"Five Ridges and Six Beasts" was originally an architectural term. Among the ancient buildings in China, especially in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Ding Dian has the highest roof specification, with one straight ridge and four vertical ridges, namely "Five Ridges", and each ridge has a beast at both ends, collectively called "Five Ridges and Six Beasts".
Some people think that the "six beasts" refer to the kissing beasts at the back of the spine, the shoveling beasts at the back of the spine (also called hanging beasts), a row of squatting beasts on the vertical spine (also called running beasts and trotting beasts), the trapping beasts at the tail of the horn beam, and the horned beasts around the spine.
Content interpretation
1, the northern proverb "Five Ridges and Six Beasts"
In Northeast China, Beijing, North China and other places, old people often say, "Look at him, he has nothing to do every day, with five ridges and six beasts." This word is used here to describe a very boring state of being idle, flustered and uneasy.
But you can't find a similar collection in Ci Hai, only in the books of northern dialect writers.
In other words, this is a common statement, not an official statement. When people see the ferocious and twisted faces of spine animals on houses, they think they must be very uncomfortable, so they use proverbs, which is the result of natural evolution after folk imagination.
2. "Five Ridges and Six Beasts" in ancient buildings
Vertebrate animals are often used in the main halls of palaces and temples in traditional Chinese ancient buildings, especially in large buildings in Ming and Qing Dynasties.
There are two kinds of the highest specifications and styles of the roofs of ancient buildings: one is the roof of Pangdian; The other is the inclined mountain peak: Pangdian has four reputations and the inclined mountain peak has nine reputations. These smooth animals squat in the lowest house reputation. People don't know the way to distinguish the height of the roof, so it is clear at a glance that ancient buildings are collectively called Wuling. These small animals crouch on the eaves, which are easy to be found by the people below, and are collectively called six beasts.
In fact, there are more than five such halls, and there are six squatting beasts.
Brief introduction of Wuling
From beginning to end, it is cunning (count you in), gambling on fish, tinea (conspicuous), bullfighting and behavior.
Appearance: an unusually powerful monster in ancient times. It is rumored that it can eat tigers and leopards. It looks exactly like a lion, and its head is covered with thick hair, so it is called "Beetle". It is very fierce and has the meaning of becoming the leader of all animals. It is also a legendary beast under Manjusri Bodhisattva.
Gambling on fish: a beast in the sea can spread sex and rain, and it has the connotation of fire prevention and fire fighting on the roof.
Tinea: Mr. Lu Xun once described it as a monster similar to the lion in ancient times. It has a horn on its head, looks like a unicorn, is loyal and straightforward, and can distinguish right from wrong in the world. It is one of the ancient litigation gods, representing the justice and fairness of the royal family.
Bullfighting: it is a kind of legendary dragon, similar to glass and cricket; The difference is that there is only one horn on Qiu's head, but there is no horn on Qiu's head. According to ancient books, it often hovers on the road or the whole jade building to eliminate disasters.
What to do: the human body, monkey face and wings have wings, and holding the pestle can subdue the devil; Because it looks particularly like Lei Zhenzi in the secular novels of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it is said that it was placed on the roof to prevent lightning strikes.
In fact, Spine Beasts were originally made of pottery. After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was made of glass. The original purpose was to protect the nails and wooden frames on the roof and prevent rainwater from leaking.
With the gradual imprisonment of the feudal dynasty, it had a strict hierarchical meaning, and evolved a variety of sayings, such as 3, 5, 7, 9, 1 1, corresponding to different architectural levels. These sayings were originally invented by literati in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and need not be over-interpreted. If you don't believe me, there are so many ancient buildings in the Tang, Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan Dynasties in Shanxi, but there is no such decoration, which is proved in the cultural relics inspection.
Introduction of six beasts
Six Beasts are the sacred animals placed on the roofs of ancient buildings in China. There are dragon kisses at both ends of the spine, also known as swallowing animals. Five crouching beasts with four vertical ridges are called "six beasts".
Chiroptera is divided into running animals, hanging animals, "immortals" and Peng kisses. Among them, kissing animals or ornamental animals are placed on the main ridge, hanging animals are placed on the vertical ridge, money animals are placed on the Russian ridge, and fairy animals are placed on the edge of the roof.
The front of the roof is the immortal, that is, the person riding the phoenix, also known as the immortal riding the phoenix. Followed by wild animals, according to the Qing Hui Dian, these small animals are: dragon, phoenix, lion, Tianma, hippocampus, handsome posture, fish, tinea, bullfighting and walking.
In ancient architecture, people riding impatiens were put in the first place, indicating that they were flying in the air and praying for good luck. Its function is to fix the first tile at the lower end of the vertical ridge.
The last one on the ridge is Peng Kiss, which is a faucet-shaped tile placed at both ends of the main ridge of Ming and Qing architecture, also known as "positive kiss". According to legend, this beast is easy to swallow, so it is made to swallow the spine with the mouths at both ends of the main spine, also known as "swallowing the spine beast". The so-called "spine-swallowing beast" is the "kiss of Peng" in the famous Nine Dragons.