What are the four ancient beasts?

The four ancient beasts are introduced as follows.

1, Suzaku

In China, the phoenix is a symbol of happiness. There are many kinds of prototypes, such as golden pheasant, peacock, vulture, mandarin duck, blackbird (swallow), etc. It is said that it was changed from a Buddhist Dapeng golden winged bird. In the phoenix myth, the phoenix has a chicken's head, a swallow's chin, a snake's neck, a fish's tail and five-color stripes.

2. Xuanwu

Xuanwu is a spiritual thing composed of turtles and snakes. Xuanwu originally meant Xuanming, and the ancient sounds of Wu and Ming are interlinked. Xuan means black; Ghost means yin. At first, Xuan Ming described the turtle divination as follows: The turtle's back is black, but does the turtle divination want the turtle to go to the underworld? Bring the answer back first and show it to the world in the form of divination. Therefore, the earliest Xuanwu is the tortoise.

3. White tiger

In the traditional culture of China, it is one of the four images of the Seven Stars in Western Taoism. According to the theory of five elements, it is a spirit beast representing the west. Because the west belongs to gold and the color is white, it is called white tiger, which represents autumn. The white tiger symbolizes power and the army, so many places named after the white tiger in ancient times are related to the military.

4. Qinglong

Qinglong is one of the four elephants in China traditional culture. According to the theory of five elements, it is a spirit beast representing the East. Qinglong is both a name and a family, and its orientation is east to left, representing spring.