"Those who share common interests do not consider mountains and seas as far away; those who are obedient do not consider close proximity as close." It means that if two people have similar hobbies, they will not feel uncomfortable because of the barriers of mountains and seas. Far apart from each other. If two people have different ideas, they may feel far apart even if they are close to each other. This sentence comes from "Baopuzi" written by Ge Hong in the Jin Dynasty.

Original text: Those who share the same ideals do not regard mountains and seas as far away; those who are well-behaved do not regard close proximity as near. Therefore, there are people who trek and travel to gather, or there are people who are close to each other but not connected.

Translation: If two people have similar hobbies, they will not feel far away from each other because of the barriers of mountains and sea. If two people have different ideas, they may feel far apart even if they are close to each other. So some people travel across mountains and rivers to come from all over to get together, and some people are right in front of us but don't interact with each other.

Extended information:

"Baopuzi" is divided into two parts, the inner and outer chapters, belonging to Confucianism and Taoism respectively, but the author is the same person, Ge Hong in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The attribution of the "Inner Pian" to Taoism and the "Outer Pian" to Confucianism was first proposed by Ge Hong himself. It can be seen in the "Autobiography" of the "Outer Pian", "The "Inner Pian" talks about immortals (omitted), but Disasters belong to Taoism; its "Wai Pian" talks about gains and losses in the world and the status quo of worldly affairs, which belongs to Confucianism."

This shows that he has successively established arguments for Confucianism and Taoism. In Ge Hong's case, it is subjective or conscious. The "Outer Pian", which belongs to Confucianism, talks about the application of management in the world, and focuses on social issues. The "Inner Pian", which belongs to Taoism, talks about the "mysterious way" of cultivation, and focuses on life and metaphysical issues. This combination of Confucianism and Taoism constitutes a dual-track system that is relatively internal and external.

The same person made arguments for Confucianism and Taoism successively, which is probably unprecedented in history. Before Ge Hong, there were Wang Bi, Guo Xiang and others who annotated not only the Confucian "Book of Changes" and "The Analects of Confucius", but also the Taoist "Laozi" and "Zhuangzi". , thus forming an academic pattern in which metaphysics merged with Confucianism and Taoism.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Baopuzi