Xuanwu of the six great beasts

Xuanwu is a spiritual object composed of turtles and snakes in ancient myths and legends of China. Xuanwu was originally a description of tortoise divination: the tortoise's back is black, and tortoise divination is to invite the tortoise to the underworld to ask for directions and bring the answer back to the world in the form of divination. So the earliest Xuanwu was tortoise (Wu and Xuan were black in ancient times, and Wu was a combination of tortoise and snake). Later, the meaning of Xuanwu continued to expand.

The earliest legend about the origin of Xuanwu comes from Xia Dynasty. According to legend, Dayu's father, the founder of the Xia Dynasty in China, was called Kun, whose name was Xuanming, also known as Xuanwu, and helped Shun to control water before the famous Dayu. Because it only uses blocking instead of dredging, it has not succeeded despite the help of the gods. Generally speaking, guns are the embodiment of turtles, while Tu Shanshi, a Xia clan, thinks snakes are his ancestors. After Xuanwu was regarded as a god by Taoism, there was a saying that turtles and snakes were combined.

In addition, Xuanwu is also called Xuanming, so it is also called Beiming. Xuanwu, like other three souls, is also derived from the 28 stars in the world: bucket, ox, female, air, danger, house and wall.