[East Asia] Four Symbols / Four Auspicious Beasts / Chinese Mythical Beasts
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Shiro from Slowly
Merged in a post:
Chinese mythical beasts
溯风.
灵兽, also known as 瑞兽 or 吉祥兽, or 祥瑞之兽, are animals that signify good fortune and can be real in reality, or mythical and fictional. The ancients believed that when a 灵兽 appeared, it would be accompanied by great events such as blessings and the appearance of sages.
吉祥兽 are represented in a variety of forms, of which calligraphy, painting and carving are the main ones. 瑞兽 were a totemic cult of primitive groups of people, one of the earliest cultural phenomena in Chinese history. They have survived from ancient times to the present day. Of the four 吉祥兽, all three, except the tortoise, are legendary figures and therefore vary in form from place to place and from era to era.
Four Symbols(天之四灵)
The Four Symbols (Chinese: 四象; pinyin: Sì Xiàng, literally meaning "four images"), are four mythological creatures appearing among the Chinese constellations along the ecliptic, and viewed as the guardians of the four cardinal directions. These four creatures are also referred to by a variety of other names, including "Four Guardians", "Four Gods", and "Four Auspicious Beasts". They are the Azure Dragon of the East(青龙), the Vermilion Bird of the South(朱雀), the White Tiger of the West(白虎), and the Black Tortoise (also called "Black Warrior") of the North(玄武). Each of the creatures is most closely associated with a cardinal direction and a color, but also additionally represents other aspects, including a season of the year, an emotion, virtue, and one of the Chinese "five elements" (wood, fire, earth, metal, and water). Each has been given its own individual traits, origin story and a reason for being. Symbolically, and as part of spiritual and religious belief and meaning, these creatures have been culturally important across countries in the East Asian cultural sphere.
These mythological creatures have also been syncretized into the Five Phases system (Wuxing五行). The Azure Dragon of the East represents Wood, the Vermilion Bird of the South represents Fire, the White Tiger of the West represents Metal, and the Black Tortoise (or Black Warrior) of the North represents Water. In this system, the fifth principle Earth is represented by the Yellow Dragon of the Center(黄龙). The Yellow Dragon reigns over these four.
Nonethewiser
溯风., thank you very much for this, well done! We were missing a request for Chinese mythology - and it's great to see it now. I've added it to the list of
Mythology / Folklore
stamp ideas.Special thanks to for all the images - they help a lot!
I've also noticed that there is a certain overlap with with this request for South Korea (Four Symbols, Qilin, Fenghuang)... Not sure how to handle this, but wanted to mention it.
溯风.
Nonethewiser: Thanks to your interest, and your reminder, I just realised that the four symbols are not only popular in China, although its origins should be in China, perhaps it could be made into a set that is available in many countries? Like the Africa set.
溯风.
Thank you for your help, I'm so lazy in comparison...I've been trying to figure out how to respond and your message was simply fantastic and timely. As for the salary, I can only send my sincere thanks lol, hope that counts.
溯风.
Let's meet in your dream lol and then I'll buy you chow mein
溯风.
So, you haven't evolved to the point where you can move locations quickly at will, then I'm sure you can't avoid isolation even in your dreams.
溯风.
I'll buy you a takeaway delivered to the Xishuangbanna State Mental Hospital so you can eat it even if you're sleepwalking.😁I hope I have not offended you
Nonethewiser
溯风.: That's a very nice idea, I really like it!
So we are talking about a shared set with Four Symbols for China, South Korea, Japan and Vietnam + possibly Hong Kong and Taiwan.
They are:
The Azure Dragon of the East
The Vermilion Bird of the South
The White Tiger of the West
The Black Tortoise of the North
溯风.
Happy for you and sorry you can't eat God's food
溯风.
Nonethewiser: Yes, although I don't know much about other countries, I think it's a cool thing to have some symbols that circulate in common.
Nonethewiser
溯风.: if you can still edit the request, would you perhaps rename it into
The Four Mythological Symbols of China
?I also found a nice article and this cool picture.
溯风.
Nonethewiser: Thank you. unfortunately I can no longer edit it, it was overdue when I tried to change it before.
Nonethewiser
溯风.: I see, thank you for checking! These posts tend to lock randomly... Maybe Shiro from Slowly could help us rename the post and possibly combine it with this one, as per discussion above?
Nonethewiser
I think you named only 3 characters, so I am guessing the 4th one is the tiger. Here is some more information:
Haetae
(해태) A lion-like creature, which has a muscular leonine body covered with sharp scales, a bell in its neck, and a horn on its forehead.
Qilin
(기린) is a legendary hooved chimerical creature that is described as a maned creature with the torso of a deer, an ox tail with the hooves of a horse. The girin were initially depicted as more deer-like, however over time they have transformed into more horse-like. They were one of the four divine creatures along with the dragon, phoenix and turtle. Girin were extensively used in Korean royal and Buddhist arts. 
Fenghuang
(봉황). Fènghuáng are mythological birds found in Sinospheric mythology that reign over all other birds.
Tiger
. The tiger has been strongly associated with Korean people and Korean culture. It appears in not only the Korean foundation mythology but also in folklore, as well as a favorite subject of Korean art such as painting and sculpture.
parktree