I haven't properly practiced for weeks. My fortnightly lessons have been the only times. So I was surprised this week that my brush didn't feel as rusty as I'd expected, and even more surprised when my teacher took the extraordinary step of gracing it with the comment "Excellent work" - as much, he said for the fact that it manifested character as for any overwhelming skill or beauty.
This week's inscription means something like "make friends through learning"and is a quotation from the Chinese scholar Zengzi 曾子 (505 BC–436 BC). The import of the phrase is that, like all the best things, learning, too, should be a social affair, saving the scholar from getting lost in his or her own thoughts, providing a much needed counterpoint to thoughts and conclusions reached on one's own, and facilitating further, better learning.
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