150Japanese idiom 四字熟語
一を聞いて十を知る
いちをきいてじゅうをしるIchi o kiite jū o shiru
“Hear one, understand ten.”
The meaning
True intelligence extends what it receives: from one example it draws the rule, from one clue the structure. It can be trained — by seeking, behind each fact, what else it teaches.
At the origin
Praise from the Analects of Confucius about the disciple Yan Hui.
The characters
- 一 ichione
- を oobject marker
- 聞いて kiitehearing
- 十
- を
- 知る
をParticleMarks the object: what the action falls upon.
In practice
After each lesson, ask: where else does this apply?
Editorial note
Classical Chinese origin (Analects of Confucius).
Themes
Similar proverbs
- 018 百聞は一見に如かず Hearing a hundred times is not worth seeing once.
- 088 聞くは一時の恥、聞かぬは一生の恥 To ask is a moment's shame; not to ask is a lifetime's shame.
- 126 一葉落ちて天下の秋を知る One leaf falls, and we know autumn is coming to the world.
- 003 千里の道も一歩から A journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step.
- 016 温故知新 Warm up the old to understand the new.