If three people gather, the wisdom of Monju

三人寄れば文殊の知恵 (sannin yoreba monju no chie): three people together have the wisdom of Monju. Monju is Mañjuśrī, the bodhisattva of wisdom; alone we are ordinary, and three of us taking counsel reach what the monasteries prayed to. The line is in the second Japanese proverb book of 1656 and was what people always say by 1662; its second half is a Buddhist superlative two centuries older, paired in Noh with the Buddha's dullest disciple. Edo scholars argued whether it descends from a Zen master greeting three newcomers or from Confucius's three travelers, and the 1910 proverb dictionary gave both and chose neither. Two heads are better than one is the smaller English cousin.