamber had a hollow in the floor, a foot across, growing wider day by day, and every time he trod on it his foot was vexed by the stumble—yet he grew used to it and did not mind. Later his father, sitting in the chamber, saw the hollow growing and taught him that 'if one chamber cannot be governed, how shall one govern the state and the world?' and had the boy fill it with earth; when it was level, he trod the place and started as at a mound rising. The essay uses the daily stumble to write the power of habit: the habit of the bad unnoticed, the sudden change startling, the truth of 'habit becomes nature' and 'prevent the first germ of the evil.'

刘蓉年少的时候，在养晦堂西边的一间偏室里读书。他低头读书，抬头思考；思考没有所得时，就起身绕着房间走动转圈。屋里有一个洼坑，直径一尺，一天天渐渐扩大。每次踩到它，脚都被绊得很难受。

Appreciation

This is a short, pithy narrative-argumentative prose; this excerpt is its narrative part, its structure valuing the 'gathering of the force' and the 'preparation.' The whole opens with the three plain characters 'when Rong was young,' giving the time, the person, and the place, then writes the reading with two neat phrases—'bending to read, raising his head to think' writes his diligence, 'when his thought did not attain, rising to pace round the chamber' his hard thinking, the three actions of reading, thinking, and pacing joined in a line, writing at once the concentration of the boy's study and preparing the 'every time he trod on it' of the following: it is precisely because he paced round the chamber day after day that he stumbled again and again on the hollow. Then the hollow: 'the chamber had a hollow, a foot across, growing wider day by day'—first its existence, then its size, then its growth, three strokes the growth of the bad habit written; and 'every time he trod on it, his foot was vexed by the stumble' the first harm of the habit. The whole excerpt, from the study to the pacing to the hollow to the stumble, gathers the force layer on layer, preparing the argument of the power of habit that follows.

【白话串讲】刘蓉写《习惯说》：他少年时在养晦堂读书，“室有洼，径尺，浸淫日广”——地上有个洼坑，越来越大。“每履之，足苦踬焉”——常被绊倒。后来“洼者若平”——坑被填平了，他反而“蹶然以惊”，“不若向时之洼且广者”——“习之中人甚矣哉”——习惯的力量太大了，“君子之学，贵乎慎始”——他写习惯要慎始。【意象与手法】先叙后议、以叙蓄势；白描细节、层层铺垫；语言平实简净，句法长短错落，虚词（辄、每、焉）传神。【情感与主旨】借少年被洼坑绊踬的琐事，阐明「习惯成自然」「习焉不察」之理，告诫人们要慎于始、防微杜渐——小隐患若不及时整治，终将习以为常、积重难返。【名句点睛】常考「室有洼，径尺，浸淫日广」的「浸淫」——以水渍渐漫写坑之渐进扩大，暗喻习惯的积渐成性；以及「一室之不治，何以天下国家为」的以小见大。

Background

Liu Rong (1816–1873), courtesy name Mengrong, hao Xiaxian, a native of Xiangxiang, Hunan, was a scholar and man of letters of the Qing, friendly with Zeng Guofan, Luo Zenan, Guo Songtao, and other famous men of Xiangxiang, rose to Governor of Shaanxi, and wrote the Collected Works of the Hall of Nourishing Obscurity and other works. This essay is from the Collected Works of the Hall of Nourishing Obscurity, a short piece recalling his boyhood study. The 'Hall of Nourishing Obscurity' is the name of Liu Rong's study, 'nourishing obscurity' from the Book of Changes, the 'Ming Yi' hexagram, 'the gentleman, leading the many, uses obscurity and shines,' meaning to sheathe the light and nourish the virtue—a name that shows the aim of the Neo-Confucian. When young, Liu Rong studied in a chamber on the western side of the Hall of Nourishing Obscurity; the floor of the chamber had a hollow, growing wider day by day, and he, reading bending and thinking with the head raised, pacing round the chamber every day, was repeatedly tripped, growing used to it without minding; later his father, sitting in the chamber, saw the hollow growing, and teaching him that 'if one chamber cannot be governed, how shall one govern the state and the world?' had the boy fill it with earth; when the hollow was level, he trod the place and started as at a mound rising—and the essay, from this small matter, writes the great truth of the power of habit.

刘蓉（1816—1873），字孟容，号霞仙，湖南湘乡人，清代学者、文学家，与曾国藩、罗泽南、郭嵩焘等湘乡名士相友善，官至陕西巡抚，著有《养晦堂文集》《思辨录疑义》等。此文即选自《养晦堂文集》，是他回忆少年读书生活的一篇短文。「养晦堂」是刘蓉书斋之名，「养晦」语出《周易·明夷》「君子以莅众，用晦而明」，取韬光养晦、涵养德行之意，一名可见其理学家的志趣。刘蓉少时在养晦堂西偏一室读书，室中地面有一洼坑，日日浸淫扩大，他每日俯读仰思、绕室踱步，屡被绊倒，习以为常而不以为意；后来其父坐于室中，见洼坑渐大，便指点他「一室之不治，何以天下国家为」，命童子取土填平；坑平之后，他再踏此地，反而像踩到隆起土堆般惊愕，良久才悟出习惯成自然的道理。作者由此生发议论，指出习惯养成之后虽悔而难改，「君子之学，贵乎慎始」。此文作于作者中年回忆往昔之时，意在借儿时琐事自警并警人，是清代以小事寓大理的理学散文名篇。

Art

The art values the 'gathering of the force' and the 'preparation': the three plain characters 'when Rong was young' open plainly, then the two neat phrases write the diligence and the hard thinking, the three actions of reading, thinking, and pacing joined in a line, preparing the 'every time he trod on it'—the daily pacing is precisely the cause of the daily stumbling. Then the hollow, first its existence, then its size, then its growth, three strokes the growth of the bad habit written; and 'every time he trod on it, his foot was vexed by the stumble' the first harm of the habit. The whole excerpt gathers the force layer on layer, the narrative preparing the argument that follows.

《习惯说》是一篇短小精悍的叙事说理散文，此节选即其叙事部分，章法上讲究「蓄势」与「铺垫」。全文以「蓉少时」三字平淡起笔，交代时间、人物、地点，然后以两组工整的短语写读书情状——「俯而读，仰而思」写其勤学，「思有弗得，辄起绕室以旋」写其苦思，读、思、旋三个动作连成一线，既写出少年读书之专注，又为下文「每履之」预作铺垫：正因为日日绕室踱步，才会屡屡踩到洼坑。接着写洼：「室有洼，径尺，浸淫日广」——先写其存在（室有洼），次写其大小（径尺），再写其变化（浸淫日广），三句层层递进，暗示坑由小渐大、隐患渐深；末句「每履之，足苦踬焉」以「每」字点出习惯的重复性，「苦踬」写被绊之苦而竟不改，正见「习焉不察」。语言上纯用白描，无一字议论（议论在节选之后的段落），却已把「习惯成自然」的题旨暗含其中；句法长短错落，短句（室有洼，径尺）明快，长句（思有弗得，辄起绕室以旋）舒缓，随叙事节奏自然起伏。这种先叙后议、以叙蓄势的章法，正是清代古文「义法」的典型体现。

Allusions

Though the excerpt has no obvious allusion, it is steeped in the Confucian culture of self-cultivation, and a deeper taste reveals many sources. 'Bending to read, raising his head to think' inherits Confucius's teaching of the equal value of learning and thinking, 'learning without thought is loss, thought without learning is peril,' and covertly matches Yan Yuan's sigh of the Master, 'the more I look up, the higher; the more I bore, the harder'; 'when his thought did not attain' transforms Mencius's 'the office of the heart is to think; thinking attains it, not thinking does not attain,' writing the anxiety of the hard thought; 'rising to pace round the chamber' is the typical posture of the ancient scholar's reading and thinking, as in the Rites, the pacing of the study, the preparation of the bodily habit of the daily stumble.

此节选虽无显性典故，却处处浸染儒家修身文化，深味之可见多重渊源。「俯而读，仰而思」承孔子「学而不思则罔，思而不学则殆」的学思并重之训，亦暗合《论语》颜渊叹夫子「仰之弥高，钻之弥坚」的求道姿态；「思有弗得」化用《孟子·告子上》「心之官则思，思则得之，不思则不得也」，写苦思不得时的焦灼；「辄起绕室以旋」则是古代士人读书运思的典型情态，如《礼记》所载君子慎独时「行止坐立」皆有节，踱步正以舒其气、凝其思。「养晦堂」之「养晦」出《周易·明夷》「用晦而明」，寄寓敛藏锋芒、涵养德性之意；而节选之后的「一室之不治，何以天下国家为」更直承《大学》「修身齐家治国平天下」的次序，以扫一屋喻修一身，以小见大。「浸淫日广」的「浸淫」本指水渐渍漫延，引申为积渐深入，暗合《尚书·太甲》「习与性成」与荀子「积善成德」的「积渐」观念——坑之浸淫日广，正如习之积渐成性。故此文虽叙琐事，其思想根脉却深植于先秦儒家与宋明理学的修身传统，是「即事见理」的理学文章。

Commentary

'On Habit' explains the great subject of 'habit' in a few hundred words, a famous Qing prose of the great principle in the small matter, its influence long unceasing. Its value is first in the universality of the thought: the truth of 'habit becomes nature,' 'prevent the first germ of the evil,' and 'old habits are hard to change,' spoken through the everyday scene of a boy tripped by a hollow, is more real and more powerful than any abstract preaching—hence the essay has been widely circulated since the Qing and included in the modern language textbooks, and its spirit, the daily unnoticed harm and the sudden change startling, has become the common lesson of self-cultivation.

《习惯说》以数百字的小文讲透「习惯」这个大题目，是清代以小事寓大理的散文名篇，影响历久不衰。其价值首先在思想的普适性：「习惯成自然」「防微杜渐」「积习难改」的道理，经由一个少年被洼坑绊脚的日常场景说出来，比任何抽象说教都更真切有力，故此文自清代以来广泛流传，并被选入现代语文教材，成为「以小见大」类课文的典范。其次在文学上，它体现了桐城派以来清代古文「清真雅正、言简意赅」的审美追求——叙事干净利落，议论要言不烦，无一冗字；刘蓉与曾国藩友善，其文风亦与湘乡一派的质朴厚重相通。再次在文化传承上，此文把《大学》的修齐治平、《周易》的养晦用明、《尚书》的习与性成熔为一炉，是儒家修身思想在清代民间化、生活化的缩影；「一室之不治，何以天下国家为」更成为后世讽喻「好高骛远」者的常用语。对今天的读者而言，文中「习惯塑造人生」「慎于始」的告诫，依然具有极强的现实意义，这正是这篇小文长存的生命力所在。

Prosody

Form Classical narrative prose (the narrative part of an argumentative essay)文言叙事散文（说理文之叙事部分）

Rhyme Unrhymed; the rhythm comes from the uneven length of the sentences and the echoing of the particles: the short sentences ('the chamber had a hollow, a foot across') pause in two characters, bright and brief; the long sentences ('when his thought did not attain, rising to pace round the chamber') are easy and flowing此文为散体古文，不押韵，而以句式的长短错落与虚词的呼应构成节奏：短句（室有洼，径尺）两字一顿、明快简洁；长句（思有弗得，辄起绕室以旋）舒缓流转；「俯而读，仰而思」「浸淫日广」「足苦踬焉」等以四字为主，音节齐整。

Tone pattern The opening is plain and even, the three actions of reading, thinking, and pacing advance in order, the 'growing wider day by day' of the hollow presses, and 'his foot was vexed by the stumble' falls with the stumble—the whole from the plain to the pressing, the growth of the habit carried by the rhythm全篇语气平实从容，如老友话旧，无一句夸张；「而」「则」「辄」「每」「焉」等虚词频频出现，使句意婉转、语势连绵，叙事节奏由缓到急再到缓，读来抑扬有致。

Reading note The rhythm of the prose, from the short bright sentences to the easy long sentences, carries the daily stumble of the boy and the growth of the habit.此段虽为散文，其节奏经营却一丝不苟。开篇「蓉少时，读书养晦堂之西偏一室」以「蓉／少时／读书／养晦堂之西偏／一室」的顿挫交代人事时地，如起板；「俯而读，仰而思」四字两顿，音节对称，写读书之专；「思有弗得，辄起绕室以旋」转为长句，如思绪之绵延；「室有洼，径尺，浸淫日广」复归短句，一句一顿，如镜头由远及近、由静及动，逐层逼近洼坑；「每履之，足苦踬焉」以「焉」字收束，语势下沉，如一脚踩空。全文散而不乱、缓而不滞，句子的长短恰与叙事对象的轻重相配：写读书则舒缓，写洼坑则短促，写被绊则沉滞，声情与文情高度一致。这种「以句法写情态」的节奏艺术，是清代桐城派古文「因声求气」主张的生动体现，读来朗朗上口，意味悠长。

Line by line

蓉少时，读书养晦堂之西偏一室。

When Rong was young, he studied in a chamber on the western side of the Hall of Nourishing Obscurity. (The plain opening: the time, the person, and the place given in one stroke, the whole essay growing from this plain beginning.)

刘蓉年少的时候，在养晦堂西边的一间偏室里读书。

When I, Rong, was young, I studied in a side room on the west side of the Hall of Nourished Obscurity.

开篇八字交代人事时地，极为简省。「蓉」为作者自称，直呼己名，是古文记事的常例；「少时」点明这是童年旧事，为下文「习以为常而不觉」的少不更事定调；「养晦堂之西偏一室」既点出书房之偏、之小，暗示环境简陋，又暗藏「养晦」二字的深意——韬光养晦，正是此文的修身主旨。以「读书」紧接地点，交代事件，而「西偏一室」的「偏」字尤妙：偏室僻静，正宜潜心诵读；但也正因为偏居一隅、久处其中，才使主人公对室内洼坑「习焉不察」，为后文埋下伏笔。此句节奏平稳，如家常语，无半点惊人之笔，却以最朴素的起笔为全篇蓄势——越平淡的开头，越能衬出后文「足苦踬焉」的波折与「一室不治」的警醒。

The opening eight characters give the person, the event, the hour and the place, most sparingly. The name Rong is the author's self-reference, naming himself directly, the common practice of classical narrative prose. When young marks that this is a childhood tale, fixing the tone of the callow unawareness of habituation below. A side room on the west side of the Hall of Nourished Obscurity at once marks the side, small study, hinting the simple surroundings, and carries the hidden depth of nourished obscurity — concealing one's light, precisely the essay's theme of self-cultivation. The word study follows the place directly, giving the event; the single word side in the side room is exquisite: the side room is quiet, fit for deep reading; yet precisely because it lies in a corner, long inhabited, the hero becomes unaware of the hollow within the room, planting the foreshadowing below. The line's rhythm is even, like household speech, without a startling stroke, yet storing force for the whole in the plainest opening — the plainer the beginning, the more it sets off the later stumbling of the foot and the warning of a room untended.

俯而读，仰而思，思有弗得，辄起绕室以旋。

Bending to read, raising his head to think, and when his thought did not attain, rising to pace round the chamber. (The diligence and the hard thinking: the three actions of reading, thinking, and pacing joined in a line, preparing the 'every time he trod on it'—the daily pacing the cause of the daily stumbling.)

他低下头读书，抬起头思考；思考没有所得时，就起身绕着房间走动转圈。

I would bend down to read, look up to think; when my thought came to nothing, I would rise and pace round and round the room.

此句写少年读书的情态，三组动作层层推进，是全文最见神采的句子。「俯而读」写低头诵书，「仰而思」写仰面凝思，一俯一仰之间，读书与思考交替进行，正是《论语》「学而不思则罔，思而不学则殆」的学思并进之道；「思有弗得」写偶有疑难、思而不得，卡住了；「辄起绕室以旋」写他随即起身，绕着屋子踱步转圈，以行散思、以动凝神——「辄」字写其动辄即起、屡屡如此，足见其苦思之勤。这四层动作把一位少年书生的专注情态写得如在目前，读、思、起、旋皆自然真切。更妙的是它为后文埋伏笔：正因他「辄起绕室以旋」，日日在这间屋里转圈踱步，才会一遍遍踩到那个「径尺」的洼坑，于是「每履之，足苦踬焉」便顺理成章。写读书而意在写洼，叙事针线之密，于此可见。

The line writes the boy at his books, three groups of actions advancing layer by layer, the most vivid sentence of the piece. Bend down to read writes the head bowed over the book; look up to think writes the face raised in thought — between the bow and the raise, reading and thinking alternate, precisely the Analects' way of study and thought advancing together: learning without thought is bewilderment, thought without learning is peril. When my thought came to nothing writes the occasional hard point, the thought stuck. I would rise and pace round and round the room writes his at once rising, walking circles about the room, loosening thought through movement, gathering the mind through motion; the word at once writes the frequency, his always rising again, the diligence of his brooding. The four layers of action write the young scholar's concentration as before the eyes, reading, thinking, rising, pacing all natural and true. More exquisite is the foreshadowing: precisely because he would rise and pace round the room, walking circles in this chamber day after day, he treads again and again that hollow of a foot across, so that whenever I stepped on it, my foot would catch follows of itself. Writing of reading while intending the hollow, the narrative's stitching is fine, visible here.

室有洼，径尺，浸淫日广。每履之，足苦踬焉。

The chamber had a hollow, a foot across, growing wider day by day. Every time he trod on it, his foot was vexed by the stumble. (The hollow and the stumble: first its existence, then its size, then its growth, the growth of the bad habit written in three strokes, and the daily stumble the first harm of the habit.)

屋里有一个洼坑，直径一尺，一天天逐渐扩大。每次踩到它，脚都被绊得很难受。

In the room there was a hollow, a foot across, spreading day by day. Whenever I stepped on it, my foot would catch and stumble.

此句正面写洼坑及其危害，是全篇叙事的高潮与转折所在。「室有洼」先交代事物存在，简洁如记账；「径尺」写其规模，直径一尺，本是不大的坑；「浸淫日广」写其变化——「浸淫」本指水渍渐次漫延，此处移用，写坑沿一天天向外侵蚀、渐渐扩大，暗示隐患在不知不觉中滋长；「每履之，足苦踬焉」写其后果，一个「每」字道破「习以为常」：日日踱步、日日被绊，却始终不觉其害、不改其行，「苦踬」之「苦」字更写出被绊时的难受与狼狈。三层之间环环相扣：有洼而后有变，有变而后有踬，而「浸淫日广」正是「踬」的根源——坑由小变大，正如坏习惯由微入著，若不及时填平，终将酿成大患。此句至此，叙事的「蓄势」完成，后文「一室之不治，何以天下国家为」的议论便如水到渠成，自然引出「慎始防微」的题旨。

The line writes the hollow and its harm in full, the climax and turning of the narrative. In the room there was a hollow first states the thing's existence, as plain as a ledger; a foot across writes its size, a foot in diameter, no great hollow. Spreading day by day writes its change: the word spreading originally means water seeping outward, here transferred, writing the hollow's edge eating outward day by day, gradually widening, hinting the hidden trouble growing unnoticed. Whenever I stepped on it, my foot would catch and stumbling writes the consequence; the single word every reveals the habituation: pacing every day, stumbling every day, yet never feeling the harm, never changing the habit; the word hard in hard stumbled writes the discomfort and embarrassment of the tripping. The three layers link ring within ring: the hollow, then its change, then the stumbling; and the spreading day by day is precisely the root of the stumbling — the hollow growing from small to large, as the bad habit grows from slight to marked; if not filled in time, it will at last breed a great ill. The line here completes the narrative's stored force, and the argument of a room untended, how can the world and the state be governed? follows as water to its channel, naturally leading out the theme of caution at the start, prevention of the slight.

Study

Word focus

浸淫 Growing wider day by day (soaking, spreading). The word of the growth: 'a foot across, growing wider day by day'—the hollow spreading like the soaking of the water, the daily unnoticed growth of the bad habit written in the two words. 「浸淫」二字是全文文眼之一，本义指水之浸渍、渐次漫延，引申为「积渐」「渐进」之意。此处写洼坑「径尺，浸淫日广」，用「浸淫」而不用「扩大」「蔓延」，妙处有二：其一，赋予洼坑以「水」的动态——坑沿如被水浸一般逐日向外吞噬，把静态的坑写活了，仿佛它有生命、在生长；其二，暗含「积渐成患」的哲理——浸淫是无声无息的渐进过程，正与习惯养成的过程同构：坏习惯不是一日形成的，正如坑不是一日扩大的，都在「日广」的不知不觉中积成。这个意象贯穿全文：坑之浸淫日广，喻习之积渐成性；坑之可平，喻习之可改；坑之「踬」而不觉，喻「习焉不察」。故「浸淫」一字，实为后文「习惯」主旨的象征性预演，选词之精，可见刘蓉炼字之工。

踬 Stumble. The word of the harm: 'every time he trod on it, his foot was vexed by the stumble'—the daily stumble of the boy on the hollow, the first harm of the habit, the small trouble of the daily unnoticed. 「踬」是「每履之，足苦踬焉」的句眼，意为绊倒、被障碍物绊住而踉跄，是古文中写「失足」的常用字。此处用「踬」而不用「绊倒」「摔倒」，取义有三：一是程度精准——坑径仅一尺，人不会真摔倒，只是被绊得一个趔趄，「踬」正写这种「欲倒未倒」的踉跄之态；二是音节古雅，与全篇文言风格相称；三是暗含「失足」的隐喻——被坑绊踬是脚步的失足，若放任习惯之坑浸淫扩大，便是人生的失足，一字双关，为后文「慎始」之戒埋伏。且「足苦踬焉」的「苦」字写被绊后的难受，「踬」写被绊的瞬间，苦是感受、踬是动作，二字配合，把「习以为常而仍受苦」的矛盾写足，正是全文立论的根基。

辄 Ever (immediately). The word of the habit: 'when his thought did not attain, rising to pace round the chamber'—the 'ever' of the rising to pace, the daily habit of the study, the very habit that the essay will write. 「辄」是文言常用副词，义为「每每、总是、动辄就」，此处「思有弗得，辄起绕室以旋」中的「辄」字极见功夫。它写的是频率与惯性：一旦思考受阻，便「辄」即起身，不是偶一为之，而是每次皆然——一个「辄」字，把少年读书时动辄起身踱步的惯性动作写尽，也把他「日日绕室、日日踩坑」的必然性交代清楚。正因「辄起」，才「每履之」；「辄」是「每」的原因，「每」是「辄」的结果，两个虚词首尾呼应，把「习惯」二字从字面落到实处。虚词在古文中常被忽视，而刘蓉此处以「辄」字串起动作、以「每」字串起重复，正是古文「用虚词以传神」的典范——若删去「辄」「每」，句子依然通顺，却失去了「惯于如此」的意味，全文的题眼「习」也就没了着落。炼虚词即是炼思想，此之谓也。

习惯说