The moral of the four great beasts

In China, the white tiger is the god of war and war. Tigers have many magical powers, such as avoiding evil, praying and punishing evil, promoting good, getting rich and getting married, etc. And it is one of the four spirits, and of course it is also changed from the stars.

Among these 28 stars, there are 7 in the west: osmium, building, stomach, ang, bi, Gou and Shen. Therefore, it is the representative of the west, and its whiteness is due to the west. The five elements belong to gold and the color is white. So it is called white tiger not because it is white, but because it comes from five elements. ?

2. Xuanwu?

Xuanwu is a spiritual thing composed of turtles and snakes. Xuanwu originally meant Xuanming, and the ancient sounds of Wu and Ming are interlinked. Wu means black; Ghost means yin.

At first, Xuan Ming described the turtle divination as follows: the turtle's back is black, and the turtle divination first invited the turtle to ask questions in the underworld, brought back the answers and showed them to the world in the form of divination. Therefore, the earliest Xuanwu is the tortoise.

Since then, the meaning of Xuanming has been expanding. Turtles live in rivers, lakes and seas (including turtles), so Xuan Ming became a water god; The tortoise lives long, and Xuan Ming has become a symbol of immortality; The first underworld was in the north, and Oracle Bone Inscriptions's divination in the Yin and Shang Dynasties was that "divination will point to the north", so Xuan Ming became a northern god again?

3. Suzaku?

In China, the phoenix is a symbol of happiness. There are many kinds of prototypes. Such as golden pheasant, peacock, vulture, mandarin fish, blackbird (swallow) and so on.

According to the phoenix myth, the phoenix has a chicken's head, a swallow's chin, a snake's neck, a fish's tail and five-color stripes. There are five kinds of phoenixes, divided by color: Red Phoenix, Lan Fenghuang, White Swan and Rayna Sue Phoenix, which can also be called Suzaku or Blackbird.

Suzaku is one of the four spirits, and like the other three spirits, it comes from the stars, which is the general name of the seven nights in the south: well, ghost, willow, star, Zhang, wing and bird. Think of it as Suzaku.

Scarlet, like fire, the south belongs to fire, hence the name Phoenix. It also has the characteristics of being far from fire, also called fire phoenix, just like the immortal birds in the west. ?

4. Qinglong?

In China, the status of dragons is much higher than that of Indians. Because in China, the dragon is sacred, supreme and a symbol of the emperor. It is also the representative of the east, and the five elements belong to wood. Because cyan belongs to wood, there is the saying of Zuo Qinglong and you Bai Hu. ?

Among these 28 stars, seven stars in the east-Jiao, Kang, Bian, Fang, Xin, Wei and Ji-are used as stars. The ancients imagined them as Jackie Chan. Because it is located in the east, the five elements are colored according to yin and yang, and the east is blue, hence the name "Qinglong".

There is also a saying that dragons are lustful, and when they meet cows, they give birth to Kirin, and when they meet pigs, they give birth to elephants. Another dragon gave birth to nine sons, unlike the dragon. Here's the thing: the eldest son is called prison cow: he loves music, so he often stands on the piano head.

Such as Hu Qin of Han nationality and Qin Sang of Bai nationality. Ma Touqin in Mongolia may also be a variant of prison cattle. The second son's name is Chipi: He loves to kill people, so he is often put on weapons to intimidate the enemy. At the same time, it is used in ceremonial ceremonies to appear more solemn. The third son's name is Mo Chifeng: it is an animal-shaped dragon, which looks a bit like a dog. It is good at viewing, so it is often placed in the corner of the temple.

Extended data:

Origin:

In Shang Dynasty, the ancients divided the sky into four palaces, east, west, north and south, named after Qinglong (black dragon), White Tiger, Suzaku and Xuanwu (a turtle-shaped god).

In fact, the sky is divided into four parts, which are connected by seven main stars in each part and named after their shapes.

The horn (wood horn), kang (golden dragon), vulture (native raccoon), house (Japanese rabbit), heart (moon fox), tail (fire tiger) and dustpan (water leopard) in the east are shaped like dragons, so the East Palace is called Qinglong or Black Dragon.

The seven western stars, Kui (wooden wolf), Lou (golden dog), stomach (pheasant), Zan (Japanese chicken), Bi (moonlit monkey), tapir (fire monkey) and ginseng (water ape), look like tigers, and call the West Palace the White Tiger.

In the south, wells (wooden roofs), ghosts (golden sheep), willows (earth roes), stars (Japanese horses), Zhang (moon deer), wings (salamanders) and water worms are combined into a bird shape, which is called Suzaku.

The northern seven-star bucket (Mu Yi), ox (Taurus), female (native bat), virtual (Japanese rat), dangerous (moon swallow), house (fire pig) and wall (water book) are shaped like turtles, which is called Xuanwu.

As a result, Qinglong, Baihu, Suzaku and Xuanwu have become the four gods who guard the Heavenly Palace, create evil and adjust Yin and Yang.

Why does Taoism take the four elephants as its patron saint? Because the four elephants are the guardians of four directions, Huang Tu in Sanfu said that the black dragon, white tiger, rosefinch and Xuanwu are the four spirits of the sky, and all four directions are positive.

Zuo Qinglong, You Baihu, Thousand-legged Sanzang, Houxuanwu, and the four great beasts respectively guard the four palaces in the east, west, north and south, and are the gods of the four directions.

Later, the four elephants were gradually personified by Taoism because of their absorption and evolution, and were given the title, namely, Qinglong, Baihu and Suzaku. Xuanwu is the "Ming King".

Taoist priests are escorted by four elephants. The secret of prolonging the life of the Seven Yuan Pavilion of the Big Dipper is in the Taoist Collection. It is said that there is a dragon on the left, a white tiger on the right, a suzaku called Lingguang in front, a Xuanwu called Ming behind, a building built on the festival, and a bell and drum behind, all around me.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Four Great Beasts