Sacred Chinese animal. Four sacred animals of China

Chinese astrology

4 sacred animals of China. Each of them represents one side of the world, one quarter of the zodiac band of the sky, and one season, and each has its own properties and origins. They are featured in a variety of historical Chinese and Korean myths and stories, and also appear in modern Japanese manga and animation.

It is believed that one of the sources of the tradition of the 4 sacred animals, filled with wisdom, was the Description of the Rules of Decency and Ceremonies (Liji), a treatise attributed to Confucius.

Historians believe that this tradition is a fusion of the four wise beings and the idea of ​​the four spirits, to which people have made sacrifices since the Zhou Dynasty to protect against attack from four sides.

All four signs of the zodiac are correlated with the elements of the Wu-sin system. Each of the sacred beasts contains 7 constellations, which together gives 28 signs that adapt to the 12 familiar ones.

1. Azure (blue-green) dragon ( 青龍 - Qing Long), East - Tree. Born in the spring.

Associated with beauty and power, prosperity and development, happiness and good luck, wealth and power. A spiritual symbol of uplift, leadership, fruitfulness of creativity, innovation, leaving a mark on history.

The Yang symbol is light courageous.

The Azure Dragon is the symbol of the eastern region of Heaven. Includes 7 minor constellations:

Jue "Horn" and Gan "Neck" - Shru-Sin (star of longevity) corresponds to Pisces - "Dragon of manipulation".

Tien di "Basis", Fang "House" and Xin "Heart" - Da-ho (Great Fire) corresponds to Aries - "Dragon of the Hearth".

Wei "Tail" and Ji "Basket" - Xi-mu (Fence) corresponds to Taurus - "Dragon of protection".

Images of this dragon were found on ceramics of 6000-4000 BC, which indicates the synchronism of the appearance of this image with the emergence of Chinese culture itself.

Qing-long was depicted in ancient times on banners and carried from the east side.

Wriggling in the clouds, he pours miraculous, exuding flames, pearls, gold, silver, corals into a "vase that collects treasures", his body is covered instead of scales with gold coins.

The myth says that Qing Long, rising from the waters of the Yellow River, prompted the sage Fu Shi to discover symbols that could describe all existing philosophical concepts. This is how the yang and yin symbols, the “Book of Changes”, the concept of ba-gua (8 trigrams) and feng shui, denoting all processes and objects, appeared.

2.Red bird ( 朱雀 - Zhu Niao, Zhu Qiao) or Phoenix (鳳凰 - Fenghuang), South - Fire. Summer born.

Associated with a good omen, intuition, inner concentration. Peacemaking, prosperity, philanthropy, heroism, fidelity, justice, passion. Magnificence and beauty. Procreation, nepotism.

Yin symbol - light feminine.

Includes 7:

Jing "Well" and Gui "Souls of Ancestors" - Chun Shou (Phoenix Head) - corresponds to Gemini - "Honored Phoenix".

Liu "Bend", Qi-xing "Seven Stars" and Zhang "Bow" - Chun Ho (Phoenix Fire) - corresponds to Cancer - "Exploding Phoenix".

Both "Wing" and Chen "Chariot" - Chun Wei (Phoenix Tail) - corresponds to Lion - "Brave Phoenix".

Zhu Niao was the founder of the Ming Dynasty. This bird has "a cock's beak, a swallow's crop, a snake's neck, patterns on its body like a dragon's, a fish's tail, a swan's front, a Qi Lin's unicorn in the back, and a turtle's back." Its growth reaches three meters.

B.'s appearance - x. frightened all evil spirits and at the same time was considered as a sign of the progress of peaceful sciences.

There are numerous images on the grave reliefs of the turn and the beginning of AD.

It was found on fortune-telling inscriptions (c. 15th century BC). Depicted on military banners, carried from the south side.

3. White tiger ( 白虎 - Bai Hu), West - Metal. Born in autumn.

It combines opposite principles. Change, modification, humanity, sense of duty. At the same time, ferocity, aggressiveness, capriciousness, volatility. Power and strength.

Dark feminine yin.

According to ancient Chinese astronomy and astrology, it corresponds to the "Western Palace of Heaven", which includes:

Kui "Scepter"andLow "Shackles" - Xiang-Lou (Reapers) - corresponds to Virgo - "Grasping White Tiger".

Wei "Stomach", Mao "Duck's Nest", Bi-hsiu "Network" - Da-liang (Swamp) - corresponds to Libra - "Practical White Tiger".

Zui "Tiger's Head" and "Shen of Merit" - Shi-chen (eternal fighters) - corresponds to Scorpio - "Vinent White Tiger".

The guardian of the land of the dead is a beast of due justice, which is a white tigress with a black pattern (wen) and a tail longer than the body, eating the meat of the unkilled and not eating living creatures. Soothsayers and soothsayers considered the appearance of Bai Hu a sign of "humane rule."

From the middle of 1000, it became an attribute of the ritual vestments of the emperor and high dignitaries. Depicted in burial places around 433 BC. Together with Qing Long, he reproduces the archaic division of space and time in two (east-west: dong-si, spring-autumn: chun-qiu).

4. Black turtle or Black warrior(玄武 - Xuan Wu ), North - Water. Born in winter

Associated with spiritual and physical struggles. Asceticism, self-improvement, emancipation, or vice versa, isolation, justice. Pride, the desire to get ahead of everyone, to become an icon of modernity.

Dark masculine - yang.

The "Northern Palace of Heaven" also includes 7 constellations:

Tian-guan "Ladle" and Ts'an-nu "Volovod" - Xing-chi (Memory Star) - corresponds to Sagittarius - "Purposeful black Turtle".

Nu "Virgo", Xu "Emptiness" and Chia-wu "Idol" - Xuan-Xiao (Desert) - corresponds to Capricorn - "Lonely Black Turtle".

Ying-shi "Building" and Dong-bi "Wall" - Zui Zi (Mouth of Fish) - corresponds to Aquarius - "Eloquent black turtle."

"Dark Militancy". According to one of the Taoist legends, Xuan-wu was born to the wife of the prince of the country of Jinglego ("country of pure joy") after she swallowed in a dream Sunshine. After 14 months, she gave birth to a boy who did not want to inherit the throne of his father, but decided to devote himself to self-improvement , vowed to eradicate all evil on earth. When Xuanwu began his path of learning, it was revealed to him that he must atone for all his past sins in order to become a god. He washed his stomach and intestines in the river. Washed out of his insides, his sins took on a dark, black form. They incarnated as a black turtle and a snake that began to terrorize people. When Xuanwu realized this, he returned and conquered his sins, after which they became his servants. After 42 years of hermit life on Mount Wudangshai (Hubei Province), he rose into the sky in broad daylight. Yu-di, having heard about his militancy and courage, instructed him to be in charge of the north and eradicate all evil spirits in the Celestial Empire. Xuan Wu descended into the world of people and in seven days destroyed all the werewolves and demons on earth.

The Chinese texts explain that the concept of "Xuan-Wu" has developed in connection with the idea of ​​the color of the earth's night sky - black with a red tint and of a turtle as a creature with a shell-armor ("wu" means "belligerence").
A turtle entwined with a snake was depicted on north side burial structures (the Han era, the end of the 3rd century BC - the beginning of the 3rd century AD), and in earlier times - on a black flag, which during campaigns was carried behind the troops in the northern part.

5th sacred beast, not included in the system of signs - Yellow dragon (黃 龍 - Huang Long) - Earth.

In Chinese legends, among the animals that lived on land, the Tiger was revered as the main one. He personified lust for power, severity, courage and ferocity. The tiger was also a symbol of military prowess. The head of the Tiger was painted on the shields of warriors, carved on the wooden doors of military forts to intimidate the enemy. Images of the Tiger, embroidered on the clothes of military officials, served as insignia.

Chinese legendary warriors in ancient times dressed in tiger skins and went to the enemy with wild cries, reminiscent of the roar of a tiger, in order to frighten the enemy. People believed that the tiger terrifies evil spirits, so the head of this predator was painted on the walls of residential buildings and monasteries and embroidered on the clothes of children. Images of a tiger are found on ancient porcelain products. Entrances to monasteries, government buildings, rich shops and residential houses of feudal lords were decorated with stone statues of tigers.

In Chinese legends, the bizarre mythical bird Phoenix was considered the most beautiful and revered bird. According to the descriptions, she has a rooster's beak, a duck's head, a snake's neck, a crane's forehead, a fish's tail, and a turtle's back. Phoenix's feathers were of five colors, which symbolize the five basic human virtues: philanthropy, duty, decency, knowledge of rituals, fidelity.

According to the legends, the magical bird Phoenix is ​​kind and merciful, it does not peck insects, does not feed on living beings and herbs; Bamboo seeds serve as food for her, and she quenches her thirst only from a pure spring. The origin of the Phoenix bird is associated with the sun and fire, so it symbolizes warmth, summer and promotes a good harvest.

Chinese legends also refer to the sacred animals of the Turtle. She represents longevity, strength and endurance. Her shell was likened to the vault of heaven, and her belly - to the earth. Her longevity has become a symbol of eternity. It was believed that the turtle lives up to three thousand years. The Divine Turtle had the head of a snake and the neck of a dragon. The tortoise statue served as decoration for the imperial palaces and as a pedestal for monuments on the graves of noble people.

In the legends of ancient China, other living beings were also deified. There was a cult of snakes, foxes, monkeys and some other animals. The properties of a water deity or a dragon were attributed to the snake. They believed that in hundreds of years the snake could turn into a dragon, and the dragon itself once descended from a huge sea ​​snake or a giant boa that swam out of the sea into the waters of the Yangtze River. This explains the ritual honors given to the snake in times of drought or flood. Fleeing from the flood, the snake leaves its shelters and moves to higher ground. Therefore, at the beginning of the 20th century, the governor of the city of Tianjin, Li Huang-jang, during a flood, received an order from the emperor to go to the banks of the Yellow River, where they found a snake that had escaped the flood. This snake was brought to the temple, and the governor prayed in front of her, asking to pacify the elements.

In China, special temples were built dedicated to the cult of snakes, in which monks looked after the divine snakes. In the cities, solemn processions were held, where snake goddesses were carried in cages, and after the end of the ceremony they were released. The snake is considered the patroness of the Grand Canal, a grandiose structure of the Middle Ages. It has a length of 1800 km, starts from Beijing and ends in Hangzhou. Every year, before passing through the canal, junk with state-owned rice local authorities sacrifices were made to the patroness of the snake and ceremonies were held.

Chinese legends and myths claim that the Fox is endowed with supernatural properties. She can work miracles: cause a fire, poison food and do other dirty tricks to a person, but sometimes she can do good. In order to propitiate the fox, sacrifices were made to it, special temples were built for it, in which monks-admirers of the fox cult lived. To protect themselves from the wrath of the fox, the peasants painted large white circles on the walls of houses and fences. As early as the beginning of the 20th century, passing through Chinese fields, one could meet a huge table in front of the barrow, on which stood ancient look vessels, banners, badges and other things characteristic of the temple, this is "husan" - a fairy fox. She allegedly lives somewhere nearby in a hole and she is being asked not to harm the poor people, but on the contrary, to do good to them, like other spirits.

To kill a fox was considered a great crime and the culprit was threatened with punishment. However, the body and blood of the fox was widely used in ancient Chinese medicine.

Legends and beliefs say that a fox can turn into anyone, but most often it takes the form of a person. At 50, a fox acquires the ability to turn into an old woman; at 100, she can become a beautiful young woman or a skilled sorcerer. At the age of a thousand years, she can be admitted to heaven and turn into a "heavenly fox." The sky fox has nine tails and golden fur; she can penetrate the secrets of the universe, based on the alternation of male and female principles.

Often a fox in the image beautiful woman trying to marry a man. For a husband who does not elicit the secrets of his wife, she can bring great happiness, the desire to find out her past could lead to trouble. Often a fox wife, with the help of witchcraft, took away his husband's vitality and he died, and the fox itself then disappeared. So, according to legend, a nine-tailed white fox from Mount Tu appeared to Emperor Yu (23rd century BC) and he married her like a hero married a fairy.

According to the legends, the fox, having brought pleasure to a person and brought him to the border of death, can heal him herself. She keeps a pill of eternal life, capable of reviving even a corpse. To recognize a fox in a woman, you need to consider her shadow in the moonlight. The shadow of such a woman resembled the outline of a fox with an elongated muzzle and sharp ears.

The fox is not only a woman. She can appear to a person in the form of a man. This is usually a finely educated scientist, a faithful comrade and friend, but he does not tolerate treachery and severely punishes him.

The fox from the legends is cautious and distrustful, but in order to gain the trust of a person, she embarks on the most cunning tricks. For a person who is morally corrupt and prone to debauchery, a fox can cause especially many troubles. If a person is honest, then the fox is afraid of his straightforwardness and avoids it, since she draws her power from the dark cold beginning of yin, and an honest person receives knowledge and virtues from the bright beginning of yang. Many tricks of the fox are described by the Chinese writer of the 18th century Pu Songling in the book “The Stories of Liao Zhai about Miracles”, the section “Fox Charms”, published in Russian in 1973, translated by Academician V.M. Alekseev.

Another sacred animal is the monkey. The Monkey King Sun Wukong or Sun Hou Tzu enjoyed special love among the Chinese people. Many Chinese legends and tales are dedicated to him, which told about his exploits on earth and in heaven. He became the subject of the popular 14th-century novel Journey to the West, which describes how the Monkey King accompanied a Tang monk to India for Buddhist canons. This book formed the basis for the upbringing of numerous generations of Chinese children for many centuries, as it brings together moral postulates and the foundations of ideas about the universe.

Four sacred animals

China is a country with a rich and highly developed mythology. Open any Chinese book and you will see that mythological stories are so closely intertwined with real life like nowhere else in the world. Four mythological figures are involved in feng shui: Tiger, Dragon, Phoenix and Turtle (Fig. 1).

Rice. 1. Four mythical animals - Tiger, Dragon, Phoenix, Turtle

Each of them has its own properties. The Dragon possesses monstrous strength, bloodthirsty, unbridled. The destructive forces of the earth were reflected in this image: the Dragon moved - an earthquake began, he breathed heat from his mouth - incinerated the settlement. Mountain China was the best suited for the place of residence of these fabulous creatures: many mountains resembled the outlines of dragons, and people knew which parts of the "dragon body" are suitable for building houses, and which ones bring misfortune. The image of the Dragon is the most striking and widespread in fine arts and Chinese literature. Even the Chinese called the drought the Sleeping Dragon, and the flood - the Angry Dragon. There was a ritual of feeding the River Dragon: in order for the rivers overflowing to spare the settlement, beautiful girls were brought as a gift to the Dragon. And until the end of the 16th century, the peasants talked about their completely real meetings with this imaginary being. So it is not surprising that the central figure in feng shui is the Dragon. The fear of earthquakes was reflected in the advice not to build houses on the tail of the Dragon: the Dragon can move its tail and kill a person. The head of the Dragon is just as unsafe: living next to his brain is very good, but there is also a mouth here, one careless movement - and you will die in this mouth. And there was nothing to think about life in the jaws of a monster - he would devour it and not notice. feng shui dragon green, because it was the dragon mountains that were covered with the greenery of the forests.

Another beast from this pantheon - White Tiger . The tiger is ferocious and strong, and many of the hills were also very similar in shape to tigers. In order for life to work, this Tiger must be smaller than the Dragon, otherwise the Dragon will not be able to defeat his ferocious temper.

Rice. 2. Magic square

And she was there Black Tortoise. The tortoise, according to Chinese belief, opened to this people magical meaning numbers, the so-called square with numbers from 1 to 9 (Fig. 2). When added in a certain order, these numbers gave the number 15. Based on this square, special fortune-telling was created. The legend says that once the sage Wu was engaged in irrigation work on the Yellow River. One evening, when he was resting by the river, a giant black tortoise crawled out of the waters. When the sage looked closely, he noticed that the tortoise shell was divided into squares. And so it appeared magic square. It was studied for a long time by the sages of all China and in the process of discussing the gift of a turtle, they created astrology and numerology, and it was also then that the most magical book appeared. ancient China- I Ching, or the Book of Changes.

BUT Phoenix- a symbol of good luck. She, according to Feng Shui, had to be located against all the mythical figures - the Tiger, the Turtle and the Dragon. And such a figure, when all four characters were in place, was called an armchair (Fig. 3). Good house located exactly in the middle of the way to the top of the turtle mountain, so that right hand sat the White Tiger, on the left - a taller Green Dragon, and opposite the entrance, so as not to obscure the beautiful view, lay the Red Phoenix resting.

Rice. 3. Armchair

As you can see, the place perfect home really the most protected was chosen: the slopes of the Dragon, the Turtle and the Tiger reliably hid it from the winds, and the sun freely penetrated the house, because it was not obscured by the low hill of the Phoenix.