Encouraging Learning勸學篇

Confucius said, "Learn widely and make your purpose firm, ask earnestly and think about what is close at hand, and benevolence lies within it."

The Liji says, "He who learns widely and remembers firmly, who yields to others and is deep in goodness, who acts and is never slack — he is called a gentleman."

Confucius said, "He is quick and loves learning, and he is not ashamed to ask those below him."

The Xingli shu says, "The order of learning is this. Learn widely, ask closely, think carefully, judge clearly, and act firmly."

Zhuangzi said, "For a person not to learn is like trying to climb the sky without a ladder. To learn so that knowing reaches far is like parting auspicious clouds and seeing the blue sky, like climbing a high mountain and looking out over the four seas."

Climb no high ridge and you do not know how high the sky is. Stand at no deep pool and how would you know how thick the earth is? If a person does not roam in the way of the sages, how can he be called worthy?

The Liji says, "Jade uncut makes no vessel. A person who does not learn does not know the Way."

Taigong said, "If a person is born and does not learn, he is in the dark, as though walking a road at night."

Han Wengong (Han Yu) said, "If a person does not get through to what is old and what is new, he is a horse or an ox dressed in clothes."

If a person does not know learning, he is like an ox or a sheep.

Lord Zhu Wen said, "Do not learn today and say there is a tomorrow. Do not learn this year and say there is a next year. The sun and the moon go on, and the years do not slow down for me. Alas, I have grown old. Whose fault is that?"

Lord Zhu Wen said, "Though the house be poor, you must not give up learning because you are poor. Though the house be rich, you must not grow idle in learning because you trust in your riches. Learn diligently in poverty and you can set yourself up. Learn diligently in wealth and your name will shine. I have seen the learner rise high. I have not seen the learner come to nothing. The learner is the treasure of the body, and the learner is the treasure of the age. So by learning one becomes a gentleman, and without learning one becomes a small man. Let those who learn hereafter each put out their strength!"

This is Emperor Huizong's writing urging people to learn. "Is it as well to learn as not to learn? He who learns is like standing grain, like rice. He who does not learn is like mugwort, like weeds. Like standing grain and like rice — these are the good grain of the state and the great treasure of the age. Like mugwort and like weeds — the plowman hates them and the weeder is vexed by them. On a later day you will feel shut in as though facing a wall, and by the time you regret it you will already be old."

The Zhiyan jue says, "Making a candle is seeking light. Reading a book is seeking the principle of things. With light you shine into a dark room. With the principle of things you shine into the human mind."

Liu Tong said, "The silkworm holds the thread in its own substance, and only when it is reeled does the thread come out. A person holds knowing in the mind, and only when he learns is it brought to completion."

The Liji says, "Learn alone, with no friends, and you grow narrow and hear little."

A book is a treasure carried on the body. A person of talent is the treasure of the state.

The Analects says, "Learn as though you could not catch up, and still fear that you will lose it."

Learn until you are old, and still you will not know it all when you are old.

The Analects says, "Love benevolence and not learning, and the flaw in it is foolishness. Love straightness and not learning, and the flaw in it is harshness. Love trust and not learning, and the flaw in it is wildness. Love courage and not learning, and the flaw in it is disorder. Love firmness and not learning, and the flaw in it is fierceness."

Confucius said, "Let the young be filial when they come in and respectful when they go out. Let them be careful and trustworthy. Let them love the many widely and keep close to the benevolent. And if strength is left over after they have done these things, let them learn letters with it."

Zhuge Wuhou warned his sons and his younger kin, saying, "The conduct of a gentleman is to cultivate the body with stillness and to nourish virtue with thrift. Without a plain and quiet heart there is no making one's purpose clear. Without calm and stillness there is no reaching far. Learning must be still, and talent must be learned. Without learning there is no broadening of talent, and without stillness there is no completing of learning. Be idle and unruly and you cannot grind your work fine. Be rough and hasty and you cannot govern your nature. The years run on with the seasons and purpose goes off with the passing years, and when at last you have withered and fallen, what can it reach to sigh sadly in a poor hut?"

An earlier scholar said, "Children should get through to the affairs of the world by reading books. They must not let the affairs of the world cut their reading apart."

An earlier scholar said, "Yield to the ancients and you have no purpose. Refuse to yield to the people of today and you have no largeness of measure."

Master Zhu Ermei Shuqing said, "The Way is not the talking of empty things. Buddhism is not meditation alone. Confucian learning is not fine writing. To say that there is some separate meditation to practice is to wrong Shakyamuni. To say that there is some separate emptiness to talk of is to wrong Laozi. Confucius had his one thread of loyalty and fellow feeling (忠恕一貫), Yanzi had his fasting and sitting and forgetting, Mencius had his knowing of words and nourishing of the vital breath. To call these the stock of fine writing and the seed of fame and office, to see them with the eye and recite them with the mouth and not know how to understand them in the mind and act on them, is to wrong Confucius and Yanzi and Mencius."

Wei You said, "Generosity and kindness and wide love are the ground on which the body is held in respect. Diligent learning is the root of setting yourself up."

(Ten characters are missing here and are marked with △.)

Youth grows old easily and learning is hard to complete, so do not make light of even an inch of time. Before the dream of spring grass by the pond has broken, the paulownia leaves before the steps already sound of autumn.

A poem by Tao Yuanming says, "The prime of life does not come twice, and one day does not have two dawns. Put out your strength while the time is here. The years do not wait for anyone."

Xunzi said, "Half steps that do not add up will never reach a thousand li. Small streams that do not gather will never make a river."