The legend of the Four Sacred Beasts, the meaning of the Four Sacred Beasts

Yes, there are all kinds of legends, although the specific is different, but the general content is about the same, about the green dragon and the red bird, the content of the folk legend is basically the same, and about the white tiger and Xuanwu, the folk have their own sayings: some say that the white tiger is a tiger, some say that the white tiger is a unicorn, some say that Xuanwu is just a turtle, and some say that Xuanwu is a snake coiled on the turtle. In short, in folk sayings, the green dragon, the red bird, the white tiger, and the Xuanwu are the symbols of auspiciousness, and the folk call them the "four holy beasts".

1. The green dragon, the color is green, representing the wood, implying that spring returns to the earth, full of vitality and ready to go.

The green dragon is the god of the East in ancient mythology, and its image dragon is located in the east, which is woody and green, and is generally known as the green dragon, also known as the blue dragon.

In folklore, the green dragon resembles a long snake, a unicorn head, a carp tail, a long beard, horns like a deer, five claws, and a mighty appearance.

2. White Tiger, the color is white, representing gold. It means killing, often used in the army, and has the effect of warding off evil spirits.

The white tiger is the god of the West in ancient mythology, and its image of the tiger, located in the West, is golden, white, and is generally called the White Tiger.

The White Tiger is the chief of all beasts, and its fierceness and legendary ability to subdue ghosts have made it a divine beast of the sun. The white tiger is also the god of war and the god of killing. The white tiger has a variety of divine powers, such as avoiding evil, fighting disasters, praying for abundance and punishing evil, promoting goodness, getting rich, and tying the knot.

3. Vermilion Bird, the color is red, representing fire, implying the resurrection of the dead.

Suzaku is the god of the south in ancient mythology, and its image bird, located in the south, belongs to fire, color red, and is generally called Vermilion Bird, also known as "Vermilion Bird".

The Vermilion Bird is not a phoenix, a black bird, or a three-legged golden crow. The Suzaku is one of the four spirits, and like the other three, it comes from the stars and is the general name of the seven southern Nakshatras.

4. Xuanwu, the color is black, representing water, implying immortality.

Xuanwu was originally the god of the north in ancient mythology, and its image turtle, also known as the turtle and snake combination, is located in the north, belongs to water, color Xuan, and is generally called "Xuanwu".

Xuanwu is a kind of spiritual creature composed of a turtle and a snake. The original meaning of Xuanwu is Xuanwu, and the ancient sounds of Wu and Shen are connected.

玄, which means black; Yin means yin. Xuan Ming was originally a description of the turtle: the back of the turtle is black, and the turtle is to invite the turtle to the underworld to ask the first, bring the answer back, and show it to the world in the form of a divination. Therefore, the earliest basalt was the tortoise.

1. Qinglong. It symbolizes the young sun in the four elephants and the spring in the four seasons.

Qinglong belongs to one of the four elephants in traditional Chinese culture, according to the "Five Elements Theory" of water, wood, gold and fire, the east is cyan, so people often think that the green dragon is the god of the east, and the green dragon can also be called "blue dragon".

2. Xuanwu. It symbolizes the old yin in the four elephants and the winter in the four seasons.

Most people may think that Xuanwu is a divine turtle, but in fact, it is not all, because Xuanwu is a spirit animal composed of a combination of a turtle and a snake. Because the original meaning of Xuanwu is Xuanming, Xuanming and Xuanming represent the meaning of black and dark respectively.

3. Vermilion Bird symbolizes the old sun in the four elephants and the summer in the four seasons.

Suzaku is a summary of the birds of this world, in the ancient myth about the phoenix, the phoenix is a beautiful existence, representing the power of women, the legendary phoenix was born out of fire, she is the head of a chicken, the tail of a fish, the chin of a swallow with five-color stripes, and the neck of a snake.

4. White Tiger. Because the West is golden and white, it is called the White Tiger, and the representative season is autumn.

In our culture, the legendary white tiger symbolizes the god of war and a god of killing. This is why the ancient military talisman in our country will be called the tiger talisman, in ancient times, the tiger had a variety of divine powers such as avoiding evil, disaster relief, praying for abundance and punishing evil.

1. Qinglong.

The green dragon originated from the worship of the ancient stars. In ancient China, the stars in the sky were divided into seven star regions: "Three Walls" and "Four Elephants". "Sanyuan" is "Ziweiyuan", symbolizing the imperial palace; "Taiweiyuan" symbolizes the administrative body; "Tenshigai" symbolizes a bustling market.

These three walls are arranged in a triangular pattern around the North Star. There are "four elephants" distributed around the "three walls": "East Canglong, West White Tiger, South Vermilion Bird, and North Xuanwu".

That is, the astrological sign in the east is like a dragon. Since the earth revolves around the sun, the stars in the sky also change with the seasons. Every evening at the turn of winter and spring, the dragon appears.

2. White Tiger. The white tiger is also the god of war and killing, which originated from the ancient star worship. The white tiger has a variety of divine powers such as warding off evil spirits, fighting disasters, praying for abundance, punishing evil and promoting good, getting rich, and tying the knot. It is one of the four spirits, and of course it is also made of the stars.

It is composed of the seven Nakshatras in the west among the 28 constellations: Kui, Lou, Stomach, Pleiades, Bi, Mi, and Shen. Therefore, it is the representative of the West, and its whiteness is because the West is golden in the five elements, and the color is white.

So white is said from the five elements.

3. Vermilion Bird. The Vermilion Bird is one of the four elephants and one of the four sacred beasts in traditional Chinese culture, originating from the ancient star worship. It is a sacred beast that represents the south, the color it represents is red, and the season it represents is summer.

4. Xuanwu. Xuanwu originated from the worship of the ancient stars. Since the pre-Qin period, it has been a sacred beast representing the Seven Houses of the North, and in the Han Dynasty, the Five Elements Doctrine began to rise, and its symbolic meaning was more than Non Gui and winter.

Turtle and snake in ancient China is considered to be a spirit animal, a symbol of longevity, before the Han Dynasty nobles long with jade turtle pendant, now in Japan by the influence of ancient China, named and made emblem commonly used turtle pattern.

The four ancient divine beasts refer to: the Oriental Green Dragon; Southern Vermilion; Western White Tiger; Northern Xuanwu.

Southern Vermilion; The Vermilion Bird can also be said to be a phoenix or a bird. The Suzaku is one of the four spirits, and like the other three, it comes from the stars, and is the general name of the seven southern Nakshatras: Well, Ghost, Willow, Star, Zhang, Wing, and Zhen.

It's like Suzaku. Zhu is red, like fire, and the south belongs to fire, so it is called Phoenix. It also has the characteristic of being rejuvenated from the fire, and it is the same as the immortal bird in the West, so it is also called the fire phoenix.

In the records of ancient books, the phoenix is a beautiful bird, and with its song and demeanor as the king of birds, it can bring auspiciousness to the world, and also has the special spirituality of 'not the sycamore does not live, the bamboo does not eat, and the spring does not drink', and because it is the long 'feather insect', so and ' The dragon of the scale worm's length gradually became a pair in the legend, a changeable, a virtuous and beautiful, it became a pair that complemented each other in folklore, and because the dragon symbolized the yang, and the original phoenix (phoenix for male, female for phoenix) was divided into yin and yang, and the dragon gradually became a representative of pure yin.

The Four Sacred Beasts and the Four Divine Beasts all refer to the Chinese legends of the Green Dragon, the White Tiger, the Vermilion Bird, and the Xuanwu.

Qinglong, also known as "Canglong", is the god of the East in ancient mythology. The dragon is the totem of the Chinese nation, since the Yellow Emperor was appointed to the sky, the Quartet, the dragon has become the symbol of the Chinese nation and even the whole of China, and the more definite shape is in the Han Dynasty, from the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the dragon has been determined as the symbol and representative of the emperor. In Eastern legends, the green dragon resembles a long snake, a unicorn head, a carp tail, a long beard, horns like a deer, five claws, and a mighty appearance, while in Western mythology, the dragon is more like a winged lizard.

In China, the white tiger is the god of war and the god of killing. The tiger has a variety of divine powers, such as avoiding evil, fighting disasters, praying for abundance and punishing evil, promoting goodness, getting rich, and tying the knot. And it is one of the four spirits, of course, it is also made of the stars.

It is composed of the 28 constellations, and the seven Western Nakshatras: Kui, Lou, Stomach, Ang, Bi, Mi, and Shen. Therefore, it is the representative of the West, and its whiteness is because it is the West, and the West is gold in the five elements, and the color is white.

Therefore, it is called the White Tiger not because it is white, but from the five elements.

In China, the phoenix is a spiritual creature that represents happiness. There are many different forms of it. Such as golden pheasant, peacock, eagle vulture, hoof, Xuanniao (swallow) and so on, and it is said that the Buddhist Dapeng goldfinch bird became.

The phoenix myth says that the phoenix has the head of a chicken, the jaw of a swallow, the neck of a snake, and the tail of a fish, with five-colored stripes. There are also five varieties of phoenixes, which are divided by color: red is the phoenix, green is the luan bird, white is the swan, and the yellow and purple phoenix can be said to be the red bird or the bird.

Xuanwu is a kind of spiritual creature composed of a turtle and a snake. The original meaning of Xuanwu is Xuanming, and Xuanwu means black; Yin means yin. Xuan Ming was originally a description of the turtle:

The back of the turtle is black, and the turtle is to invite the turtle to the underworld to ask the ancestors, bring the answer back, and show it to the world in the form of a divination. Turtles live in rivers, lakes and seas (including turtles), so Xuan Ming became the god of water; The turtle lived a long life, and Xuan Ming became a symbol of immortality; The original underworld was in the north, and the oracle bone divination of Yin Shang was to the north, so Xuan Ming became the god of the north.

In ancient times, the ancients divided the heavens into four palaces, east, west, north and south, which were named after the green dragon (Canglong), the white tiger, the vermilion bird, and the Xuanwu (a turtle-shaped god). In effect, the sky is divided into four parts, which are formed by the lines of the seven main stars in each part, and named after their shapes.

The horn (Mu Jiao), Kang (Golden Dragon), Di (Raccoon Dog), Fang (Sun Rabbit), Heart (Moon Fox), Tail (Fire Tiger), and Kei (Water Leopard) are shaped like dragons, so they call the East Palace the green dragon or the blue dragon;

Western Qixingkui (wood wolf), Lou (golden dog), stomach (earth pheasant), Pleiades (Japanese chicken), Bi (moon black), Mi (fire monkey), ginseng (water ape) are shaped like tigers, and the West Palace is called a white tiger;

The wells in the south (Mu Qian), the ghost (Golden Sheep), the willow (Earth Deer), the star (Rima), Zhang (the moon deer), the wing (the fire snake), and the Zhen (water worm) are combined into a bird-shape, called the Vermilion Bird;

The northern seven stars are bucket (wood deer), ox (golden bull), female (earth bat), void (day rat), danger (moon swallow), room (fire pig), wall (water yu), its shape is like a turtle, called Xuanwu.

The four divine beasts are the Green Dragon, the White Tiger, the Vermilion Bird, and the Xuanwu Four Beasts.

The green dragon is the east.