Sunday 30 August 2020

Meaning of 学而时习之,不亦悦乎?

 As what we have mentioned in our last post, today we try to understand the meaning of the first sentence of the most important classic of Confucianism: 《论语》: 学而时习之,不亦悦乎? To start, we will review the meaning of each Chinese character of it.

学 | 學: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2019/07/blog-post_22.html 
It is a drawing of the teacher shows the principle and knowledge of outside world to a kid sitting inside a house.

而: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2019/08/blog-post.html
It is a drawing of a lot of long beard, which represents the relationship of equality or similarity of things it connects.

时 | 時: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2016/10/learn-one-chinese-character-day.html
It represents the meaning of movements of Sun.

习 | 習: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2017/05/learn-one-chinese-character-day_25.html
It originally is drawing of a flying Sun, which represents the meaning of "keep doing something consistently as a routine".

之: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2016/08/learn-one-chinese-character-day.html
It originally means the place where the foot stands, then involves to be used as pronoun.

不: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2019/09/blog-post_22.html
It means not.

亦: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2019/10/blog-post_28.html
It means same, as well or too.

悦 | 悅: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2020/03/blog-post_28.html
It means happy, but more to it: Feeling happy because of fulfilling or achieving (something).

It means shout loudly, or it can be understood as modal particle.


Before you check out our answer below, please take the last chance to try to reason the meaning of the sentence "学而时习之,不亦悦乎?" yourself.

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And here we go the answer, which is probably different than what you can get from other sources, but we think it is a better translation:

Modern Chinese first: "如果我们能够学习世界运转的知识和规律,并和太阳每天的运行一样,持之以恒的运用学习到的知识来更好的了解这个世界,这种自我成就的感觉难道不也会让我们非常开心吗?"

English next: "If we can learn the principle and knowledge of the universe, and consistently practice what we have learnt, as routinely as how Sun moves every day in the sky, to reach a better understanding of the universe, does not this self-fulfillment and self-improvement make us very happy?"

If you have a different mother tongue, you are welcome to provide translation for your own mother tongue. And of course if you have different translation for modern Chinese or English, you are welcome to provide your version as well.

That is all for today, let us enjoy again another Chinese calligraphy of "学而时习之,不亦悦乎"

学而时习之,不亦悦乎



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