By learning something old know something new[온고지신 / 溫故知新]

When deciding to learn something, we often think of learning things that are more practicable and modern.  For instance, when deciding to learn a foreign language, we think of those languages that will bring more profit in our business, bring advancement in our career or provide us with better job opportunities, and those languages that many people speak like English, Mandarin, French, and Spanish.  When deciding to learn about science and technology, a great deal of knowledge and practical application can be obtained from “new/modern knowledge”.  When deciding to learn about culture, modern and pop culture is very popular than traditional culture in many cases.

Without taking anything away the joy and benefits of learning from new things, we should also keep in mind that new things such as information, knowledge, and culture is a continual process of evolution from its old/previous forms.  For example, a modern language can be better analyzed if we study its old form.  A country’s modern culture can be seen as a combination of modern native innovation, foreign influence, and old culture.  That is to say, old ideas and literatures can help us understand the present and can also help us develop something new.  Prof. George Bevan, an outstanding teacher awardee from Queen’s University who teaches Ancient Greek and Late Antiquity Classics has this to say about the relevance of the courses he teaches in contemporary society:  

“Studying an ancient language is very empirical.  It requires discipline, concentration, and thinking capacity, and it develops the brain in ways that are surprisingly conducive to other types of thinking.” – George Bevan

Queen039s University News Centre - New Lessons in Old Things - 2011-08-17 by Arlan Rodrigo

In Korea, there are a vast number of Classical literatures written by Koreans that are sadly seldom analyzed and given due attention.  If the reader should wish to know more about them, I suggest the “Thousand Character Classic” 천자문[千字文] is a good thing to know beforehand.  As the saying goes, “By learning something old know something new”[온고지신 / 溫故知新].  This idiom comes from 《Chapter 2 위정[爲政]》 of the Analects of Confucius, 《논어 / 論語》.

『子曰: “溫故而知新, 可以爲師矣.”』『자왈: “온고이지신, 가이위사의.”』

『[子 – Confucius][曰 – said]: “[溫 – learn/review][故 – old][而 – and][知 – know][新 – new], [可以 – can][爲 – become][師 – teacher][矣 – sentence ending].”』

『Confucius said: “Learn and/or review the old things and (in this way) get to know something new.  By doing so, you can become a teacher.”』

“Thousand Character Classic” – 천자문[千字文]