Five Lakes (China)

The Five Lakes or Wu Hu (Chinese: 五湖; pinyin: wǔhú), is a Chinese historical and geographical concept that has been used to describe various lakes in China.

West Lake in Hangzhou, at night

The Five Lakes most commonly refer to are five freshwater lakes in eastern and central China: Lake Tai in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Hongze Lake in Jiangsu, Lake Chao in Anhui, Poyang Lake in Jiangxi, and Dongting Lake in Hunan.[1]

In several ancient texts, including the Rites of Zhou and Records of the Grand Historian, the term was used to describe only Lake Tai.[2] Various sources have described other lakes as the Five Lakes.[3] One European 19th century encyclopedia identifies West Lake in Zhejiang as one of the Five Lakes in place of Lake Chao.[4]

Idiomatic expression

In modern parlance, the idiom the "five lakes and four seas" is used to describe a vast domain, such as the entire country or the entire world.[5]

See also

References
  1. (Chinese)中华五湖
  2. (Chinese)史記今註, Volume 6
  3. (Chinese) "五湖" 中國古代地名大詞典
  4. Georg Lehner, China in European Encyclopaedias, 1700-1850 p. 106
  5. Tan Chung, Chinese say all within four seas are brothers and sisters Shanghai Daily 2013-12-07
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