Middle Kingdom

My top 10 Chinese Quotes on Education

Sayings worth a thought

To illustrate the above, I chose 10 ancient sayings that might shed some light on how deep the respect and love for education is woven into Chinese thought. The interpretations are my own and might not be how one would traditionally interpret them.

  1. 书中自有颜如玉,书中自有黄金屋(shū zhōng yǒu nǚ yán rú yù,shū zhōng zì yǒu huáng jīn wū)- In books we could find the girl we are yearning for; In books we could find the Treasure

There you have it. If you want to reach anything in life, the path is clear. Books illuminate it. Books as containers of knowledge are the perfect symbol for the Western saying: Knowledge is power. If you want success you won´t get it the easy way. Only hard work and continuous study leads to success. The Chinese propagated that thought since ancient times. Want to get out of the rat race? Don´t speculate to win the lottery. Sit down and work your butt off! You will learn and you will get to know what you want if you study and develop yourself. Deep insights and skills are all in books. Use knowledge to make something out of yourself. But don´t dwell in books for their own sake forever. The goal -so the saying- is to make something out of yourself by using books to reach your goals. That shows the purpose and striving of many scholars in Ancient China. Books and knowledge have been and always will be an excellent way out.

2. 严师出高徒。 (Yánshī chū gāotú. ‘strict teacher produces brilliant student’) — Strict teachers produce fine students.

There seems to be a trend of pampering children, keeping any harm from them or rather what we deem harmful. Any disappointment, any form of reprimand is seen as damaging for the psyche of a child. Losing seems to be what destroys a child´s soul, not the lack of coping techniques. It might be the opposite.

Life is hard. Denying a young person the valuable experience of defeat so that they learn how to cope with disappointment, might do more harm on the long run. Former sometimes brutal educational traditions may rightly be discarded of. But pampering could weaken a whole society in the end. Asia seems to not (yet) make this mistake.

3. 一寸光阴一寸金,寸金难买寸光阴。(Yícùn guāngyīn yícùnjīn, cùnjīn nán mǎi cùnguāngyīn. ‘1 cun [Chinese inch, 1/30 m] time 1 cun gold, cun gold difficult buy cun time’) — An inch of time is worth an inch of gold, but an inch of gold may not buy an inch of time.

All the money in the world can´t buy one second of lifetime. It might buy you comfort, but not the rarest resource that exists for all of us. And still, as long as humans existed we were striving for distraction and material things. And only once we are old we understand what really counts. That´s the education that life gives us. And only experienced people can pass on this knowledge. That´s why for millennia the elderly were revered, teachers stood in highest respect and still are revered throughout Asia. Heck, China even has a Teacher´s Day!

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