聽tīng君jūn一yī席xí話huà，勝shèng讀dú十shí年nián書shū

What does 聽君一席話，勝讀十年書 (tīng jūn yī xí huà shèng dú shí nián shū) mean?

聽君一席話，勝讀十年書 (tīng jūn yī xí huà shèng dú shí nián shū) is a folk proverb (yànyǔ 諺語). Word for word it reads "hearing your words is better than reading ten years of books." In use it means: A single conversation with the right person can teach more than a decade of study. Experience compressed into the right sentence at the right moment is the most efficient form of knowledge transfer. You reach for it when you want that idea in one breath, and the Fire note it carries is why we hand it to those born in the Year of the Monkey.

Literally: "hearing your words is better than reading ten years of books."

The reading

The book takes three hundred pages to say what the old carpenter said in one sentence while planing a board. The sentence landed differently because it came from a hand that had done the work ten thousand times. Books give you the theory. The right conversation gives you the shortcut the theory never mentions.

What kind of proverb it is

• Typeyànyǔ 諺語
• FocusLooks back
• Element火 Fire
• Zodiac tie猴 Year of the Monkey

Source folk proverb 民間諺語; widely attested in Song-era and later texts

Sits beside

Keep reading

Return to the Proverb Pond to draw another of the eighty-seven, or hear one read aloud. Read the rest of its chapter in Wisdom & Learning, or follow the years these lines belong to: Year of the Monkey, Year of the Rat, and Year of the Ox.