The four sacred beasts are the names of modern people for Qinglong, Baihu, Suzaku and Xuanwu. In fact, they are not sacred animals, but gods. In ancient times, they were also called four elephants and four spirits, which were the products of ancient star worship.
Four kinds of animals are represented by different colors: oriental cyan is wood, western white is gold, southern red is fire, northern black is water, and middle yellow is earth. Another "Huai Nan Zi" mentioned Huanglong, one of the five dragons, that is, Ying Long is in the center, which is the length of four beasts.
origin
As these four great beasts became more and more popular in culture, people also gave them names and their own legends.
1, Qinglong was named Meng Zhang, which is Meng Zhang Shen Jun of Taoism. According to the ancient book Huainanzi, it is easy to make the gods kneel down for feng shui. It was at this time that Qinglong was the most noble and became the first of the four great beasts. Moreover, because the attribute of Qinglong is wood, it is also called the benevolent god representing the vitality of spring.
2. The white tiger is named a prison soldier, that is, a Taoist prison soldier. Its attribute is gold, so its color is white, representing bleak autumn.
And because autumn is the moment when everything begins to wither, with the cold, we often hear "Ask after the autumn" when watching costume movies and TV plays, which is the reason. Therefore, the white tiger is also known as the god of war and killing god.
3. Suzaku's name is Lingguang, which is the Taoist Lingguang Shen Jun. Because his attribute is fire, the color is red, which represents the heat in summer. Many people will associate Suzaku and Phoenix, and even think that they are the same creature.
In fact, they are two completely different individuals, not even related by blood. And the phoenix will be reborn, but Suzaku will not, because Suzaku represents immortal existence.
4. Xuanwu was named Zhi Ming, the God of Taoism. Because its property is water, it represents winter. The Xuanwu image we see is actually composed of a snake and a turtle. It is a special one of the four great beasts, and its defense is still amazing, which also represents longevity.
In fairy tales, the four great beasts occupy four orientations of the world: gold, wood, water and fire, and the nature they guard in the middle is earth. The public name is easy to be feng shui, "earth". In fairy tales, it represents Huanglong, but it is not the object guarded by the four beasts, but the fifth beast containing the four beasts.
Because, in the period of Xuanyuan Huangdi, these four great beasts were not auspicious beasts, but evil beasts that caused trouble everywhere. In order to prevent the four beasts from making trouble, the Yellow Emperor turned into a yellow dragon and surrendered them, and finally sealed them in four directions of heaven and earth, so that they could not fight each other.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Four Great Beasts