The origin of Xuanwu?

Xuanwu is transformed from 28 stars in the world: bucket, ox, female, air, danger, house and wall. In ancient times, people explained Xuanwu in this way. Xuanwu is a tortoise. In the Book of Rites Quli, it is said that "Zhu bird before departure, then Xuanwu ..." "Xuanwu" is a tortoise and snake. Supplement to Hong Xingzu's Biography of Chu Ci: "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. "

I. Introduction to Xuanwu

Xuanwu is one of the four gods in China's ancient mythology, which originated from the worship of ancient stars. On behalf of Zhuan Xu and the seven nights in the north, it is the god of the north. Based on gossip and five behaviors, it symbolizes the old yin in the four elephants and the winter in the four seasons.

The theory of divination rose in the Han Dynasty, and its symbolic significance was added to the underworld, non-decadence and wisdom. After the Han Dynasty, Taoism absorbed it as the protector, and called it the god of ghosts, and later became the Zhenwu Emperor.

One of the five beasts in Huainanzi is Qinglong, Baihu, Suzaku, Xuanwu and Huanglong, also known as Tianguan Five Beasts.

Second, the legend

In ancient mythology of China, the four great beasts were Qinglong, Baihu, Suzaku and Xuanwu. Xuanwu, also called Xuanming, is a combination of tortoise and snake. It is the water god, living in Beihai, and the tortoise lives long. Xuan Ming has become a symbol of immortality, and the underworld is also in the north, so it is the god of the north. Xuanwu is different from other three spirits because it can ask divination in the underworld. It is called the God of Tian Xuan and the "Zhenwu Emperor", and it is the god worshipped by Taoism.

The story of Zhenwu Emperor It is often said that during the reign of Yang Di, the Jade Emperor reincarnated one of his three souls into the Empress Lezheng and became a prince after birth.

According to legend, the prince of King Gu Jingle came from a mighty family and traveled to the East China Sea. He was given a sword by the gods and went to Wudang Mountain in Hubei Province to practice. After 42 years of success, it rose during the day and became the Xuanwu king of Weizhen North.

Third, appearance and form.

In ancient times, people thought snakes were witty, clever and good at collecting money, and popular belief believed that dreaming snakes predicted money; However, the turtle has hard armor on its abdomen and back, and its head, tail and limbs can be retracted into the armor, so it is hungry and thirsty, and its life span is very long. People use turtles for divination and scorpions for divination, which are collectively called tortoise divination. The texture on the turtle's back is called tortoise inscription. When divining, the tortoise shell is burnt and cracked lines are seen, indicating good or bad luck.

Fourthly, totem culture.

Turtles and snakes were regarded as sacred animals in ancient China, symbolizing longevity. Before the Han Dynasty, nobles often wore jade turtles. In Japan, influenced by ancient China, turtle patterns are often used to name and make badges.

The ancients divided twenty-eight lodgings into four groups, namely, seven lodgings in East Black Dragon, seven lodgings in North Xuanwu, seven lodgings in West White Tiger and seven lodgings in South Suzaku. This is a reflection of the totem worship of our ancestors in ancient astronomy. The ancestors regarded the dragon as the length of the scale worm, the phoenix as the king of all birds, the tiger as the length of all beasts, and the turtle as the king of worms, which were collectively called the four spirits.

As early as the primitive society, the four spirits have appeared in different tribes as a form of totem worship. On the bronzes of Shang Dynasty, there are often family emblems with these animals as clan names, which is a reflection of totem worship.

From the end of the Spring and Autumn Period to the beginning of the Warring States Period, dragons, phoenixes, tigers and turtles were regarded as "four-sided beasts" and became gods in charge and protection of the four sides. The four spirits are the whole worship representing four directions, and the product of the combination of totem worship, auspicious worship and spiritual worship of ancestors. Among them, the dragon and phoenix totem is a symbol of the magnificent national integration of the Chinese nation, while the turtle and tiger may be a unique totem creatively created according to the thrilling war.

What needs to be added is that before the Han Dynasty, Xuanwu was just an image of a turtle. After the Han dynasty, Xuanwu's bricks, murals, brick carvings and tomb stone carvings also added the image of snakes on the basis of turtles. This is because people find that turtles among turtles (also known as spirit turtles and snake turtles) like to eat snakes by nature and often make enemies with snakes.

Therefore, the simple tortoise was changed to the image of tortoise and snake entangled and fighting at both ends, in order to highlight Xuanwu's brave spirit of eating snakes and eliminating evil. At the same time, the entanglement of turtles and snakes shows a mysterious cultural world of China. The ancestor of Xuanwu, Tui Huangdi, Fuxi or Jiang Ziya, is another totem.

Kang Zeng, a young scholar, demonstrated in Textual Research on China Myth that Xuanwu is the embodiment of the mysterious snake turtle, and the mysterious snake is the body of the leading phoenix-winged python; Wu the tortoise is the dragon's head and the unicorn's tail. They are the evolution of the ancient god beast Teng snake and tortoise totem, and also the fusion of the northern national dragon totem and tortoise totem. The dragon and snake are an organic whole, and the tortoise is evolution, which is the predecessor or nickname of the son of the dragon.

The combination of tortoise and snake is the expression of reproductive culture, and it is also the wisdom crystallization of the evolution of dragon and tortoise totem by working people in China thousands of years ago.