According to Terese Tse Bartholomew, Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, 2006, p. 264, no. 9.12.1, the connotation of nine ruyi may be traced back to the Book of Odes, and expresses the hope that heaven will bless these things always: the mountains and hills, the grass, the stream, the sun and moon, the longevity of the Southern Mountain, and the green luxuriance of the pine and the cypress.