Those Who Borrow Carriages And Horses Reach A Thousand Miles Without Tiring Their Feet: Japanese Proverb Meaning

How to Read “Those who borrow carriages and horses reach a thousand miles without tiring their feet”

Yoba wo karu mono wa ashi wo rōsezu shite senri wo itasu

Meaning of “Those who borrow carriages and horses reach a thousand miles without tiring their feet”

This proverb means you can achieve great results without exhausting yourself by borrowing other people’s strength or excellent tools.

Walking a thousand miles on your own feet would be incredibly difficult. But if you borrow a carriage, you can reach that distance easily. The proverb teaches the wisdom of using appropriate methods and others’ power.

Modern society often values doing everything by yourself as a virtue. But this proverb offers a different perspective.

Borrowing the power of people who have abilities or resources you lack is not shameful. It’s actually a wise choice.

In business and academics, you can reach your goals more efficiently by borrowing expert knowledge or using convenient tools. What matters is recognizing your limits and having the judgment to seek appropriate help.

Origin and Etymology

This proverb is believed to come from ancient Chinese philosophical thought. “Yoba” refers to vehicles that carry people, “ba” means carriages or horses themselves, and “senri” expresses an extremely long distance.

In ancient China, traveling a thousand miles on foot was unimaginably difficult. But if you borrowed a carriage or horse, you could cover the same distance without that hardship.

Behind this expression lies the importance of transportation in ancient society. Back then, horses and carriages were symbols of wealth and power. Only limited people could own them.

However, the discovery that you could receive the same benefits by borrowing, even without ownership, was great wisdom for people.

The phrase “without tiring their feet” contains more than just avoiding physical fatigue. It embodies the wisdom of using superior methods rather than relying on your limited strength.

This way of thinking connects to Confucian and Taoist philosophy. It came to Japan and took root as wisdom for efficient and rational living.

The words themselves are elegant classical Chinese expressions. But their essence is extremely practical, a teaching rooted in people’s daily lives.

Interesting Facts

The distance “senri” mentioned in this proverb equals about 4,000 kilometers. That’s more than a round trip from Tokyo to Okinawa.

For ancient people, this was an unimaginably vast distance. A journey that would take months on foot could be completed in weeks using horses. This helps us understand the impact of this expression.

“Yo” was originally a luxury vehicle used by Chinese emperors and nobles. From palanquins carried by people to carriages pulled by horses, various types existed.

All were luxury items beyond the reach of common people. The very idea of “borrowing” them was revolutionary thinking in an era of strict class systems.

Usage Examples

• After introducing new software, it was like “those who borrow carriages and horses reach a thousand miles without tiring their feet” – our work time was cut in half
• Consulting an expert is “those who borrow carriages and horses reach a thousand miles without tiring their feet” – you can solve problems faster than worrying alone

Universal Wisdom

Humans are fundamentally beings with limited abilities. No matter how excellent someone is, there are limits to what one person can do alone.

This proverb has been passed down for hundreds of years because it recognizes this fundamental human nature.

What’s interesting is that this proverb focuses on the act of “borrowing.” Not ownership, but borrowing. This represents the essence of cooperation and interdependence in human society.

Each of us has something and lacks something. That’s why we can demonstrate great power as a whole by lending and borrowing from each other.

This proverb also contains praise for human wisdom. Not the stubbornness of trying to walk a thousand miles on your own feet, but the flexibility to borrow a horse.

This shows the conflict humans constantly face – the balance between pride and practicality. Many people feel that asking for help is weakness.

But the insight here is that being able to appropriately ask for help is actually true strength.

Our ancestors understood that what matters in life is not the magnitude of your individual power. It’s the wisdom to draw out necessary power when needed.

This universal truth holds even deeper meaning in our modern age of growing individualism. Perhaps especially because of that individualism.

When AI Hears This

When humans walk, about 75 percent of chemical energy in the body is wastefully discarded as heat. Muscles are surprisingly inefficient “engines.”

On the other hand, when you use carriages or wheels, these numbers change dramatically. Horses have over three times higher movement efficiency per body weight than humans.

Furthermore, by combining with the mechanical device of wheels, friction resistance becomes less than one-tenth of walking. In other words, this proverb shows technology that compresses the energy dissipation needed to travel the same distance to less than one-tenth.

According to the second law of thermodynamics, all processes proceed in the direction of increasing entropy, or disorder. If a human walks a thousand miles, they increase environmental disorder with massive heat and sweat.

But with a carriage, the disorder created by the same movement is far less. The progress of civilization is a battle of how to reduce entropy generation while achieving objectives.

Modern electric vehicles have three times the energy efficiency of gasoline cars. AI performs calculations with one-millionth the power of the human brain.

These all exist on the extension of the principle this proverb showed 2,000 years ago: “achieving the same work with less energy dissipation.” The essence of technological innovation is finding smart ways to deal with entropy.

Lessons for Today

Modern society is more complex and specialized than ever before. Many challenges you face are difficult to solve with individual power alone.

This proverb teaches us an important attitude for living in such times.

That attitude is not being afraid to ask for help. Using excellent tools, borrowing expert knowledge, cooperating with companions – these are not weaknesses but wise choices.

Using smartphone apps to improve efficiency, asking people about things you don’t understand – all of these are acts of “borrowing carriages and horses.”

What matters is the judgment to distinguish what you do yourself and what you borrow. Not leaving everything to others, but wisely utilizing others’ power as a means to reach your clearly held goals.

That sense of balance is the wisdom for surviving modern times.

Around you, there are surely many wonderful “carriages and horses.” By noticing them and using them with gratitude, your possibilities will expand many times over.