在洞庭一湖

zàidòngtíngyīhú

phrase

Meanings

1 lies at Dongting, one lake
2 partial line from Fan Zhongyan's Yueyang Tower preface — the scene narrows to a single great lake

Bèi dào "cǐ zé Yuèyánglóu zhī dàguān yě, qiánrén zhī shù bèi yǐ" yī duàn, wǒmen dōu jìde nà jù "zài Dòngtíng yī hú".

When reciting that passage of Yueyang Tower, we all remember the line 'at Dongting, one lake.'

Fàn Zhòngyān xiě "zài Dòngtíng yī hú", bǎ shìxiàn suǒ zài nà yī piàn shuǐ shàng.

Fan Zhongyan writes 'at Dongting, one lake,' locking the gaze onto that one expanse of water.

history

From 《岳阳楼记》 by 范仲淹 (Fan Zhongyan, Northern Song, 1046): '予观夫巴陵胜状，在洞庭一湖。' The essay's famous line 'worry before the world worries, enjoy after the world enjoys' (先天下之忧而忧，后天下之乐而乐) comes later in the same piece.

usage

洞庭 = Dongting Lake in northern Hunan — historically China's largest freshwater lake before the Yangtze silted parts of it.

在 zài

洞 dòng

庭 tíng

一 yī

湖 hú