Speaking of the phrase "left green dragon, right white tiger, front Vermilion Bird, back Xuanwu", everyone may be familiar with it, but do you know why Qinglong is ranked first among these four elephants?
Before talking about the green dragon, let's talk about the origin of the four elephants.
Earlier, people in ancient China divided the stars in the sky into seven star regions: "Sanyuan" and "Sixiang". The so-called "wall" means "wall". "Sanyuan" is "Ziweiyuan", symbolizing the imperial palace; "Taiweiyuan" symbolizes the administrative body; "Tenshigai" symbolizes a bustling market. These three walls are arranged in a triangular pattern around the North Star.
There are "four elephants" distributed around the "three walls", and the ancient people observed the movement of the sun, the moon, and the five stars and divided the area near the ecliptic and the equator into 28 constellations, commonly known as the 28 constellations. The 28 houses are divided into four houses, east, south, west and north, according to the direction and season, and each house has seven houses. People respectively imagine the seven houses to which they belong as an animal, which corresponds to the "four star signs", that is, "the green dragon in the east, the red bird in the south, the white tiger in the west, and the Xuanwu in the north".
In other words, the ancients thought that the stars in the east were like a dragon, the stars in the west were like a tiger, the stars in the south were like a big bird, and the stars in the north were like turtles and snakes. Every evening at the turn of winter and spring, the green dragon appears; At the turn of spring and summer, the Vermilion Bird rises; At the turn of summer and autumn, the white tiger shows its head; At the turn of autumn and winter, Xuanwu rises.
In addition, the "four elephants" in ancient China first referred to the old yang, the old yin, the less yang, and the less yin. In the Book of Changes, it is said that Taiji gives birth to two yi, and two yi give birth to four images, Taiji is one, which means chaos, and Liangyi refers to yin and yang, and the four images are derived from yin and yang. Therefore, in the "Five Elements" of traditional Chinese culture, the green dragon represents wood, the white tiger represents gold, the vermilion bird represents fire, and the xuanwu represents water.
The green dragon was actually called the blue dragon at the earliest, because later the ancients matched the four elephants with the five colors, so the oriental dragon was called the green dragon. The color of the white tiger in the west is white, the color of the red finch in the south is red, and the color of the basalt in the north is black.
In ancient times, the traditional Chinese orientation is different from the south above, and the modern north is different from the top, so to describe the direction of the four elephants, it will be said that the left green dragon (east), the right white tiger (west), the former Vermilion Bird (south), and the rear Xuanwu (north) to express, which is why the green dragon ranks first among the four elephants.
Qinglong, the general name of the seven oriental houses (horn, kang, di, fang, heart, tail, kei) in the twenty-eight houses, its shape is like a dragon, also known as the dragon, its color is green, the surface of the east, was originally the god of the east in ancient mythology, from the pre-Qin era it is the representative of Taihao and the seven oriental beasts, and to the Han Dynasty The Five Elements Doctrine began to rise, its symbolic meaning is more A and B and spring, in the gossip corresponds to the earthquake and Xun.
The Seven Houses of the East resemble dragons, which can be seen from their literal meaning. The horn is the horn of the dragon, the horn is the neck, the root of the neck is the root, the fang is the shoulder, the wedge, the heart is the heart, the tail is the tail, and the kei (sound with the same machine) is the end of the tail. There is also the heart star in the heart of the dragon, which is also called "Great Mars", which is related to weather and rain. And because Qinglong belongs to wood, it is also Jupiter's year Tai Sui.
As early as the pre-Qin period, Qinglong gradually evolved into one of the four elephant beasts, and at that time, the role of Xuanwu had not yet appeared, and the representative Rui beast in the north was still a divine deer, and Qinglong has always been the image of a divine beast. After the Song Dynasty, with the prosperity of Taoism, the four elephants were gradually personified, evolved into humanoid gods, and had their titles, among which the green dragon was called "Mengzhang Shenjun".
Later, with the worship of the dragon totem in the past dynasties of our country, the image of the green dragon became more and more complex, more and more vivid, and its status became higher. But the most common among our people is the dragon lord in the Dragon King Temple, this immortal with both human body and beast form, can be said to be the most familiar and affectionate among the people.
Speaking of which, the green dragon is also a kind of dragon, and about the dragon, it is a topic that we can't finish talking about for a while, so let's give you a few more words today.
In the description of the ancient book "Classic of Mountains and Seas" in China's pre-Qin period, most dragons are still mounted under them, or the power to pull the dragon chariot, or the divine beasts or weapons held by the great gods. In the era of the Yellow Emperor, it is said that Ying Long, who had wings, was a member of the Yellow Emperor's generals, who helped the Yellow Emperor defeat Emperor Yan and later Chiyou.
In the Xia Dynasty, the reigning Xia Emperor Kong Jia also asked a person named Liu Lei to raise two dragons, a male and a female, and later the female dragon died, and Liu Lei also made a delicious gift of dragon meat to Kong Jia. Including in the Eastern Han Dynasty, it is also said in the "Narrative of Differences" that when the Han Dynasty and Emperor Liu Zhao were in power, it rained heavily one day, and a green dragon fell in the palace, so the emperor ordered someone to cook this green dragon, and also rewarded all the ministers with a cup of dragon broth.
In the above legends, the status of dragons is not so high, and they can even raise dragons and eat dragon meat. It is said that starting from Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, the emperor began to be regarded as the "true dragon son of heaven", and the status of the dragon gradually became noble.
The reason is that Liu Bang's father once saw a dragon lying on his wife, and not long after, his wife became pregnant and gave birth to Liu Bang. Moreover, later generations described Liu Bang as having the majesty of a dragon, "seventy-two sunspots on the left thigh", and seventy-two black moles on his left thigh like dragon scales, which is also evidence that he is the "true dragon son of heaven".
Of course, we all know that this is actually elevating the status of the emperor. The emperors of later generations are even more like this, everyone is the respect of the Ninth Five-Year Plan, and naturally they have all become "true dragon sons". By the time of the Tang and Song dynasties, the dragon had completely become the representative of the emperor and the imperial family.
Tang Taizong Li Shimin also found inspiration from his predecessor Liu Bang, on the day of his birth, someone saw two flying dragons descending outside the delivery room, like another legend of the son of a dragon. In the Song Dynasty, starting from Song Taizong, the first Jinshi and the first list opened after the new emperor ascended the throne were called "Longfei List"; In addition, the emperor's palace was called the "Dragon Tower", and everything related to the emperor began to be crowned with the word "dragon".
As for the appearance of the dragon, it is said that the Yellow Emperor and the Yan Emperor merged into one family, defeated Chiyou, and annexed the totems of various tribes and clans in the Central Plains, so they concentrated on the patterns of horses, snakes, birds, sheep, cows, fish and deer, and designed the totems and portraits of the dragon, and the subsequent Chinese nation was collectively called "the descendants of the dragon".
The specific image of the dragon was basically formed in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Wang Chong of the Eastern Han Dynasty said in "On Balance": "The secular painting of the dragon is like a horse's head and a snake's tail." Xu Shen's "Shuo Wen Jie Zi" has the saying that "dragon, the length of the scale insect, can be dark and bright, can be small and huge, can be short and long, ascend to the sky at the spring equinox, and dive into the abyss at the autumn equinox".
Wang Fu, a writer in the Eastern Han Dynasty, said that there are nine dragons: "The head is like a camel, the horns are like a deer, the eyes are like a rabbit, the ears are like a cow, the neck is like a snake, the belly is like a mirage, the scales are like a carp, the claws are like an eagle, and the palm is like a tiger. It has eighty-one scales on its back, with nine or nine yang numbers. Its sound is like a copper plate. There is a beard next to the mouth, a pearl under the chin, and an inverted scale under the throat. There is Boshan on the head, also known as the ruler wood, and the dragon can not be **. It can turn into water and fire. ”
By now, the image of the dragon is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and the mainstream sayings are as follows:
About the color of the dragon. In addition to our protagonist today, the green dragon, there are also golden dragons, red dragons, black dragons, and white dragons are more common, and on some nine dragon walls, there are also images of blue dragons and purple dragons.
About "five claws for a dragon, four claws for a python". This statement was actually formed in the Qing Dynasty, mainly as the difference between the emperor and the subordinates on the clothing, the emperor wore a "dragon, and other royal families and subordinates wore a "python robe", but this is only a difference in the name, from the form of the dragon, both the dragon and the python are four-legged snakes, and there is no difference in shape.
About the species of dragons. Zhang Yi, a Wei man in the Three Kingdoms era, divided dragons into four types in the book "Guangya": "There are scales called Jiaolong, winged dragons are called Ying dragons, horned dragons are said to be dragons, and hornless dragons are said to be dragons." In addition to these four, it is often said that there is also the dragon of the juvenile stage, which appeared on the bronzes of the Western Weekend period. It is said in "The Narrative of Differences": "Yu, five hundred years into a dragon, a thousand years into a dragon."
In addition, there is a dragon, which refers to a dragon that lies dormant and coils around the ground, but not **. In ancient architecture, dragons coiled on pillars, beams and ceilings were generally called dragons; The mirage, which inhabits the coast or the estuary of a large river, looks very much like a dragon. Mirage, with its incredible ability, can see all kinds of phantoms from the breath exhaled from its mouth, which is also often called a mirage.
There is also an ancient mythical beast named Candle Dragon, which is said to be the mountain god of Zhongshan. The candle dragon is a legless dragon, the magic is vast, it opens its eyes is day, when it closes its eyes, it is night, it is cold winter when it blows, it is hot summer when it exhales, it does not drink water, does not eat food, does not breathe, it generates wind when it breathes, and its body is a thousand miles long.
About the manifestation of the dragon. Generally, there are sitting dragons, walking dragons, ascending dragons, descending dragons, cloud dragons, grass dragons, abduction dragons, group dragons and double dragons playing with pearls.
The sitting dragon is in the form of a precarious seat, with the head facing forward, and a fireball standing under the chin. The dragon walks slowly, and the whole dragon is in a horizontal state. The head of the ascending dragon is above, galloping and flying, showing a rising momentum. The head of the descending dragon is below, galloping and flying, showing a downward momentum. Cloud dragon refers to the dragon that gallops in the clouds.
The grass dragon is a curly grass pattern containing the image of a dragon, also known as the "curly grass entwined branch dragon". The abductor dragon originated from the grass dragon and was born from the grass dragon, forming a unique form of expression. Tuanlong is a group of dragons that are designed to be round, and are called Tuanlong. It originated in the Tang Dynasty and was more commonly used in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The double dragon play bead is a manifestation of two dragons playing (or snatching) a fire bead.
About the dragon gave birth to nine sons. The nine sons of the dragon are actually dragons, but their forms are a little different, they are the Prison Cow, the Jar (pronounced with the same tooth character), the mocking wind, the Pu Prison, the Fox (pronounced with the same sour mud), the Baxia, the Raccoon (pronounced with the same wall case), the negative tun (the same as the play) and the Kiss.
Prison cow, is the eldest of the nine sons of Longsheng, his lifelong hobby**, it often squats on the headstock to enjoy the plucked strings, so the headstock is engraved with its image. Jair, is the second, aggressive and killing, knife ring, knife handle, dragon swallow mouth is its image. Mocking the wind, resembling a beast, is the third child, life is dangerous and hopeful, and the beast on the corner of the temple is its image.
Pu Lao, shaped like a coiled dragon, ranked fourth, good roaring in his life, and the dragon-shaped beast button on the Hong Zhong is its image. Foxy, resembling a lion, ranked fifth, likes to be quiet and does not like to move, good to sit, and likes fireworks, the foot decoration on the Buddha seat and the incense burner is its image. Baxia, shaped like a turtle, is the sixth old, life is good weight-bearing, infinite strength, the turtle under the stele is its image.
The raccoon, also known as the charter, resembles a tiger and is the seventh oldest. It is litigious, but also powerful, and the tiger-headed decoration on the upper part of the prison door is its image. Negative, like a dragon, ranking eighth, good writing, the dragon on both sides of the stele is its image. Kiss, also known as the owl (sound with eating) tail, owl kiss, dragon-shaped spine swallowing beast, is the old nine, the mouth is wide and noisy, easy to swallow, the curly tail dragon head at both ends of the temple ridge is its image.
I have said so much in one go, but the things that everyone is familiar with about dragons should have been told to everyone. Finally, I wish you all good luck in the Year of the Dragon, what you lack, and all the new year is happy, happy, and all your wishes come true!
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