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独学而无友

獨學而無友
Dúxué ér wú yǒu
quotation

Meanings

  1. 1 to study alone without companions
  2. 2 (fig.) learning without peers leaves one narrow and ill-informed
  3. 3 (lit.) solo-study and no friends

Examples

独学而无友，容易陷入自己的盲点。
Dúxué'érwúyǒu, róngyì xiànrù zìjǐ de mángdiǎn.
'To study alone without peers' — one easily falls into one's own blind spots.
他在家自学三年，深感独学而无友的局限，终于加入了读书会。
Tā zàijiā zìxué sānnián, shēngǎn dúxué'érwúyǒu de júxiàn, zhōngyú jiārù le dúshūhuì.
After three years of self-study at home he felt keenly the limits of 'studying alone without peers,' and finally joined a reading group.

Tips

history
From 《礼记·学记》(Li Ji, Record of Learning, compiled late Warring States / early Han, ca. 2nd c. BCE) — one of the earliest systematic treatises on education in the world. Full passage: 独学而无友，则孤陋而寡闻 (If one studies alone without companions, one becomes narrow and ill-informed). The line justifies the institution of the 学 — the communal school — as essential to real learning.
usage
Always quoted with the consequence clause 则孤陋而寡闻 (then one is narrow and ill-informed — itself now a set idiom 孤陋寡闻). Modern use: argue for study groups, peer review, open source, classroom discussion.

Stroke Order

独 dú
学 xué
而 ér
无 wú
友 yǒu