Twenty-eight lodges and four elephants in the three-yuan twenty-eight lodges

Twenty-eight huts are divided into four groups according to the order in the above table. Each group has seven huts, with four squares, four colors and four animal images, which are called four elephants or four places. The corresponding relationship between them is as follows: Oriental black dragon (or green dragon), cyan; North Xuanwu (that is, tortoise and snake), black; White tiger in the west, white; Southern Suzaku (or Suzaku), red.

Twenty-eight lodgings with four orientations are based on the morning and evening phenomena around the ancient vernal equinox. At this time, Zhu Bird lived in the south for seven nights, Black Dragon lived in the east for seven nights, Xuanwu lived in the north for seven nights, and White Tiger lived in the west for seven nights. The collocation of four colors is related to the ancient five elements theory. As for the origin of the collocation of dragons, turtles, snakes, tigers and birds, one view is that it is related to the totem of primitive tribes; There is also a theory that it may be related to the seasonal characteristics of these constellations when they are unconscious. For example, seven nights in the south are spring, and birds can be regarded as a symbol of spring and so on.

/kloc-in the summer of 0/978, an ancient tomb in the early years of the Warring States Period (dating back to the fifth century BC) was excavated in Suixian County, Hubei Province, which contained a lacquer box cover with the name of 28 basu and the corresponding images of Qinglong and Baihu. This not only advanced the time of the appearance of the twenty-eight lodges recorded in the literature, but also confirmed that the origin of the four elephants with twenty-eight lodges was also very early.