温故知新 onkochishin Respect the Past, Create the New

温故知新 asks you to go back over what you once learned until it comes alive again. Do that, and you will find something in it you did not know. In the full saying, whoever can do this is ready to teach. The first character pictures learning gone cold, warmed until it answers; some read it as seek out, and the two are one act. In Japan it has also become a motto for honoring the past and making the new. Whether it is for study, teaching or work is yours.

The line is Confucius's own saying, recorded in the Analects, chapter 為政, saying eleven, about who is fit to teach; the four characters without the connective 而 already stand as a phrase in a Chinese edict of 23 BC, and a Japanese edict of 703 is the earliest Japanese use known.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 温故知新.

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