I Ching, Yijing or Zhou Yi
"Oracle of the moon": © 2000 LiSe

  Yi Jing, Oracle of the Moon

Five hills, horses and furs

 Verse 370 Narrow and wide roads

過羊腸
入康莊
五陵裘馬
當思故鄉

After passing a narrow winding road
You enter a broad and open one
Five mounds of furs and horses
It makes you think back to your native place

  羊腸 Narrow winding road: litt. intestines of a sheep.
  康莊 Broad and open road (idiom) brilliant future prospects.
  裘馬 Furs and horses: symbols of wealth. .

From guoxuedashi.com, thanks to Harmen Mesker:

The five mounds
refers to a prosperous location

  1. 長陵、安陵、陽陵、茂陵、平陵五縣的合稱。均在渭水北岸今陝西咸陽市附近。為西漢五個皇帝陵墓所在地。
  2.指西漢高祖、惠帝、景帝、武帝、昭帝的陵園。
 3.指唐代高祖、太宗、高宗、中宗、睿宗的陵園,均在長安附近。
 1. The combined names of Changling, Anling, Yangling, Maoling and Pingling are all located in the north of Lishui, near Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province. It is the seat of the five emperors' tombs in the Western Han Dynasty.
 2. Refers to the Western Han Dynasty Gaozu, Huidi, The cemetery of Emperor Jing, Wudi and Zhaodi.
 3. Refers to the cemetery of Gaozu, Taizong, Gaozong, Zhongzong and Ruizong in the Tang Dynasty, all near Chang'an.

Furs and horses
refers to a luxuriously comfortable lifestyle.

Five Mounds, horse and furs in a poem by Du Fu:

同學少年多不賤,
五陵衣馬自輕肥。

The young men I once studied with are now most not of low degree;
By Five Barrows their horses are plump and the mantles they wear are light.

 Five Barrows, named for the tumuli of five Han emperors, had become in the Tang a fashionable residential area just outside Chang’an. The rest of the line echoes a famous passage in the Analects (V.25) in which the disciple Zilu, responding to a request from Confucius that he state his wishes, said: “I wish for horse and carriage and to be mantled in light furs, then to share them with my friends; and even if they were to ruin them, I would not be distressed.”

last update: 02.07.2024

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