10 Chinese Sayings About Learning

Need motivation to begin (or continue) studying Mandarin Chinese? Luckily, the language itself contains many inspiring sayings related to learning.

The history of education in China can be tracked back to the 16th century B.C. In ancient times, learning Confucianism was the most efficient way to achieve higher social status for ordinary people. Scholars had to study very hard to prepare for government tests since only the high score let them to get a good governmental job. It looks like the tradition still exists somewhat. Nowadays, Gaokao (National Higher Education Entrance Examination) is considered to be one of the most difficult pre-entrance tests in the world.

So, from Han dynasty until modern times, education was crucially important for Chinese people. Not surprisingly, the Mandarin language boasts so many proverbs and idioms about learning.

The Mandarin language is full of “analogical” proverbs and idioms. Learning is compared with something that is difficult to overcome and sometimes unpredictable.

We selected 10 expressions for you here:

1. 学如登山。 – Xuá rú dēng shān. – Studying is like climbing a mountain.

2. 学如逆水行舟,不进则退。- Xué rú nì shuǐ xíng zhōu, bù jìn zé tuì. – Studying is like sailing against the current: a boat must forge ahead, or it will be swept downstream.

3. 道山学海。- Dào shān xué hǎi. – Learning is as high as the mountains and as wide as the seas. Literally this means “Mountain of Dao, sea of learning”. Dao is a Chinese concept signifying ‘way’ or ‘doctrine’. To become “one with the Dao” is the object of spiritual practice in Chinese Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. Understanding the underlying natural order of the whole Universe that is also described as “achieving Dao” definitely requires the “sea of learning”.

4. 玉不琢不成器。 – Yù bù zhuó, bù chéng qì. – One cannot become useful without being educated. Literally, this old saying means “If a jade is not cut and polished, it can’t be made into anything.” So, training and discipline are necessary for proper bringing up children.

5. 三人行必有我师。 – Sānrén xíng, bìyǒu wǒ shī. – In a group of three people, there will always be one person I can learn from.

6. 学然后知不足Xué ránhòu zhī bùzú – to learn is to know one’s ignorance.

7. 悬梁刺骨 – xuán liáng cì gǔ – to study hard. This idiom may be the most well explained. It originates from two ancient Chinese stories. One of them is about Sun Jing (孙敬) who studied very hard – often till morning. Since he was always afraid of falling asleep, he tied his hair to the ceiling beam with a rope. So, he woke painfully if he began to doze off.

8. 凿壁偷光 – záobì tōuguāng – to study diligently. It literally means “to bore a hole in the wall to make use of the neighbor’s light to study. Kuang Heng who lived during the Western Han period was eager to learn but his family was very poor, so he had to borrow books from other people. And not only books! Kuang Heng studied at night, so he needed a light source. Once he noticed a glimpse of light from his neighbor’s house coming through a small hole in the wall. Kuang Heng then dug a bigger hole. The light that came through it let him to read and learn diligently.

9. 学以致用 – xuéyǐzhìyòng – to put into practice what has been learned

10. 为时不晚 – wéi shíbù wǎn – it is not too late. This one is not related directly to studying. However, since so many people all over the world still think that learning is only for young people, it may be useful to remember that…


Post time: Feb-18-2020