By Roger Overall
Here's a bit of fun. Did you know that our modern saying "A picture is worth a thousand words" comes from a Chinese proverb: "One picture is worth ten thousand words"? It’s been attributed to Confucius.
Except that’s hokum.
It isn’t a Chinese proverb at all. It certainly isn’t ancient. Despite being attributed by some to Confucius, it's less than a century old and has its origins in Western culture. Advertising to be exact. It appeared in a 1927 advertisement developed by Fred R. Barnard for Royal baking soda. Possibly, it is based on a quote by newspaper man Arthur Brisbane, who is credited in 1911 with saying, "Use a picture. It is worth a thousand words."
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Featured Comments from:
Rev, Heng Sure: "Roger, the quote is ancient, and it's Chinese as well. The original goes, 'bai wen bu ru yi jian,' literally, 'one hundred hearings does not match a single viewing.'
"It's first recorded in a story from the Western Han Dynasty (2nd century B.C.E), and is attributed to a conversation between Emperor Han Xuan Di and a man named Zhao, held on a battlefield. It's an interesting story. Zhao's advice to his Emperor was to go check out the enemy troops for himself, because 'you'll see the actual situation at a glance, rather than my trying to describe it for you.' They eventually won the day and the Jiang barbarians were defeated. The Chinese love proverbs and this is a famous one."
Mike replies: Ball's in your court, Roger. :-)
Roger responds: "This has sparked some interesting debate. Certainly 'one hundred hearings does not match a single viewing' is ancient, but isit the same as 'a picture is worth a thousand words'? I agree the sentiment is the same. You can decide for yourself whether the genuine venerable Chinese saying refers to a fixed image, or whether it is limited in its meaning to advising that seeing for yourself is better than having someone describe it to you. I sense they might be different. Or maybe I'm wrong.
"And here's a curious thing: 'one look is worth a thousand words' was also used in advertising circles in the early 1900s. In fact, our friend Fred R. Barnard used it himself. There is some information here (though some readers will splutter into their coffee at the mere suggestion of Wikipedia). More information, including my source material and the original advert with the Chinese proverb is here.
"The latter reference has an illustration with what appears to be Chinese writing. Could a TOP reader help with a translation? Is it a fabrication or is it the ancient saying referred to by Rev, Heng Sure? If anything, as the TOP community we could provide a valuable service and clear the origins up once and for all."
Mike replies: If there's one overarching motto of the Internet, it's that there is no "once and for all." We might settle the question, but it would penetrate an infinitesimal subset of the population, any segment of which could begin the argument anew at any time....
But I'm being entertained!
hugh crawford: "I used to have a T-shirt that said, 'A Picture is worth a thousand dollars.' I got at a trade show back in the 1980s. Oh, and the rule of thumb is, 'A picture is worth a thousand words if it runs at 30 column inches.'"
Mike replies: Maybe today the T-shirt would read, "A picture is worth 16 million pixels."
David Dyer-Bennet: "A thousand words is roughly six thousand bytes, so a picture worth that would be pretty small."
wchen: "Roger was right that the original Chinese quote (Bai wen bu ru yi jian) means, 'seeing for yourself is better than having someone describe it to you.' When you meet a pretty girl that you've heard about for some time through others but have never met before, you might say bai wen bu ru yi juan to mean, 'Oh, you really are a beauty!'
"The Chinese writing Roger refered to in his response reads 'Hua yi neng da wan yan,' literally, 'The meaning of a painting can equal thousands of words.' To me it seems like that's actually a quite awkward Chinese translation of the English expression 'A picture is worth a thousand words.' As an educated Chinese in his forties, this is the first time I've ever seen that as a 'Chinese' proverb."