"The Turtle" is a picture book with philosophical meaning that was once popular all over the world. It tells the story of a tortoise who crawled unremittingly to the distant entrance of the Lion King's cave, finally arrived at the destination and participated in the wedding celebration of the Lion King in the next life. However, the philosophy contained in it needs to be deeply excavated and requires readers' speculation. ability.

This book was written by Michael Ende (1929-1995), a contemporary German children's literature and fantasy literature writer.

Generally speaking, philosophical literature gives people a cold feeling and lacks human touch and interest. But people say that Dao Ende's works "recover the lost fantasies and dreams for children and adults in a cold, soulless world."

Ende was also a prolific and efficient writer. His other works, such as "Maomao", "Never Ending Stories" and "Never Ending Fairy Tales" have also become world-famous works. , and is familiar to Chinese readers.

He said:

Some people in the industry spoke highly of him:

In addition, he is also a writer of narrative nursery rhymes, poetry and drama, and is known as an introduction A master between children's literature and fantasy literature.

The picture book "The Turtle" is different from other picture books in that it is a picture book with music soundtrack.

That is to say, in addition to the usual text and pictures, music is also composed according to the characteristics of the story. While reading the picture book, readers can also play the music and appreciate the characters in the story. plot.

Therefore, for Chinese readers, the cover of this book we see has the author of the text, the author of the pictures, the composer and the translator. The work of these four authors is the same. This is a classic picture book.

Through Teacher Qingmi’s explanation, it not only expanded and deepened my understanding of picture book stories, but more importantly, I gained new knowledge.

01 Observe the cover and dig out the information conveyed

Holding the cover of the picture book "The Turtle", the most eye-catching thing is a big turtle deep in the forest. Looking at us with big eyes, there are flowers and plants around it, holding a flag and wearing a red scarf around its neck.

This is the turtle that conveys the protagonist of this book. The surrounding environment is roadside flowers and woods. The flag represents the trainee knights in the Middle Ages and is a symbol of bravery. The red scarf also meant something in that era. It represents courage. Such characters and accessories all highlight that the turtle is a brave person, a stubborn, stubborn and determined turtle.

Interestingly, the translator He Shan translated the title of the book as "犊 turtle". The modifier "犊" is composed of the prefix "strong" plus "ox", so it means "strong attitude" "Cow" means "cow-tempered".

Therefore, the title of the book also reflects the uniqueness of this turtle. She has a stubborn and stubborn character. Therefore, the translation can be regarded as the translator's unique ingenuity, hitting the key points and clarifying the central idea of ??the story.

02 The debate and in-depth thinking between the two theories triggered by the story

The picture book "The Turtle" tells the story of a turtle named Tao Tao who perseveres and goes through a long journey. After a long journey, they finally reached their destination and participated in the next Lion King’s wedding celebration.

The reason why we say it is a philosophical picture book is that the story reflects how to understand the relationship between teleology in classic literature and the self-transcendence of the turtle.

In the history of philosophy, there has always been a debate between teleology and naturalism.

Aristotle, a representative figure of teleology, believed that all things in nature have a purpose for their existence. For example, the reason why people have a pair of eyes is because of the need for visual function. Human beings gradually developed and evolved into a pair of bright eyes that can see everything in the world.

Lucretius, a representative figure in naturalism, believed that the organs of living things in nature evolved along the lines of function. Because humans have eyes, they have vision.

It can be seen that the story of "The Turtle" has the characteristics of teleology. The turtle has been crawling slowly, working tirelessly and not afraid of the long journey. After careful consideration for a day and night, he decided to go to the destination—— The Lion's Cave in order to participate in the celebration of the Lion King.

This picture book not only tells us why you should work hard to achieve a goal, why you should do it, and how you must go all out to do it.

More importantly, on the way forward, we will encounter various encounters and scenery along the way, as well as the need to constantly overcome external obstacles and have the courage to surpass our own instinctive dream-seeking spirit.

On the distant journey, the turtle met many animals, including pigeons, spiders, snails, geckos, etc. Some of them told the turtle that she had gone in the wrong direction, that the wedding was cancelled, and that the lion king In the 28th life, he died on the battlefield, etc.

According to the teleological point of view, since these factors that affect the destination and lead to the ultimate goal no longer exist, then the journey becomes meaningless. These events have lost the motivation for development and have no reason to exist.

As a result, people began to doubt teleology.

But in fact, although the turtle in the story was told that he could not participate in the celebration of the 28th Lion King on time, what is the meaning of the turtle continuing to move forward without hesitation?

For example, there is an important exam tomorrow. According to teleology, you must seize the time to review tonight.

What will you do tonight if tomorrow's exam is cancelled? Are you continuing to study? Or give up studying?

From a teleological point of view, does tonight's study become meaningless because the exam has been cancelled?

In the story, the turtle did not give up because of the dissuasion of others, but still insisted on heading towards the destination in his heart. So, is this stubbornness and unreasonable "stubbornness" really true? As other animals say, the turtle is crazy. Is the turtle a fool? This question is worth thinking about.

Many readers may think that this is the author's deliberate display of writing skills and toying with readers.

But we believe that since Wugui took a thoughtful action like "after thinking for a whole day and night, Tao Tao finally made up his mind", then this kind of tenacity is not just stubbornness and stubbornness, but also It is the "perseverance" that holds a firm belief in the heart - the belief that we can definitely achieve it. It is the "perseverance" worth learning from.

Therefore, when we make choices, we should not only act based on teleology in a narrow sense, but also consider people's character cultivation, belief, will, and lifelong growth. Even if the result of our actions is failure, it is still an experience and experience, perhaps preparing for the next real success.

03 Determine the geographical location based on pictures

The pictures in the picture book are rich in details. First look at where the turtle is. Combined with the map in the real world, the turtle should live in the Mediterranean coast of the North African country Libya, which belongs to the subtropical zone.

How do you know this? The book gives three pieces of information:

First, the beginning of the book mentions that "on top of her (referring to Turtle Taotao) head is an ancient olive tree." Olive trees only grow in the coastal areas of the southern part of the original Mediterranean.

Second, the book also mentions two pigeons living in the same olive tree as the turtle. Their headdress reminds us that this is the decoration of the Arab nation.

The third is that the names of this pair of pigeons are Suleika and Salomo respectively, which are typical Arab names for Anxing and women.

Secondly, explore the location of the Lion’s Cave. The Lion's Cave is the destination that the turtle is going to. Where is it? How far?

On the map, there is an African country, Congo, which is located in the Mediterranean and has an African savannah climate. In terms of actual distance, it is nearly 3,000 kilometers. Wow, this is such a long journey for a slow crawling turtle.

We guess that the turtle Taotao may be yearning for the living conditions there, where there is more freedom and a large number of animals running and living on the grassland.

This journey is a complete change of life for him. This turn of life is also an opportunity to challenge himself.

In summary, this kind of picture book seems to be a simple text story, but you need to dig deeply into the information provided in each drawing and think about the philosophical ideas contained in it. Only in this way can we have a better and more comprehensive understanding of the beauty and educational significance of picture books.