White tiger: the god of the west belongs to gold
Suzaku: The God of the South belongs to fire.
Xuanwu: the god of the north belongs to water.
Gouchen and Tengshe: the middle belongs to soil.
It doesn't matter who is better.
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, on the other hand, 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 Tianxi, something happened in the military camp. In "The Original" for seven years:' Someone saw a snake in the camp, and the sergeant built a real martial arts school because of it. In April of the following year, the spring was inexhaustible, and the sick people drank more. When Zhenzong heard this, he wrote a letter and built a landscape there, 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.