Four Holy Beasts, China

China's four great beasts: Qinglong, Baihu, Suzaku and Xuanwu.

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.

The so-called sky, left Qinglong, right White Tiger, former Suzaku, and later Xuanwu. Therefore, you can know the order of the sun and the moon in the shade of the class, and you can know the cold and heat of the world 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" is the "city wall". 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.

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 appears; At the turn of spring and summer, Suzaku rises; At the turn of summer and autumn, white tigers emerge; At the turn of autumn and winter, Xuanwu rose, known as the "four great beasts".

In addition, the four great beasts are also four of the six beasts corresponding to the hexagrams in Zhouyi, which are collectively called "Six Gods", namely Qinglong, Suzaku, Gouchen, Tengshe, Baihu and Xuanwu. They not only represent the five elements and directions, but also reflect the information of the hexagrams.

Four Livestock is also a formulation that China's twelve-hour system corresponds to good or bad luck at different times. Often the time corresponding to Qinglong is auspicious, while the time corresponding to Baihu, Suzaku and Xuanwu is fierce.