Commander Jane said

In the era when the Five Elements Theory prevailed, the story about Qinglong began to spread slowly. According to the five elements of Yin and Yang, the five elements assigned five colors to the southeast, northwest and central regions, each with a god beast and a spirit, with cyan in the east, Qinglong in the west, white in the west, white tiger in the south, vermilion in the south, birds in the north, black in the north and basaltic and yellow in the middle.

Among the four gods, according to Shan Hai Jing,' Southern Zhurong is a beast with a face and rides two dragons.' ; In the west of Ru Shou, there is a snake in the left ear. You can ride two dragons. ; In the East, there is Ju Mang, who is a bird and a man, riding two dragons. ; In the north, Yu Jiang, with dark hands and feet, rode two dragons. Interestingly, the dragons in Shan Hai Jing are all riding, while the snakes of the same kind with him are all being led or held or held or wrapped around their necks, which shows the difference between them. However, the five gods are different from the four gods, so I won't elaborate here. Suzaku, Xuanwu (black tortoise snake, martial arts means tortoise snake), Qinglong and Baihu represent the twenty-eight lodges in four directions respectively. There are many legends about dragons, and there are also many sayings about the origin of dragons. Some say it was made by the stars in China, and some say it was imported from India. But according to textual research, the so-called dragon in Buddhism-Naga is just a python.

The dragon is the seven lodges in the East-horn, horn, fork, room, heart, tail and dustpan. These seven lodges are all shaped like dragons. From their meanings, we can see that the horn is the dragon's horn, the horn is the neck, the fork is the root, the room is the arm, the threat, the heart is the heart, and the tail is the tail. There is still a part of the dragon's heart, which some people call' fire', which is related to sunny and rainy days, and because Qinglong is a wood, it is also the age of Jupiter. After the rise of Taoism, these four spirits were also given names to facilitate human beings to call them. Qinglong is called Meng Zhang, White Tiger is called prison soldier, Suzaku is called Lingguang, and Xuanwu is called Zhiming. In many dynasties, emperors took Qinglong as their national title, such as Wei Mingdi in the Three Kingdoms, and there were also records that the Xia Dynasty belonged to the Mude Dynasty, so he had'.

In ancient China, it was a male dragon with horns on its head; Double horns are called dragons, and single horns are called dumplings; Those with horns are poisonous snakes. In ancient times, there were often large and small Ssangyong in Yu Pei, and it was still called mother and son poisonous snakes.

Because it is sacred and supreme in the dragon, it is also 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 the 28 stars, seven stars in the East-Jiao, Kang, Bian, Fang, Xin, Wei and Ji-are used among the stars. The ancients imagined them as Jackie Chan. Because it is located in the east, the five parties are colored according to the theory that the east is blue, so it is named' Qinglong'. In Four Holy Beasts, China, another dragon is often compared with the "white tiger"; The tiger is the leader of all animals. Its strength and legendary ability to subdue ghosts make it a beast belonging to Yang, and it often goes out with dragons. The cloud follows the dragon and the wind follows the tiger' to become the best partner for subduing ghosts.

And the white tiger is also the god of war and war. White tiger has many magical powers, such as avoiding evil, avoiding disasters, praying and punishing evil, promoting good, making a fortune and getting married. 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.

In addition to the four spirits in Taoism, including dragons and white tigers, and even when Feng Shui masters explore cemeteries, the terrain protruding from the left and right sides in front of the terrain can be used as burial rooms, which have unique titles, called Zuo Qinglong and Right White Tiger, to take the meaning of their guards, and also have the same decoration in the court. The left and right pillars are painted with dragons and white tigers to suppress evil spirits. After the rise of Taoism, Dragon Tiger was borrowed as a Taoist alchemy term, which refers to the consent words of lead, mercury, fire, water and yin and yang. Taoist alchemy is divided into two parts: internal alchemy and external alchemy (I'm not sure). As far as Yin-Yang and Five Elements are concerned, Inner Dan means that dragons are born in fire, so the cloud' dragons are born in fire', while tigers are born in ridges and ridges belong to water, so the cloud' tigers are born in water'. After the two elements are combined, one yin and one yang are mutual. Another way of saying this is that sex belongs to wood, and wood represents the East. In divination, it is an earthquake, so it is a dragon. Love belongs to gold, gold represents the west, and the hexagrams are exchanged, which is golden white, so it is called white tiger. Gold can crush wood, so feelings are more harmful. If we use the true meaning of 28 to make it one, then it will be seamless, and the dragon and tiger will change from crouching tiger to Dan. In the human body, the liver is the dragon and the kidney is the tiger, while the external Dan still takes the meaning of yin and yang, with the dragon as the lead and the tiger as the mercury.

In the eyes of ancient Han people, tigers are both terrible and respectable. The terrible thing is that it will eat people and animals. Respectably, it can ward off evil spirits because of its great power. In some ancient books, such as Ying Shao's Custom Yi Tong. Sacrifice in the Eastern Han Dynasty: "Draw a tiger on the door, ghosts dare not enter", "A tiger is a penis, and all animals are long. Can resist sharpness and eat ghosts. Today, people have to burn tiger skin to drink after they die. Beating its paws can also cure evil. This is also a fact. " The ancients also thought that the white tiger was an auspicious feeling:' virtue is a hundred birds and beasts.'

The original West Star gods were bears and owls, and later, because of the totem of the ancient Qiang people, when bears became dragons. When the Yellow Emperor developed eastward, the dragon totem was brought to the east and merged with the' Oriental Black Dragon Constellation', and Zhu Bird became the new home of the celestial phoenix totem when the south was unified, and eventually became a' dragon and phoenix' because of the integration of the two tribes. As an ancient totem, it is the East Phoenix and the West Dragon, and as an astrology, it is the East Black Dragon and the West Zhu Bird. After the Zhou Dynasty, the feudal system was formally established, and the five elements thought also became mature. The astronomical phenomena were re-divided, and the Zhu bird was placed in the south, where it was sacrificed with Zhu Rong Vulcan. The west worships the white tiger. In the tribal struggle and migration, the dragon in the northwest moved eastward, the phoenix in the east moved southward, and the tiger in the south moved northward, showing a great conceptual movement throughout the country. By the Han dynasty, the concept of five elements had become a unified thought, and with Xuanwu, the' God of the Four Sides' was completed.

Historical Records Biography of Tiangong "Black Dragon in the East Palace, Zhu Bird in the South Palace, Xianchi in the West Palace, Gong Bei Xuanwu."

Because the White Tiger is a god of war and a magic axe, many brave generals are said to be famous white tigers, such as Luo Cheng and Xue and his son in the Tang Dynasty. In addition, the white tiger was absorbed and released by Taoism, deified and became the keeper of various temples. Suzaku does not belong to the phoenix, but one of the four spirits and four elephants. Like the other three schools, it comes from the stars and is the general name of the seven schools in the south: well, ghost, willow, star, Zhang, wing and Qi. Think of it as Suzaku. Zhu is red, like fire, and the south belongs to fire.

The record of rosefinch or phoenix reborn from the fire only appears in a poem by Guo Moruo.

South Suzaku, for joy, has five parts, three for the top, two for the bottom, and three days and two places. Wide on the top and narrow on the bottom, the image of inferiority is also. The middle wing is eight inches, like eight winds. The waist is four inches, like four o'clock. Round as yin and yang, but not poor. 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; It turned out that the underworld was in the north, and the divination of Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Shang Dynasty was' its divination will be in the north', so Xuan Ming became a northern god again.

Xuanwu, like other three spirits, comes from 28 stars in the sky: bucket, ox, female, air, danger, house and wall. However, people after ancient times have the following explanations for Xuanwu. Xuanwu' is a tortoise. "Book of Rites. "Quli Shang" says:' Zhu bird before departure, then Xuanwu ...'' Xuanwu' is a tortoise and snake. Supplementary Notes on Hong Xingzu's Songs of the South. Travel far:' Xuanwu is called tortoise and snake. Located in the north, it is called Xuan. With a scale, it is called martial arts. Xuanwu is a combination of snakes, turtles and snakes.

"Selected Works" Volume 15 Zhang Heng's "Four Fu Xuan" said: "Xuanwu leaves its shell, and the snake bends and corrects itself." Shan Li notes the cloud:' When a turtle meets a snake, it is called Xuanwu.' Wang Liangchuan in the History of the Later Han Dynasty: "Hong Fu Nv" says: "Wang Liang is the Lord of Xuanwu." Li Xian pointed out: "Wu Wu, the God of the North, is a combination of tortoise and snake." Xuanwu is the god of water and the god of the north. Wang Liangchuan in the later Han Dynasty: "Xuanwu is the name of the water god." Rebuilding the integration of Wei Shu Volume 6:' Born in Xuanwu, North of the town, the main wind and rain.' But Xuanwu was upgraded to the "Zhenwu Emperor" in the north by later Taoist priests. Different from the other three spirits. Other green dragons and white tigers only worked as gatekeepers of mountain temples, and Zhu Bird worked as Xuan Nv for nine days.

Xuanwu gained value in the Song Dynasty and was personified. This is inseparable from the help of the emperors of the Song Dynasty. In the early Song Dynasty, Zhenwu and Tian Peng were legendary generals in heaven. In the first year of Tianxi, something happened in the military camp. In "The Original" for seven years:' Someone saw a snake in the camp, and the sergeant built a real martial arts school because of it. In April of the following year, the spring was inexhaustible, and the sick people drank more. When Zhenzong heard this, he wrote a letter and built a landscape there, named it' Xiangyuan'. This is probably the earliest Zhenwu Temple in China.

It is often said by later generations that during the reign of Yang Di, the Jade Emperor became one of his three souls, Empress Lezheng, tired of the world, abandoned Wudang Mountain for practice, and successfully ascended to heaven, defended the north and lived in Xuanwu, posthumous title.