氷は水より出でて水よりも寒し

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Japanese

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Kanji in this term
こおり
Grade: 3
みず
Grade: 1

Grade: 1
みず
Grade: 1
さむ
Grade: 3
kun'yomi

Etymology

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From the 荀子 (Junji, Xunzi):

君子不可 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
君子不可 [Classical Chinese, simp.]
From: Xunzi, c. 3rd century BCE
Jūnzǐ yuē: xué bùkě yǐ yǐ. Qīng, qǔ zhī yú lán, ér qīng yú lán; bīng, shuǐ wèi zhī, ér hán yú shuǐ. [Pinyin]
The gentleman said: Learning must never cease. Blue is obtained from the indigo plant but is bluer than the plant itself; ice is made from water but is colder than water itself.

Literally “ice coming from water is colder than water”.[1]

This proverb is not the exact kanbun kundoku form of the above Chinese text; the back-formation of this form in pseudo-kanbun would be 冰出於水,而寒於水 (compare 青出於藍,而青於藍).

Proverb

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(こおり)(みず)より()でて(みず)より(さむ) (kōri wa mizu yori idete mizu yori mo samushi

  1. the student has surpassed his or her teacher

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Daniel Crump Buchanan, editor (1965), Japanese Proverbs and Sayings, reprint, revised edition, University of Oklahoma Press, →ISBN, page 8