What are the origins of the four great beasts of antiquity: the Vermilion Bird, the Xuanwu, the Green Dragon and the White Tiger?

From China's ancient times handed down many myths, people more than these myths is also very curious, and in many myths have appeared in the figure of the four mythical beasts, and are extraordinary powerful. These four mythical beasts are the green dragon, white tiger, vermilion bird, xuanwu, in many film and television works also often see their figure, more than depicted as strange-looking, eccentric creatures. For their origin is only from the ancient times such a brush stroke. So what is the real origin of the four mythical beasts?

The four mythical beasts are a combination of ancient myths and astronomy studied by ancient people. Ancient people divided the stars of the sky into seven star areas, which are the "Three Constant" and "Four Elements". The "three constellations" are arranged in the shape of a triangle around the North Star. The "Four Elephants" are distributed around the "Three Constant". To the east is the Green Dragon, to the west is the White Tiger, to the south is the Vermilion Bird, and to the north is the Xuan Wu. The "Four Elephants" are also based on the shape of the people. As the earth is revolving around the sun, the stars in the sky is also with the alternation of seasons and change. At the turn of winter and spring, the shape of the stars in the sky shows the shape of a dragon; at the turn of spring and summer, it will change the shape of a turtle and snake; at the turn of summer and fall, it will change into the shape of a Zhu Bird.

The ancients also believed that there were gods in the sky, so they worshipped the Green Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Xuanwu as the four sacred beasts. Later, as the ancients delved deeper into literature, they incorporated the four sacred beasts into the five elements of orientation, and also used different colors to represent them. Green in the east represents wood; white in the west represents gold; red in the south represents fire; black in the north represents water; and yellow in the center represents earth. Later, the four mythical beasts slowly evolved into guardian spirits. Commonly used in feng shui masters to select the land, such as the selection of cemeteries, will be selected on the left and right side of the terrain of the place, meaning that there are green dragon and white tiger guarding the left and right, but also often carved in the court of the columns above the left and right, used to drive away evil spirits and avoid the devil.

Later the rise of Taoism, the "four elephants" was absorbed by Taoist culture, and humanized, and slowly the four gods. Mengzhang Shenjun is the Green Dragon, Supervising Soldier Shenjun is the White Tiger, Lingguang Shenjun is the Vermilion Bird, and Deiming Shenjun is the Xuanwu. When the Taoist priests practice, they invite the four elephants to guard