What do the four elephants mean? What do the four elephants mean?

1. In ancient China, people imagined seven nights in the east, west, south and north as four animal images, which were called four elephants. In the traditional culture of China, the four elephants refer to the dragon, the white tiger, the suzaku and the Xuanwu, representing the east, the west, the south and the north respectively, which originated from the belief in the stars in ancient China, not Taoism. In "Twenty-eight Nights", four images are used to divide the stars in the sky, also known as four gods and four spirits. In the theory of astronomical yin and yang in the Spring and Autumn Period, the four images refer to the natural weather of the four seasons.

2. The concept of Four Elephants was highly valued in ancient Japan and Korea, and they were usually called Four Saints and Four Holy Beasts.