Without Tasting Fine Food, You Cannot Know Its Flavour

“Even though there may be fine dishes, without tasting them one does not know their flavour; even though there may be an excellent way, without learning it one does not know its goodness.” The sentence comes from the Xue Ji, or Record of Learning, in the Book of Rites. Here zhi means flavour, while “the excellent way” refers to a sound principle. The text continues: only after learning do we recognise what we lack, and only after teaching do we recognise where we are constrained. Its point is not that a classic should be obeyed without question. It is that learning and teaching reveal the boundaries of what we know. Today, “tasting” can mean entering a practice for ourselves: hearing about a method cannot show either its value or where it fails to suit us. Experience does not replace understanding, but it can test an abstract judgement. Genuine learning often begins when a limit becomes visible.

https://ctext.org/liji/xue-ji/zh