五岳

五嶽

Wǔyuè

noun #85,078

Meanings

1 the Five Sacred Mountains (of Daoism: Taishan, Huashan, Hengshan, Hengshan, Songshan)

Characters

Examples

五岳指东岳泰山、西岳华山、南岳衡山、北岳恒山和中岳嵩山。

Wǔyuè zhǐ Dōngyuè Tàishān, Xīyuè Huàshān, Nányuè Héngshān, Běiyuè Héngshān hé Zhōngyuè Sōngshān.

The Five Sacred Mountains are Mt Tai in the east, Mt Hua in the west, Mt Heng in the south, Mt Heng in the north, and Mt Song in the centre.

五岳归来不看山。

Wǔyuè guīlái bú kàn shān.

After the Five Sacred Mountains, no other mountain is worth seeing.

Tips

culture

The canonical set of five Daoist holy mountains, each associated with a cardinal direction and the centre. The idea is already implicit in the 《尚书》 'Shun visits the four yue' and was fixed in its current form during the Han dynasty. The saying 五岳归来不看山 is by Ming traveller Xu Xiake 徐霞客.

mistakes

The two 'Heng' mountains use different characters with different tones: 衡山 (Héngshān, Hunan) in the south vs 恒山 (Héngshān, Shanxi) in the north — same pinyin, different hanzi.

Stroke Order

五 wǔ

岳 yuè