Learning is complete when the student surpasses the master.
靑出於藍 (청출어람) means The student surpasses the master / the junior exceeds the senior.. excellence means An outstanding state or ability that rises above all others.. Two cultures point to the same truth in different languages.
The Meeting
In 3rd-century BCE China, the philosopher Xunzi (荀子) told his students, "The blue drawn from the indigo plant (藍) is bluer than the indigo itself." Two thousand years later the English word "excellence," derived from the Latin "excellere" — ex (out) + cellere (to rise high) — was telling the same truth. Excellence is not an absolute state but a relation in which something climbs upon another and stands above it. Without a master, there is no cheongchulueoram.
The Eastern Story — Xunzi's Indigo and Ice
Xunzi (c. 298–238 BCE), the Confucian of the late Warring States period, opened the first chapter of his book the Xunzi with "Exhortation to Learning" (勸學) — the urging of study. Among its opening sentences is this very one: "學不可以已. 靑, 取之於藍, 而靑於藍. 冰, 水爲之, 而寒於水" — Learning must not stop. Blue is taken from the indigo plant, yet is bluer than the indigo; ice is made from water, yet is colder than the water. Xunzi juxtaposed these two analogies on purpose. The blue extracted from indigo is deeper than its raw material, and the ice formed from frozen water is colder than its raw material. Two examples drawn from the observation of nature tell one truth — in the relation of raw material and product, the product can "surpass" the raw material. You must grasp Xunzi's context to feel the weight of the analogy. He was the proponent of "human nature is bad" (性惡說) — the doctrine that human nature is not good. Then how does one become a good person? "Through learning." From indigo (innate nature) comes blue (the character achieved through study), and that blue is bluer than the indigo — that is, learning can carry a person "beyond" his innate nature. This was the heart of Xunzi's philosophy.
A later reading: "cheongchulueoram" is commonly used as an educational maxim, "the student surpasses the master," but Xunzi's original meaning is far more fundamental. "Learning carries a person beyond himself." That a student surpasses a master is a secondary phenomenon; the essence is the optimism that "through learning, a human being can transcend to a higher dimension." It is the most optimistic message left by the philosopher of innate human badness.
The Western Root — That Which Rises High
The Latin verb "excellere" is made of two parts: ex- (out, up) + cellere (to rise, to stand high). Translated literally, "to rise up above other things." The root of the verb cellere lies in the Proto-Indo-European *kel-, a root that carried the senses "hill, high, to tower (as a column)." The physical image of excellence, then, is "that which rises higher than the surrounding plain." When the word entered English in the late 14th century — its first record is the 1382 Wycliffe Bible translation — it was used at first in the concrete sense, "being high above other things." From the 17th century the meaning broadened into "abstract superiority, a state better than others." After the 18th century it was often used of distinction in a particular field, as in "He excelled in music." In modern English excellence is used almost as an absolute concept, yet look into the etymology and it is always relative — to rise "above something" cannot stand without "that something."
Aristotle's Greek "ἀρετή (aretē)" was translated into Medieval Latin as "virtus," but since the Renaissance it has often been rendered in English as "excellence." Especially famous is a passage from the Nicomachean Ethics — "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit" — which is exactly the same as Xunzi's "學不可以已" (learning must not stop). Two sentences that crossed two thousand years and eight thousand kilometers speak with one voice.
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Oxford English Dictionary (OED)"excellence, n." OED Online. Late 14c "state of excelling, surpassing quality". From Old French excellence, from Latin excellentia, from excellere "to rise out, surpass".
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Online Etymology Dictionaryetymonline.com/word/excellence — from Latin excellere "rise out, surpass, be eminent", from ex-(out) + cellere "rise high, tower", from PIE root *kel-(1) "to be prominent, rise".
Shared Wisdom — Excellence Is the Language of the Vertical
Both use a "vertical image." Cheongchulueoram is the movement of "coming out of (出) the indigo and above it," and excellence is the vertical movement of "cellere (to rise high)." Both cultures imagine excellence as "height." Not sideways, but upward.
Both take a "relative relation" as their essence. Without indigo there is no excellence of blue; without the plain there is no rising up. The West since Aristotle and the East since Xunzi alike refuse to admit the concept of "absolute excellence." Excellence is always "above something."
Both presuppose "process." Xunzi's indigo becomes blue through the process of dyeing, and excellence is achieved through Aristotle's "repetition and habit." That it is the product of a process, not a gift of talent, is common to both.
A difference — cheongchulueoram focuses on "inheritance and transcendence" (coming from the master and surpassing the master), while excellence focuses on "individual achievement" (rising alone from the plain). The East is excellence within relationship, the West individual excellence. Yet the logic is the same: without some reference point, one cannot rise.
Memory Device — One Line to Take Home
- ✓ 靑出於藍 = blue (靑) comes out (出) of (於) the indigo (藍). The source comes before the result.
- ✓ excellence = ex (out) + cellere (rise) → rising out and up.
- ✓ Remember it in one stroke: "With the blue received from your master, you must paint a bluer sky."
"A master's greatest glory is the student who surpasses him."
