Xuanwu is one of the four holy beasts, why is it also called the "Zhenwu Emperor"?

First of all, we know that Xuanwu is composed of a turtle and a snake. It cannot be said to be a single creature like the other three mythical beasts. When Xuanwu was first created, it had the idea of ​​opposites and balance in it, and Taoism places great emphasis on Tai Chi. As the ancestor of Taoism, Emperor Zhenwu must have similarities with Xuanwu, which contains Tai Chi, so Emperor Zhenwu is often called Xuanwu, both of which are fictional.

Emperor Zhenwu, also known as Xuantian God and Xuantian God, is the most famous Yujing deity among Taoist gods. Zhenwu is the god of life, and the turtle has become a symbol of longevity and immortality because of its long life. For the water god. According to the yin and yang and the five elements, the north belongs to water, so the god of the north is the water god. Because rainwater is necessary for the survival of all things, Xuanwu's water god attribute is deeply believed by people.

In the late Tang and Five Dynasties, the status of Xuanwu God was still not high. The prosperity of Xuanwu belief and the improvement of the status of Xuanwu God began in the Song Dynasty. Because at the beginning of the Northern Song Dynasty, they were threatened by the Khitan and Liao kingdoms from the north. In order to increase their confidence in defending against invasion, they prayed for the protection of the great northern god Xuanwu.

In the Ming Dynasty, during the Battle of Jingnan, it was said that Emperor Zhenwu appeared to help King Yan. In addition, Emperor Zhenwu was the Great Emperor of Beitian, which confirmed the saying that the king's Qi was in the north. He was also highly praised by Chengzu, who claimed to be Emperor Zhenwu. He descended to earth and ordered a statue of Emperor Zhenwu to be cast in Wudang Mountain in his own image. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Zhenwu was the most prosperous.

The original meaning of Xuanwu is Xuanming, and the ancient sounds of Wu and Ming are connected. Wu means black; Ming means yin. Xuanming originally described turtle divination: the back of the turtle is black, and turtle divination is to ask the turtle to go to the underworld to ask the ancestors, bring the answer back, and show it to the world in the form of divination. The original Mingjian was in the north. The oracle bone divination of the Yin and Shang Dynasties said that "the divination must be northward", so Xuanming became the god of the north again. Therefore Xuanwu and Zhenwu are one.