studying the past; researching history
Archaic standalone noun; in modern Japanese it is almost exclusively used inside the four-character idiom 温故知新 (おんこちしん, 'learning from the past').
See also: 温故知新
The 温故 in 温故知新 means to study and learn from old things.
developing new ideas based on study of the past; learning from the past
Standard kanji form; almost always appears in the compound 温故知新.
Derived from the Chinese idiom 温故知新 (wēn gù zhī xīn), from the Analects of Confucius. The exact historical derivation of the standalone noun 温故 is uncertain; it is now archaic outside the full idiom.