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. The status of dragons is much higher than that of India. 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.
There is also a folk saying that dragons are lustful, that is, having sex with cows will give birth to unicorns, and having sex with pigs will give birth to elephants. The so-called dragon gives birth to nine children, unlike the dragon. See the article Nine Children of the Dragon.
Western white tiger
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. It often goes out with dragons, and "the cloud follows the dragon and the wind follows the tiger" becomes the best partner for subduing ghosts.
And the white tiger is also the god of war and war. The white tiger has many magical powers, such as avoiding evil, avoiding disasters, praying and punishing evil, promoting good, making a fortune, and tying the knot. 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 the eyes of the ancients, the tiger is a terrible thing and a respectable thing. 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, but 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 auspicious: "virtue is a hundred birds and beasts."
And because the White Tiger is a god of war and an 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.
Southern suzaku
Suzaku can also be said to be a phoenix or a mysterious bird. Suzaku is one of the four spirits, and like the other three spirits, it comes from the star, which is the general name of the seven southern nights: 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.
According to ancient records, Phoenix is a beautiful bird. With its singing and manners, it is the king of all birds. It can bring good luck to the world, and at the same time it has the special spirituality of "phoenix tree is not born, bamboo does not eat, and spring does not drink". Because it is the length of the "feather worm", it gradually becomes a pair with the legendary "scale worm" dragon.
There are many prototypes of Phoenix. Such as golden pheasants, peacocks, vultures, mandarin ducks, blackbirds (swallows), etc ... Some people say it is a Buddhist Dapeng golden winged bird. 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 for phoenixes, green for phoenixes, white for swans, and yellow for purples.
In Beijing, there were three temples dedicated to Xuan Nv, namely Jiutian Niangniang Temple and Xuan Nv Temple. There are also Xuan Nv temples in the north and south.
Northern 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; 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. However, 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 Song Zhenzong Tianxi, something happened in the military camp. "Seven Years of Events": "Some people in the camp saw a snake, so the sergeant built a real martial arts school. In April of the following year, the spring hall was endless, and the sick people drank more. " When Zhenzong heard about this, he wrote a letter to build a view at the scene and 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.