📖 Meaning
A school of thought or doctrine that constitutes its own distinct tradition. It refers to scholarship or teaching that forms an independent, self-consistent system, typically founded by a single master or lineage. The phrase emphasizes originality and intellectual independence rather than mere inheritance of another's views.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom derives from Sima Qian's Letter to Ren An (《报任少卿书》) of the Western Han dynasty, in which he declares his ambition to 'study the relationship between heaven and man and comprehend the changes of past and present, so as to form the words of one school' (成一家之言). It was later echoed by the historian Ban Gu in his 《典引》, praising Sima Qian's achievement in producing a work of his own school. The usage was further consolidated in the Tang dynasty's 《新唐书》, where each ritual tradition was said to establish its own school of learning (各立一家之学). The phrase thus came to denote any self-founded, original school of thought.
💡 Example Usage
自梁以来，始以其当时所行傅于《周官》五礼之名，各立一家之学。
Since the Liang dynasty, each school attached its own contemporary practices to the names of the five rites in the Rites of Zhou, each establishing its own independent school of learning.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 一家之学
- Pinyin: yī jiā zhī xué
- Literal Translation: one, family's, learning
- Category: Learning
- Characters: 4