氷は水より出でて水よりも寒し

Japanese

Kanji in this term
氷	水	出	水	寒
こおり Grade: 3	みず Grade: 1	い Grade: 1	みず Grade: 1	さむ Grade: 3
kun'yomi

Etymology

From the 荀子 (Junji, “Xunzi”):

君子曰：學不可以已。青、取之於藍，而青於藍；冰、水為之，而寒於水。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]

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君子曰：学不可以已。青、取之于蓝，而青于蓝；冰、水为之，而寒于水。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

From: Xunzi, c. 3^rd century BCE

Jūnzǐ yuē: xué bùkě yǐ yǐ. Qīng, qǔ zhī yú lán, ér qīng yú lán; bīng, shuǐ wèi zhī, ér hán yú shuǐ. [Pinyin]

The gentleman said: Learning must never cease. Blue is obtained from the indigo plant but is bluer than the plant itself; ice is made from water but is colder than water itself.

Literally “ice coming from water is colder than water”.^[1]

This proverb is not the exact kanbun kundoku form of the above Chinese text; the back-formation of this form in pseudo-kanbun would be 冰出於水，而寒於水 (compare 青出於藍，而青於藍).

Proverb

氷(こおり)は水(みず)より出(い)でて水(みず)よりも寒(さむ)し • (kōri wa mizu yori idete mizu yori mo samushi) 

1. the student has surpassed his or her teacher

See also

• 青(あお)は藍(あい)より出(い)でて藍(あい)より青(あお)し (ao wa ai yori idete ai yori aoshi)

References

1. Daniel Crump Buchanan, editor (1965), Japanese Proverbs and Sayings, reprint, revised edition, University of Oklahoma Press, →ISBN, page 8