Is there really a person like Bole? Which dynasty and country is he from?

Bole, whose original name was Sun Yang, was a native of Qin in the Spring and Autumn Period. It is said that he was the most famous horse physiognomy expert in ancient my country. He once wrote the "Horse Classic" (or "Horse Classic"). The story of Bole Xiangma is still circulated among the people. (See "The Glory of a Gu")

However, it is said that Bole's son was not smart. There is such a story: Bole's son read his father's "Horse Book" desperately and went to find a good horse, but he got a bad horse that could not be used at all. There is another saying: Bole's "The Book of Horses" once said that a good horse has such a forehead, eyes, and hooves. His son memorized these items. One day, he saw a big toad on the roadside and said happily to Bole: "This is really a good horse! Look, its forehead and eyes are similar to what you said, but the hooves are different." Bole was angry and funny, and said humorously: "This 'horse' is so jumpy that I can't control it." There are similar descriptions in books such as "Mountain" (written by Yang Shen of the Ming Dynasty). Because he memorized dogma and mechanically followed the "Horse Book" to find a good horse, he made a big joke. This is the origin of the idiom "find things according to the picture".

So, why is it not called "searching for Ji according to the scriptures", but called "searching for Ji according to the pictures"? Legend has it that King Mu of Zhou had eight magical horses, each with an elegant name, and each of them was strong and strong with its own characteristics. The famous "Eight Horses Picture" is the picture of the eight horses painted by later painters based on the legend. Imagine the picture. Bai Juyi, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, once wrote a poem: "King Mu's Eight Horses and Horses in the Sky were loved by posterity and were written as pictures." Because the eight horses had pictures, the above story was called "Searching for Horses by Pictures." "Jun" and "Ji" are both good horses and have the same meaning. Therefore, "according to the picture to ask for the jun" is also called "according to the picture to ask for the ji".

The Ming Dynasty's "Burial Book Questions and Answers" written by Zhao Wei said: "Those who follow the pictures to search for Ji will mostly lose it in Lihuang." ("Lost in Lihuang" is a metaphor that only looks at the appearance and ignores the essence, which leads to failure. See "Female Lihuang").

It can be seen that the original meaning of "finding things according to pictures" is to criticize sticking to conventions, being divorced from reality, and not knowing how to adapt and adapt. But later this idiom was used to have another meaning, that is, if you look for what you need according to the specific signs, you can find it smoothly in complicated situations. For example, according to the classified catalog or index, it is easy to find a certain book, a certain article or a certain phrase that you need from a large number of book materials. This can also be called "searching by picture".