Just what does the word 'learning' mean? Go ahead, define it as best you can. Off the top of my Western educated head I would say learning means to gain knowledge, information or skill about something. Here is another example of how Chinese, because of its graphic writing system, seems to be able to convey more meaning than phonetic writing. Word meaning easily changes within centuries when it is directly coupled to sound, i.e., phonetic systems like English. Chinese word meaning is locked in to the graphic, and so while the pronunciation may change over time, the meaning remains fairly stable.

So what? For me, the characters show what may be a more 'original meaning' of words, ideas, and concepts. Who knows, their writing system may even account for why Taoism arose in China and not elsewhere.

Anyway, the Chinese word for learning is xuewen. This is composed of two basic characters: xue which means study; learn; imitate; mimic, and wen which means ask; inquire; ask after; inquire after; examine. Sure, our definition agrees with this, but these characters probe the foundation of learning as well. A working sense (i.e., awareness!) of this foundation seems to get lost in the educational system, and in society as a whole. So, what foundation of learning do these two characters reveal?

Questions are crucial! Curiosity, asking, inquiry - wen - is the source of learning. Without this there is no true learning. Sure, you can cram information into short term memory, pass a test and 'graduate'. But this is mock learning - the illusion of learning. A parrot could probably do just a well if it was motivated. Because we never really inquire into what true learning is, we remain ignorant and just keep bashing away at 'education'. We whine for more money, more teachers, more tests, more more more... We are in such a hurry to 'succeed' we end up going around in circles. Vicious ones at that.

Okey, I admit that having two Chinese characters pointing down into the real nature of learning is no guarantee that we will look and ponder more deeply what we are doing. Indeed, many, or most, Chinese folks may take the characters for granted, never seeing the deeper meaning. Mmmm... I'll have to ask Wen Zhong about this.