What are the origins of the two sacred beasts tied in the Daxiong Hall of Tanzhe Temple?

These two beasts chained together are kissing animals, and people call them kissing animals. They are two sons of the old Dragon King of Longtan near Tanzhe Temple. The duty of these two kisses is to protect Tanzhe Temple from fire. Once, they were having fun, and Kangxi saw them. Kangxi was afraid that they would fly away and locked them with chains.

When kissing in ancient temples, in order to avoid fire and evil spirits, the image of kissing animals and beasts was often carved on the roof. Kissing is also called "spine devourer", "kissing" and "ichthyosaur". It is said that it is one of the nine sons of the dragon. It has great magic power, it can make it rain and smoke, and most importantly, it can spray waves and rain to put out fires. It is a beast that seeks good fortune and avoids evil. People often use its image to avoid fire and evil spirit.

At first, the two animals were not chained. When Tanzhe Temple was completed, they were sent by their father, the Old Dragon King, to guard the newly-built temple, so they settled on the roof of the temple. This old dragon king is the old dragon of Longtan near Tanzhe Temple. It contributed a lot to the construction of Tanzhe Temple, and even the space occupied by Tanzhe Temple was donated by it for free. From this point of view, in fact, the old dragon king and his two sons have made great contributions to promoting Buddhism, but why were the two kisses locked by chains later?

The key to Kangxi is that these two kissing animals met Kangxi. One day, Kangxi visited Tanzhe Temple. The weather in Wan Li, which was originally clear, suddenly became gloomy. There is a strong wind blowing around, flying sand and stones, and dark clouds in the sky are covered with lightning and thunder. Kangxi felt strange and went to the front of the main hall to see it, only to find that the two animals came alive and smoked on the roof for fun. Kangxi is also very happy. After all, the beasts in the temple appeared, but he was afraid that the two beasts would fly away because they were too naughty to bear loneliness, so he ordered them to be chained, and the wind and rain stopped after the locking.