Traditions are varied.

This idiom comes from a short story "Jade Gives New Knowledge" in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. Most of the content in this novel is a story meeting. The protagonist, from the prince to the ordinary people, records the bits and pieces of life in the form of notes. There is such a passage in the novel: "To the west of the dragon symbol, there are countless chaotic peaks, with four rows like a flat sand curtain, eight doors and five flowers."

This is actually the earliest prototype of the idiom "multifarious". The "five flowers" in it refers to the five elements, which are divided into gold, wood, water, fire and earth, and are often mentioned in Taoist or Yijing China culture. The integration of the five elements culture into the array can produce many changes. The five elements also refer to five colors, namely white, blue, black, red and yellow. When these five colors are mixed together, they can also evolve all the colors in the world.

Eight gates originally referred to the Eight Diagrams Array. According to legend, the earliest Eight Diagrams Array was invented by Zhuge Liang. Among them, the Eight Diagrams can be divided into Gan, Kun, Kan, Li, Zhen, Gen, Xun and Hui, which can be combined into sixty-four hexagrams. When the enemy enters the Eight Diagrams Array, he usually falls into an ever-changing array, and it is difficult to get rid of it for a while.

With the development of the times, all kinds of things become more specific. Third, there was an industry in ancient times, namely, scholars, farmers and merchants, among which "merchants" were considered to be the lowest in society. All kinds of words were said to these businessmen, which contained many derogatory elements. So what are the "five flowers" and "eight doors" summarized by later generations?

These five flowers are respectively

Jin Juhua (a woman selling tea) Kapok (a doctor) Narcissus (a singer in a restaurant) Pyracantha (a juggler), a native of Niuhua (a porter at work)

These people usually make a living by buying and selling and doing art, covering all walks of life, which is very hard.

"Eight Doors" refers to businessmen who make a living by their mouths and stalls. Some of them are glib, while others are highly skilled.

The first door is golden. Here, gold refers to people who watch divination in Jianghu. They often set up divination booths and then show people their palms and faces to make a living.

The second door is the skin, and the skin here refers to the person who sells medicine. According to the different drugs sold, it can be divided into picking Han, picking Han, picking Han and so on.

The third door is color, and color is magic. For example, we often see some traditional magic tricks in the street now, such as three immortals returning to the cave, fairy picking beans, heavenly rope, nine-ring and so on.

The fourth kind is hanging, which refers to people who perform arts in Jianghu, such as those who sell martial arts and play with broadswords.

The fifth is evaluation, which means telling stories. For example, we can also see many storytellers, listening to books and drinking tea in the teahouse, which is very comfortable.

The sixth kind is a group, which is called "Tuan Chun" because people who talk cross talk or sing in the street are cross talk artists in rivers and lakes.

The seventh kind is tune, which refers to putting up tents and tying paper in the street, such as pasting paper, painting and straw weaving, which are rare now.

The eighth is willow, which means drummer. Jianghu people call this industry "Liu Haihong".

There are many kinds of occupations, but in the eyes of the ancients, these occupations are backward, so they are derogatory. However, with the development and progress of the times, the idiom variant has become a neutral word.