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Show Speak, See, Hear No Evil, an Old Japanese Proverb The three wise monkeys symbolize symbol-ize an old Japanese proverb, "Speak no evil, see no evil, hear no evil." In Japanese the proverb reads, "Iwazaru, mizaru, kikazaru," which literally means "non-speaking, non - seeing, non - hearing." Therefore, notes a writer In the Indianapolis In-dianapolis News, it often is said that the names of the monkeys are Iwazaru, who speaks no evil ; Mizaru, Mi-zaru, who sees no evil, and Kikazaru, Kika-zaru, who hears no evil. Each word in the proverb ends with "zaru." By adding "zaru" to a verb in Japanese, Jap-anese, it becomes a negative adjective. ad-jective. The Japanese word for monkey is "saru," which phonetically phoneti-cally becomes "zaru" when it is preceded pre-ceded by a modifier. Hence, the three monkeys became associated with the proverb merely as a pun. Sometimes they are called the "Little Apes of Nikko" because they appear in mural decorations in the ancient tombs In Nikko, Japan. According Ac-cording to some Japanese writers the three apes symbolize the fact -that the Japanese talks too much, the Chinese sees too much, and the Indian hears too much. Among the Chinese there Is a legend leg-end that Confucius orglnated the proverb and Its symbols. When th$ great teacher told his disciples he was about to leave the earth, they begged him to leave them a special message to help guide them through the world of strife. The sage complied by drawing pictures of the three monkeys on the sand and left his disciples the maxim, "Speak no evil, see no evil, hear no evil." |