What are the four ancient beasts and what do they symbolize?

The four great beasts are Qinglong, Baihu, Suzaku and Xuanwu.

Qinglong 1

Originated from the worship of stars in ancient times. In ancient China, the stars in the sky were divided into seven star zones: "Three Walls" and "Four Elephants". "Three Walls" is the "Wei Zi Wall", which symbolizes the palace; "Taiweiyuan" symbolizes the administrative organization; The "sky wall" symbolizes the bustling market.

These three walls are arranged in a triangle around Polaris. There are four elephants around the three walls: East Black Dragon, West White Tiger, South Suzaku and North Xuanwu. In other words, the stars in the East are like a dragon. As the earth revolves around the sun, the stars in the sky change with the seasons. Every evening at the turn of winter and spring, the black dragon will appear.

2. White tiger

White tiger is also the god of war and war, which originated from the worship of stars in ancient times. The white tiger has many magical powers, such as avoiding evil, avoiding disasters, praying for blessings, punishing evil and promoting good, getting rich and getting married. It is one of the four spirits, and of course it is also changed from the stars.

It is a 28-star composed of seven places in the west: Kui, Lou, Stomach, Chang, Bi, Dog and God. Therefore, it is the representative of the west, and its white color is white because the west belongs to gold in the five elements. So white is said from the five elements.

3. Suzaku

Because China is one of the four elephants and four beasts in traditional culture, it originated from the worship of stars in ancient times. It is a wild animal representing the south. Its color is red and its season is summer.

The four great beasts are Suzaku, Xuanwu, Qinglong and White Tiger. Suzaku is one of the four spirits. Like the other three, it comes from the stars, which is the general name of seven small houses in the south: well, ghost, willow, star, Zhang, wing and bird.

4. Xuanwu

The father of Yu, the founder of Xia Dynasty in China, was called "Kun", the word Xuan Ming, who helped Shun to control water before the famous Dayu did. Because it only uses blocking instead of dredging, despite the help of the gods, it has not succeeded. Generally speaking, a gun is regarded as the embodiment of a turtle, and Tu Shanshi, a member of Xia nationality, thinks that a snake is his ancestor.

Extended data

The four great beasts are the legendary beasts in ancient China, namely, the dragon, the white tiger, the suzaku and the Xuanwu, which belong to the combination of ancient mythology and astronomy. These four animals are integrated with the five elements and directions, and are represented by different colors: blue in the east is wood, white in the west is gold, red in the south is fire, black in the north is water, and yellow in the center is earth. In addition, Huainanzi mentioned that Huanglong, one of the five dragons, is in the middle, which is the length of four beasts.

The so-called weather, left Qinglong, right White Tiger, before Suzaku, after Xuanwu. Therefore, you can know the order of the sun and the moon in the shade of the class, and you can know how hot and cold the world is by seeing the ice in the bottle. ?

In ancient China, the stars in the sky were divided into seven star zones, namely "Three Walls" and "Four Elephants". The so-called "wall" means "city wall". The three walls around Polaris are arranged in a triangle. There are four elephants around the three walls: East Black Dragon, West White Tiger, South Suzaku and North Xuanwu.

That is to say, the stars in the east are like dragons, the stars in the west are like tigers, the stars in the south are like big birds, and the stars in the north are like turtles and snakes. As the earth revolves around the sun, the stars in the sky change with the seasons. Every evening at the turn of winter and spring, the black dragon will appear; At the turn of spring and summer, Xuanwu rises; At the turn of summer and autumn, white tigers emerge; At the turn of autumn and winter, Suzaku, known as the "four beasts", rose.

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