What are the symbolic meanings of the four great beasts in ancient myths and legends of China?

The ancient 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 horns (wooden dumplings), kang (golden dragon), shuttlecock (native raccoon), house (moon fox), heart (sun rabbit), 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), Ang (Japanese chicken), Bi (moon bird), tapir (fire monkey) and ginseng (water ape), are shaped like tigers, calling the West Palace the white tiger; In the south, wells (wooden tops), ghosts (golden sheep), willows (earth roes), stars (Japanese horses), Zhang (moon deer), wings (water snakes) and salamanders (fire insects) are connected into a bird shape, which is called Suzaku; The northern seven-star bucket (wood), cow (golden sheep), female (earth bat), virtual (sun mouse), dangerous (moon swallow), house (fire pig) and wall (water Shu) 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. Among the four gods, Qinglong and Baihu are the four great beasts.

The brave is the body and is mainly regarded as the god of killing evil spirits. Its image appears in palaces, temples, gates or mausoleum buildings and their cultural relics. On the last occasion, the dragon is not helping the tomb owner ascend to heaven, but deterring evil spirits and defending the soul peace of the tomb owner. There are dragons and white tigers in all directions, Suzaku Xuanwu is in harmony with Yin and Yang, and the four spirits, black dragon and white tiger, Suzaku Xuanwu Heaven, rarely appear in European and American fantasy, but in Chinese and Japanese myths and legends, they appear as incomparable Four Holy Beasts. There are many legends about dragons, and there are also many stories about the origin of dragons. Some said it was imported from India, while others said it was transformed from China. India itself is said by the dragon god, but the status of dragons in India is not high, and there is a real thing-python. In the era when the Five Elements Theory prevailed, the story about Qinglong began to spread slowly. According to the Yin-Yang and Five Elements, the Five Elements assigned five colors to the Southeast and Northwest Middle Schools, and each color was equipped with a beast and a god. East is cyan, with dragons, west is white, with tigers, south is scarlet, north is black, with martial arts, and yellow is the central positive color. Qinglong, also known as "Black Dragon", is the God of the East in ancient mythology. Dragon is the totem of the Chinese nation. Since the Yellow Emperor entrusted it to Tianhe and weiser, it has been a symbol of the Chinese nation and even the whole of China, and its stereotype was in the Han Dynasty. Since the Great Han Dynasty, it has been identified as the symbol and representative of the emperor. In oriental legend, the dragon looks like a long snake, the head of a unicorn, the tail of a carp, a long beard, horns like deer and five claws, which is frightening. In western mythology, the dragon is more like a lizard with wings. Among the four gods, according to Shan Hai Jing, "Southern Zhurong is a beast with human face and rides two dragons. 」; "In the west of Ru Shou, there are four giant animals' left ears.

Snakes, take two dragons. 」; "In the East, there is Ju Mang, a bird and a face, riding two dragons. 」; "North yujiang county, black hands and feet, was 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. The dragon is the seven lodges in the East-horn, clang, car, room, heart, tail and dustpan. These seven lodges are all dragon-shaped. As can be seen from their meanings, horns are the horns of dragons, and clanging is dragons. & lt& lt Zhouyi >> The dry divination in the book includes "Six Dragons", that is, Kang Long has regrets, the flying dragon is in the sky, and it is not suitable to use the hidden dragon, or the deep is in the continent, and the dragon is in the field, and the dragons are leaderless. "Six Dragons" can be explained as follows: When the black dragon star is close to the sun, people can't see it, and it is covered by the light of the sun. We call it a hidden dragon. After that, the Dragon Horn and the everyday star appeared on the horizon at the same time, which was called Tian Jianlong, and then all the black dragon stars appeared, that is, "or deep in the mainland." When the stars in "Black Dragon" rose to the highest point and crossed the southern sky, people saw "flying dragons in the sky". After that, the dragon body began. And "leaderless" cannot be explained as the last link of this astronomical cycle. If you put the dustpan outside, the dragon without the dustpan will roll in, but in ancient Chinese, the words "qun" and "Juan" are just function words, which means that the last sentence means that the black dragon falls from the sky and its head hangs below the horizon, so the word "dragon" itself is an ancient astrolabe.