I recently found a few old photos taken over 2 years ago. Just looking at them now, I can’t help but think, the 3 of us were behaving like 3 silly monkeys.

Unlike the 3 wise monkeys: We were seeing, talking, listening to each other without judgement of good and evil.

As I started pondering on judgement and 3 wise monkeys: I began to wonder, where was this pictorial maxim first originated from?

After a quick search on Wiki, I found out it was first popularized from a 17th century carving over a door of a shrine in Japan.

I also found out a similar philosophy already existed in China since the 2nd century: “Look not at what is contrary to propriety. Listen not to what is contrary to propriety. Speak not what is contrary to propriety” .

It was supposed that this phrase was simplified to “See no evil. Hear no evil. Speak no evil” before introduced to Japan.

In case you don’t already know (I surely didn’t before this), there’s a 4th monkey which was not depicted in the original carving.

So if you ever spot the 4th monkey, it would usually be shown covering its genitals 🙈🙉🙊🐵, which also symbolizes “do no evil”. Interesting!