What is the relationship between Suzaku and Xuanwu?

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" is the "Wei Zi Wall", symbolizing the palace; "Taiweiyuan" symbolizes the administrative mechanism; The "sky wall" symbolizes the bustling market. These 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, black dragon appears; At the turn of spring and summer, Xuanwu rose; At the turn of summer and autumn, white tigers emerge; At the turn of autumn and winter, Suzaku rises.

Oriental dragon:

Suzaku, Xuanwu (black tortoise snake, martial arts means tortoise snake), Qinglong and Baihu respectively represent 28 places in the four directions, and the dragon is the seven places in the East-the horn, the clang, the bian, the room, the heart, the tail and the dustpan. These seven places are all very dragon-shaped. As can be seen from their meanings, horns are the horns of dragons, and clanging is dragons.

There is still a part of the dragon's heart, which some people call' fire', which is related to sunny and rainy days, and because Qinglong is a wood, it is also the age of Jupiter. After the rise of Taoism, these four spirits have also been given names, which are convenient for human beings to call. Qinglong is called Meng Zhang, White Tiger is called prison soldier, Suzaku is called Lingguang, and Xuanwu is called Zhiming. In many dynasties, some monarchs took Qinglong as their national title, such as Wei Mingdi in the Three Kingdoms. There is also a story in the history books about the Xia Dynasty belonging to the Mudd Dynasty, so he has it.

On the second day of the second month of the lunar calendar, people call it "February 2, the dragon rises", which symbolizes the return of spring to the earth and the revival of everything. At the same time, spring is slowly coming to the world, the rain is increasing, the earth is turning green, and spring ploughing begins from south to north. There is a folk proverb: "On February 2, the dragon looks up, the big warehouse is full, and the small warehouse flows." In short, the second day of February is designated as "Spring Festival".

West White Tiger:

White tiger is also the god of war and war. White tiger has many magical powers, such as avoiding evil, avoiding disasters, praying and punishing evil, promoting good, making a fortune and getting married. And it is one of the four spirits, and of course it is also changed from the stars. Among these 28 stars, there are 7 in the west: osmium, building, stomach, ang, bi, Gou and Shen. Therefore, it is the representative of the west, and its whiteness is due to the west. The five elements belong to gold and the color is white. So it is called white tiger not because it is white, but because it comes from five elements.

In addition to the four spirits in Taoism, including dragons and white tigers, and even when Feng Shui masters explore cemeteries, the terrain protruding from the left and right sides in front of the terrain can be used as burial rooms, which have unique titles, called Zuo Qinglong and Right White Tiger, to take the meaning of their guards, and also have the same decoration in the court. The left and right pillars are painted with dragons and white tigers to suppress evil spirits. After the rise of Taoism, dragon and tiger were borrowed as Taoist alchemy terms, meaning "lead, mercury, fire, water, yin and yang" and so on. Taoist alchemy is divided into two parts: internal alchemy and external alchemy (I'm not sure). As far as Yin-Yang and Five Elements are concerned, Inner Dan means that dragons are born in fire, so the cloud' dragons are born in fire', while tigers are born in ridges and ridges belong to water, so the cloud' tigers are born in water'. After the two elements are combined, one yin and one yang are mutual. China geographic network

Another way of saying this is that sex belongs to wood, and wood represents the East. In divination, it is an earthquake, so it is a dragon. Love belongs to gold, gold represents the west, and the hexagrams are exchanged, which is golden white, so it is called white tiger. Gold can crush wood, so feelings are more harmful. If we use the true meaning of 28 to make it one, then it will be seamless, and the dragon and tiger will change from crouching tiger to Dan. In the human body, the liver is the dragon and the kidney is the tiger, while the external Dan still takes the meaning of yin and yang, with the dragon as the lead and the tiger as the mercury.

In the eyes of the ancients, the tiger is a terrible thing and a respectable thing. The terrible thing is that it will eat people and animals. Respectably, it can ward off evil spirits because of its great power. In some ancient books, such as Ying Shao's Custom Yi Tong. Sacrifice in the Eastern Han Dynasty: "Draw a tiger on the door, ghosts dare not enter", "A tiger is a penis, and all animals are long. Can resist sharpness and eat ghosts. Today, people have to burn tiger skin to drink after they die. Beating its paws can also cure evil. This is also a fact. " The ancients also thought that the white tiger was a sign of auspiciousness:' virtue is a bird and beast.'

The original West Star gods were bears and owls, and later, because of the totem of the ancient Qiang people, when bears became dragons. When the Yellow Emperor developed eastward, the dragon totem was brought to the east and merged with the' Oriental Black Dragon Constellation', while Zhu Bird became the new home of the celestial phoenix totem when the south was unified, and finally became a' dragon and phoenix' due to the integration of the two tribes. As an ancient totem, it is the East Phoenix and the West Dragon, and as an astrology, it is the East Black Dragon and the West Zhu Bird. After the Zhou Dynasty, the feudal system was formally established, and the five elements thought also became mature. The astronomical phenomena were re-divided, and the Zhu bird was placed in the south, where it was sacrificed with Zhu Rong Vulcan. The west worships the white tiger. In the tribal struggle and migration, the dragon in the northwest moved eastward, the phoenix in the east moved southward, and the tiger in the south moved northward, showing a great conceptual movement throughout the country. By the Han dynasty, the concept of five elements had become a unified thought, and with Xuanwu, the' God of the Four Sides' was completed. China * Geographic Network

"Ancient History of Tiangong" records, "Black Dragon in the East Palace, Zhu Bird in the South Palace, Fairy Pool in the West Palace, Gong Bei Xuanwu." This is not a white tiger, but a salty pool. Salty pond is the star of staple food. The main autumn, because the autumn harvest, so the autumn release, but not animals. How can you match the dragon, bird and turtle into four spirits? In "Justice": "The three stars in Xianchi are among the five cars, and the sky hits the south, and the fish and birds also scream." So in the Song Dynasty, a question was raised:' Black Dragon, Zhu Bird, Xuanwu, and Seven Nights are all concerned. As for Xianchi, don't be a star and stay away from 28 nights. There is another explanation for the salty pool, which is where the sun bathes. In Huai Nan Zi. Astronomy:' The sun rises in the valley, bathes in the salty pool and blows on the hibiscus, which is called morning light'. It can be seen that Xianchi was originally regarded as the sunrise place by Qiang people. Xianchi is also an alkali lake, which should be Minshan area or Shantou Lake in Qinghai. It can be proved that the astrology worshipped by primitive people does not have the concept of dragon and white tiger. The Book of Rites says:' Returning to the dragon in the face of the wind is called the Four Spirits.' Replace the salty pool that does not belong to animals with Kirin. Later generations have the habit of four spirits, four elephants and four tigers.

Because the White Tiger is a god of war and a magic axe, many brave generals are said to be the stars of the White Tiger, such as Luo Cheng and Xue and his son in the Tang Dynasty. In addition, the white tiger was absorbed and released by Taoism, deified and became the keeper of various temples.

Southern Suzaku:

Suzaku, like Xuanwu and Qinglong White Tiger, is full of spirituality and mystery. The four images in the Book of Changes are Lao Yang, Laoyin, Shaoyang and Shaoyin, while the four images in Feng Shui are "Zuo Qinglong, Right White Tiger, Former Suzaku and Later Xuanwu". Confucian classics say that "Fu Xuanwu Gongbei, Suzaku South, Qinglong Pandong, and White Tiger Gathering West, the four potentials should be in all directions, and the acupoints are in the middle. If you get soft gas, you will be lucky, and if you get it, you will be fierce."

Suzaku can also be said to be a phoenix or a mysterious bird. Suzaku is one of the four spirits, and like the other three spirits, it comes from the star, which is the general name of the seven southern nights: well, ghost, willow, star, Zhang, wing and bird. Think of it as Suzaku. Scarlet, like fire, the south belongs to fire, hence the name Phoenix. It also has the characteristics of being far from fire, also called fire phoenix, just like the immortal birds in the west.

According to ancient books, Phoenix is a beautiful bird, and its singing and manners are the king of birds, which can bring good luck to the world. At the same time, it also has the special spirituality of' don't be an unripe phoenix tree, don't eat bamboo and don't drink spring water', and because it is the length of feather worms, it gradually becomes a pair with the legendary dragon with the length of scale worms.

There are many prototypes of Phoenix. Such as golden pheasants, peacocks, vultures, mandarin ducks, blackbirds (swallows), etc ... Some people say it is a Buddhist Dapeng golden winged bird. According to 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. There are five kinds of phoenixes, divided by color: red for phoenixes, green for phoenixes, white for swans, and yellow for purples.

Xuanniao's statement comes from The Book of Songs. Ode to Shang Dynasty. Xuanniao said:' Destiny Xuanniao, born in Shang Dynasty, is rich in soil. The ancient emperor ordered martial arts soup, and appropriate sites were everywhere. "In the middle, the descendants of the Shang Dynasty said that their ancestor, Qi, was born by a mysterious bird and established a powerful Shang Dynasty. Therefore, the mysterious bird became the beginning of the merchant. " Historical records. Yin Benji also recorded this history: "Yin Qi's mother's name is Judy, and she has a velvety daughter. She is the second princess in Di Ku ...' When the three of them took a shower, they saw the mysterious bird and its egg, and Judy took it and swallowed it, and gave birth to a contract because she was pregnant.' In addition to Shang Dynasty, the origin of Qin, Manchu and Silla in Warring States was also related to the fairy swallowing the eggs of the mysterious birds. Whether it is a mysterious bird or a phoenix, with the development of Taoism, it evolved from birds, peacocks or pheasants ... to a fairy who is half human and half bird, and to pass on the art of war to a fairy who is completely human.

In Beijing, there were three temples dedicated to Xuan Nv, namely Jiutian Niangniang Temple and Xuan Nv Temple. There are also Xuan Nv temples in the north and south.

Northern 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. Wu means black; Ghost means yin.

At first, Xuan Ming described the turtle divination as follows: the turtle's back is black, and the turtle divination first invited the turtle to ask questions in the underworld, brought back the answers and showed them to the world in the form of divination. Therefore, the earliest Xuanwu is the tortoise. Since then, the meaning of Xuanming has been expanding. Turtles live in rivers, lakes and seas (including turtles), so Xuan Ming became a water god; The tortoise lives long, and Xuan Ming has become a symbol of immortality; It turned out that the underworld was in the north, and the divination of Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Shang Dynasty was' its divination will be in the north', so Xuan Ming became a northern god again.

Xuanwu, like other three spirits, is also derived from the 28 stars on earth: bucket, ox, female, air, danger, house and wall. However, people after ancient times have the following explanations for Xuanwu. Xuanwu' is a tortoise. "Book of Rites. "Quli Shang" says:' Zhu bird before departure, then Xuanwu ...'' Xuanwu' is a tortoise and snake. Supplementary Notes on Hong Xingzu's Songs of the South. Travel far:' Xuanwu is called tortoise and snake. Located in the north, it is called Xuan. With a scale, it is called martial arts. Xuanwu is a combination of snakes, turtles and snakes.

"Selected Works" Volume 15 Zhang Heng's "Four Fu Xuan" said: "Xuanwu leaves its shell, and the snake bends and corrects itself." Shan Li notes the cloud:' When a turtle meets a snake, it is called Xuanwu.' Wang Liangchuan in the History of the Later Han Dynasty: "Hong Fu Nv" says: "Wang Liang is the Lord of Xuanwu." Li Xian pointed out: "Wu Wu, the God of the North, is a combination of tortoise and snake." Xuanwu is the god of water and the god of the north. Wang Liangchuan in the later Han Dynasty: "Xuanwu is the name of the water god." "Rebuilding the Integration of Weft Books", Volume 6, "Tour of the River Map Emperor":' Born in Xuanwu, North China, ... the towns in the north are the main places of wind and rain.

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 became the gatekeepers of the mountain temple, and Zhu Bird became the Xuan Nv of another day.

Xuanwu 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.

The story of Zhenwu Emperor is often said by later generations. During Yang Di's reign, the Jade Emperor reincarnated one of his three souls as the queen of the music-making country. He was tired of the world and abandoned his position to practice in Wudang Mountain. He successfully ascended to heaven and defended the north, and posthumous title Xuanwu.