10 Chinese Idioms From Confucius & The Analects

Integrate many strands into one understanding

Literal: Merge and flow through completely

Zhu Xi gave the phrase its lasting sense in the collected works, describing the point a student reaches after long effort and thorough investigation, when the separate things learned melt together (融会) and run right through (贯通) one another — raise one corner and get three back, hear one thing and k...

Learning is limitless

Literal: Ocean of learning has no shores

This is from the second half of a well-known couplet, 书山有路勤为径，学海无涯苦作舟 — the mountain of books has a path, and diligence is that path; the sea (海) of learning (学) has no shore (无涯), and hard work is the boat. It is popularly attributed to the Tang essayist Han Yu, though the attribution is traditiona...

Practice what you know

Literal: Knowledge and action unite as one

Wang Yangming reached his enlightenment in exile at Longchang in Guizhou in 1508, and began teaching this doctrine the following year, when he was invited to head the academy at Guiyang: knowing (知) and acting (行) are one (合一) rather than two stages. His claim is stronger than an exhortation to put ...

Learn many from one example

Literal: Raise one reflect three

Confucius, in the Analects, said he did not go on teaching a man who, shown one corner, could not come back (反) with the other three (三) — 举一隅不以三隅反，则不复也. The image is a square: you are given one corner and expected to supply the rest. It is a statement about what a teacher owes and what a student mu...

Learn new through studying old

Literal: Review old know new

Confucius, in the Analects: 温故而知新，可以为师矣 — one who warms (温) the old (故) and thereby knows (知) the new (新) is fit to be a teacher. 温 is the word for reheating food, so the image is of returning to what you already have rather than acquiring more. The claim is specific and quite demanding: review alon...

Student surpasses master

Literal: Blue comes from indigo plant

Xunzi opens his chapter on learning with it: 青，取之于蓝，而青于蓝 — blue (青) is taken from (出于) the indigo plant (蓝), and is bluer than the plant. The point is the student's, not the teacher's: nothing is being criticised, and the dye is better precisely because the plant existed. Common speech runs it as 青出...

Offer modest view to inspire better

Literal: Throw brick attract jade

Zhao Gu was the better poet, and Chang Jian wanted a poem out of him. Knowing Zhao Gu would visit the Lingyan Temple, Chang Jian went first and wrote two lines on the wall; Zhao Gu came, saw them, and completed the quatrain. Chang Jian's couplet was much the weaker, which is the point of the anecdot...

Stay humble and open

Literal: Empty heart like valley

The Daodejing describes the man of old as being, among other things, open as a valley. A chest (怀) held empty (虚) like (若) a valley (谷) takes in whatever comes down into it, and the emptiness is a capacity rather than a lack. Chinese moral vocabulary is consistent about this: the chest is where tole...

Humbly seek guidance

Literal: Move wine jar seek teaching

Moving (移) one's own wine cup (樽) across to where somebody is sitting, in order to receive (就) instruction (教). The gesture is the entire meaning: the person who wants to learn crosses the room, instead of summoning the teacher or waiting to be approached. Late imperial vernacular writing uses it of...

Keep promises faithfully

Literal: One promise thousand gold

Ji Bu of the early Han was reliable enough that a saying circulated in Chu: a hundred catties of gold are worth less than one promise (一诺) from Ji Bu — hence a promise worth a thousand (千) in gold (金). The Records of the Grand Historian preserves it. He is not Ji Zha of Wu, whose story about keeping...