This paper analyzes the dragon, white tiger and suzaku Xuanwu popular in good articles, and analyzes the four spirits of the celestial map of the Han tomb

Introduction: Drawing a picture of the sky on the top of the tomb and transforming the tomb itself into a miniature universe is an attempt by the ancients to arouse, delay and finally escape death after understanding the finiteness of life. What role does the four spirits pattern play in it?

The so-called "astronomical phenomena", the Book of Changes copula begins: "Images are formed in nature, and changes are visible." As for what is an image and what is a shape? The Eastern Jin Dynasty and Han Dynasty summed it up as: the elephant is like the sun, the moon and the stars, and the shape is like mountains, rivers and plants. In this way, the images contained in the sky map should refer to the sun, the moon and the stars. As the symbol of the mimicry of the stars (where the sun, the moon and the five stars live), the four spirits are the most typical representatives.

Interestingly, as soon as this four-spirit tattoo appeared, it had an indissoluble bond with the tomb. Perhaps the ancient people's fear of the underground world has turned into a yearning for the heavenly world. The embryo combination of "Dragon and Tiger" in the Four Spirits began to appear in M45, a prehistoric cemetery in Xishuipo, Puyang, 4500 years ago.

Tomb 45 is a vertical cave tomb with pits. A male grave owner was lying on his back with his head facing south and his feet facing north. On both sides of the tomb owner's skeleton, two patterns are made of clam shells: a dragon in the east and a tiger in the west, with the head facing north and legs facing outward. Interestingly, at the foot of the tomb owner, there is a triangle arranged with clam shells, which together with two human leg bones next to it constitute the Beidou pattern.

There are different opinions about the nature of this tomb, but there are two mainstream views: one is the theory of "god beast" from Mr. Zhang Guangzhi, which holds that the owner of the tomb should be an ancient wizard, and the dragon, tiger and deer (three webbed) shaped by mussels are the feet and animal assistants of wizards when doing things;

The second, represented by Mr. Shi Feng's "astrology theory", holds that the pattern of human tibia and mussel shell is Beidou, but the plastic dragon and tiger of mussel shell represent the blue dragon and white tiger in astrology respectively, revealing the astronomical significance of this tomb.

Heaven and four spirits are just four directions. If the clam-shaped dragon and tiger appear on the Xishui slope of Puyang, it can be regarded as the embryonic form of the East Palace Black Dragon and the West Palace White Tiger. Then, in the Warring States period, the design on the suitcase of the tomb of Zeng Houyi, on the basis of the East Palace and the West Palace, together with the Nangong Suzaku, constituted the image of the Three Spirits.

Ceng Houyi's suitcase is small, but it shows the producer's overall understanding of the universe: that is, the colors and pictures are arranged according to the four directions of heaven and earth.

Let's talk about color first. The top cover, left side, right side and front of the box are all painted with colors, but the bottom and back of the box are black, which is actually simulating the light and shadow changes in the geographical position of the northern hemisphere: the sun rises in the southeast and sets in the southwest, so there are lights in the east, south and west directions, so human eyes can see things, so vermilion is used to outline the image, while there is a long night in the north, while the dark and the bottom of the box are the back of the sun.

Let's talk about orientation and picture first. The top box cover symbolizes "the sky", and the circular box cover represents "the theory of covering the sky", so it is painted with 28 stars, four spirits, Beidou and other celestial charts. The bottom of the box below symbolizes "ground" and is square like a chessboard, forming the concept of "a round place" with the box cover; The right represents the east, the left represents the west, and the front represents the south. These directions can be reasonably inferred from the patterns drawn on the screen.

In fact, the most striking thing on this suitcase is the pattern on the theme of the box cover, that is, the black dragon in the East Palace and the white tiger in the West Palace. In addition, the characters "Dou" and "Earth" in the middle of them form a unified organic whole, which reminds people of the same composition method used in M45 in West Shui Bo.

The "dou" here is Beidou, and the "land" refers to the return of the earth. Because the earth belongs to the ground and Beidou is in the sky, the ancients used the coincidence of dou and the earth to indicate that it was in the set world. In addition to the East Palace and the West Palace, the green dragon and the white tiger, Suzaku also appeared in the picture of the southern god "harmony" for the first time.

As for why there is no image of Xuanwu in the north? One explanation is this: because the back of the suitcase (north) is black, black is also called dark black, and no pattern means that you can't see anything, which in itself can represent the meaning of the north; Of course, some people think that Gong Bei Xuanwu can't see dragons, tigers and sparrows.

It can be seen that from prehistoric times to the Warring States period, the four-spirit schema has been developing continuously. From the beginning, there were only black dragons in the East Palace and white tigers in the West Palace. Later, we joined Suzaku in the South Palace. It can be said that it was not until the Han Dynasty that a neat schema was finally formed. Four animals were equipped with four orientations and fixed with 28 stars. The theoretical sources supporting this cosmic model can be found in the Official Book:

Four hundred years after the celestial map appeared in the tomb of Zeng Houyi, the earliest image example of four elephants dominating 28 stars reappeared in the murals of Xi Jiaotong University in the middle and late Western Han Dynasty. This tomb is a masonry arch coupon structure, so the vault at the top of the tomb is called an excellent place to show the sky map.

Different from the center of the celestial map of the tomb of Zeng Houyi, the bucket and the earth are used to refer to the direction, and instead, the images of the sun and the moon are divided into the north and south sides of the central axis of the inner circle. The red sun and the sun represent the sun and the white toad represents the moon. Both have yin and yang properties.

As for the four elephants, they are distributed in the outer circle of the picture: Qinglong is located in the southeast, with the dragon head facing east, with eight stars on the head and one star at the foot and tail; The white tiger is located in the southwest, with its head facing north and several stars connected; Suzaku is in the south and the bird head is in the west; Interestingly, Xuanwu, due north, is not a standard combination of turtles and snakes, but a little black snake with its head facing south in the five-star connected stars.

However, according to archaeological data and literature records, the Dragon and Tiger Phoenix in the East, West and Nangong experienced the Warring States Period and the middle and early Han Dynasty. The combination of the three developed and their images tended to be fixed, but the Xuanwu in the north remained unsolved. What animal should occupy the spirit of Bei Gong? In various regions, there is actually a situation of multiple competition:

It can be seen that there are camels, white scorpions, Kirin and even Xuanwu's split turtles and snakes in the position of the fourth person, but the situation is developing in a direction that is more and more conducive to Xuanwu (the combination of turtles and snakes). In fact, the Han Dynasty continued the understanding of tortoise and snake since the Warring States Period, that is, the concept applied to the study of astronomical phenomena and the study of soldiers' yin and yang, which can be found in Kao Gong Ji.

By the time of Emperor Jingdi and Emperor Wudi, Xuanwu, the standard schema, had occupied the most important position as a winner, and completed the final finalization of the combination of the four spirits. For example, Xuanwu is a typical image of snake wrapped turtle on the hollow brick of the portrait unearthed from Mao Mausoleum of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and its burial pit.

It can be said that Xuanwu was formally established as a combination of turtles and snakes after the images of turtles biting snakes and snakes wrapped around turtles unearthed near Maoling of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty appeared, and became the mainstream of Xuanwu images. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the combination of four spirits appeared on the dome at the top of the tomb as before, and also settled on the stone tomb door, forming a fixed pattern.

There are two suzaku spreading their wings and flying in the upper layer of the door leaf, and there is a head ring in the middle layer, which symbolizes a safe house to ward off evil spirits. The left door of the lower floor is a dragon, the right door is a white tiger, and the lower ends of the left and right vertical frames are tortoise and snake combinations, which is very consistent with the combination of "left Qinglong and right white tiger on Suzaku and lower Xuanwu".

What we are curious about is why the ancients used celestial charts in tombs, and what role did the four spirits play in them? When the concept of "Four Spirits" was introduced to Sichuan, it was widely used in sarcophagus burial tools. Take the No.3 sarcophagus in Guitoushan, Jianyang as an example, which is very illustrative.

On the four baffles of this sarcophagus, four spiritual patterns are carved respectively. In addition, the center of the right baffle is also engraved with a double gate, and the word "Tianmen" is engraved on the gate. This fully shows the nature of the sarcophagus: under the protection of the four spirits, the soul of the tomb owner reached Tianmen.

Next, we will explain the functions of the four spirits in different positions in the order of front, back, left and right baffles. In fact, there is a saying that can be well summarized: "The black dragon fights for the left, the white tiger fights for the right, the rosefinch fights for the right, and the turtle circle ranks first."

The front block is suzaku, which is often used to represent the south or the front. Therefore, Suzaku is often carved on the top of the door leaf in Han tombs, such as the tomb door map of Suide in northern Shaanxi, while it is carved on the front wood block in sarcophagus. Even if there are four gods, its image is the most prominent. After all, people can see Suzaku at the first sight when they enter the tomb. The reason for this arrangement is very simple, because Suzaku bears the heavy responsibility of resisting demons and guarding the portal.

As stated in the Notes:

In addition to guarding the tomb owner and evoking the soul to heaven, the four gods also have the function of "avoiding evil and obeying yin and yang", because inscriptions such as "Zuo Long You Hu avoids evil and Zhu Bird Xuanwu obeys yin and yang" often appear in Han mirrors.

"Suzaku Xuanwu follows Yin and Yang" was born under the concept of Yin and Yang and five elements in Han Dynasty, so Suzaku and Xuanwu have the symbolic significance of unity of opposites: Suzaku is the god of the south, belonging to fire and representing Yang; Xuanwu is the god of the north, belonging to water and showing yin. Both of them appear before and after the sarcophagus, meaning harmony between yin and yang.

"Left dragons and right tigers avoid evil" is actually related to a sentence mentioned in Wang Chong's Lun Heng: "There are twelve gods in the family, and twelve dragons and white tigers are listed. Dragon and tiger are fierce gods, and the sky is a ghost. " Qinglong and Baihu are spirits to exorcise evil spirits in the house, and the sarcophagus itself belongs to the underground palace of the deceased, so it is only placed around to take the meaning of sheltering the owner of the tomb.

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