As far as history is concerned, the vast majority of people do not have an introduction to the undergraduate stage, but only learn some basic knowledge. Some students at Fudan University in Peking University may have started doing research, but that is a minority after all. For most people, graduate students have really embarked on the road of history, which is very different from before. Therefore, we must have a clear understanding of the history major and think about our own path.

Many people's impression of history is to recite memories and tell stories, including many people who took the postgraduate entrance examination, and some friends who have passed the cross-examination may feel the same way. In fact, graduate students do research. The biggest task of history graduate students is to write a qualified paper, so they need to receive a series of professional training. The most important thing is the ability to find problems, which is often called problem consciousness. What is problem consciousness? For example, we all know Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi. It's nothing strange to see their names. They even think the word is better. However, Chen Yinque was surprised when he saw it. He said that at that time, people's names were generally two words, which should be avoided between father and son and not the same. Why do Wang Xizhi, Wang Xianzhi and Wang Ningzhi all have the same word in their names? So he put forward a statement that their names were Wang Xi, Wang Xian and Wang Ning. Why is this happening? This is because their families believe in Taoism in Shi Tian, which is similar to the symbol of Christians and shows their identity. This is the meaning of question consciousness, that is, don't read a piece of material as a story, but think about why.

But people are not born to ask questions. We should read more about other people's works and see what questions others ask, and then form an atmosphere of discussion and ask our own questions. It is for this reason that a truly professional training should of course read historical materials, but we are opposed to reading historical materials at the beginning, reading twenty-four histories and so on. In fact, we just watched the excitement and didn't see anything.

The best way for beginners to get started is to read monographs and masterpieces to understand how others read materials and think. Then take a special history class at school, learn to read the materials, and finally read the materials with your own problems, in order to achieve the best results.