The naming and interpretation of things reflect the ancients'cognition of things.Horses are interpreted as anger,because the pronunciation of horse and anger is similar in ancient Chinese.The interpretation means that hor-ses gallop fast and persistently instead of having irritable temper.It's consistent with the ancients'cognition of hor-ses'vigorous and unremitting character.The implication in the pronunciation of horse is sturdiness,and the ancient pronunciation of horse is similar to"Wu"(武),therefore,the"Da Sima"(大司马)could be replaced by"Da Si-wu"(大司武),which is an official position in charge of army.The formation of the phrase"Wuma"(午马)is also based on the similar sound of"Wu"(午)and"Ma"(马),which refers to the time when yang qi(阳气)is the stron-gest.There are considerable number of Chinese characters created to describe horses,reflecting the richness of Chi-nese characters when referring to an object according to their gender,color,age and functions,in which the color is the most complicated when referring things.Various peculiar horses like Tuotuo(橐佗),Juxu(距虚),Qiongqiong(蛩蛩),Tuoxi(驒騱)are all recorded in Hanfu(汉赋),reflecting its fantastic writing style.
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