What is the origin of the Four Beasts of Feng Shui?
Suzaku
The Phoenix is a spiritual creature that represents happiness in China. There are many forms of it. Such as golden pheasant, peacock, eagle, swan, black bird (swallow) and so on. ． ． It is also said that it was transformed into the Buddhist Dapeng Garuda. The phoenix mentioned in the Phoenix myth has the head of a chicken, the chin of a swallow, the neck of a snake, the tail of a fish, and has five-color patterns. There are five kinds of phoenixes, divided by color: red is phoenix, green is phoenix, white is swan, and yellow and purple phoenix can also be said to be red bird or black bird. Suzaku is one of the four spirits. Like the other three spirits, it comes from the stars and is the general name of the seven stars in the south: Well, Ghost, Willow, Star, Zhang, Yi, and Zhen. When I think of it, it's Suzaku. Zhu is red, like fire, and the south belongs to fire, so it is called Phoenix. It also has the property of being reincarnated from the fire, just like the phoenix in the West, so it is also called the Fire Phoenix.
Xuanwu
Xuanwu is a spiritual creature composed of a turtle and a snake. The original meaning of Xuanwu is Xuanming, and the ancient sounds of Wu and Ming are connected. Wu means black; Ming means yin. Xuan Ming 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 answers back, and show them to the world in the form of divination. Therefore, the earliest Xuanwu was the turtle. Later, the meaning of Xuan Ming continued to expand. Turtles live in rivers, lakes and seas (including sea turtles), so Xuan Ming became the god of water; turtles live long, and Xuan Ming became a symbol of immortality; the original underworld was in the north, and the oracle bone divination of the Yin and Shang Dynasties said that "the divination must be northward", So Xuan Ming became the god of the north again
White Tiger
In China, the white tiger is the god of war and killing. Tiger has many magical powers such as avoiding evil, warding off disasters, praying for prosperity and punishing evil, promoting good deeds, making wealth, and getting married. And it is one of the four spirits, and of course it is made of stars. Among the twenty-eight constellations, there are seven in the west: Kui, Lou, Wei, Ang, Bi, Xi, and Shen. Therefore, it is the representative of the West, and its white color is because it is the West. The West belongs to gold among the five elements, and its color is white. So it is called White Tiger not because it is white, but because of the five elements.
Qinglong
Qinglong, also known as "Blue Dragon", is the oriental god in ancient mythology. The dragon is the totem of the Chinese nation. Ever since the Yellow Emperor appointed him to the sky and commanded power in all directions, the dragon has become a symbol of the Chinese nation and even the whole of China. The more definite shape was established in the Han Dynasty. From the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the dragon was determined to be the symbol of the emperor. Symbols and representations. In Eastern legends, the green dragon has a body like a long snake, a unicorn head, a carp tail, a long beard on its face, deer-like antlers, five claws, and a mighty appearance. In Western mythology, the dragon is more like a lizard with wings.