近朱者赤，近墨者黑 (jìn zhū zhě chì，jìn mò zhě hēi)
A Chinese
proverb similar to the English saying "Bad
company corrupts good
character," and
extremely
similar to the Greek proverb "
A man is known by the company he keeps."
The
origin of this saying lies in the way the
Chinese used to prepare
ink for writing and painting. There were two
basic colours available in the ancient days:
red (赤; chì) and
black (黑; hēi). Red ink was known in Chinese as 朱砂墨 (zhū shā mò), while black ink was simply called 墨 (mò). To prepare the ink, one had to grind an ink-
stick in an ink container (about as big as an
ash tray), taking care that one's long
sleeves stayed out of the way.
Grinding the ink-stick often meant that the ink would
stain your fingers (or sleeves, if you were
careless or
inept). Therefore, another person could always tell which ink you were using by the
colours on your hands.
This principle was applied in
predicting the way a person's character would turn out by the kind of company he was keeping; or
vice versa to tell a person's friends by his
personality.