The Four Spirits Enter the Taoist Genealogy In the Warring States Period

The Four Spirits Enter the Taoist Genealogy In the Warring States Period, ancient Chinese myths had already formed the gods of the East, West, South and North with the blue dragon, white tiger, rosefinch and basalt, and were widely spread. In the Qin and Han Dynasties, they were widely believed and became an important part of folk beliefs. Since its formal establishment in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Taoism has absorbed the worship of the four gods in ancient China and become the guardian God of Taoism to strengthen its dignity. When describing the image of Laozi Taishang Laojun in Baopuzi, he said, “There are twelve blue dragons on the left, twenty-six white tigers on the right, twenty-four rosefinches in the front and seventy-two basalts in the back.”. The Secret of the Seven yuan Purple Court in the North Pole, Volume 25 of Yun Ji Qi Zhan: “There is a blue dragon named Meng Zhang on the left, a white tiger named Jian Bing on the right, a rosefinch named Ling Guang in the front, and a basalt named Zhi Ming in the back. The building is built with bells and drums on its back. It weighs tens of millions of pounds around me.”. At this time, the four spirits only served as the guardian gods of Taoism, and their position in the Taoist deity system was not important. Taoism absorbed the worship of the ancient gods of the four directions and became the guardian God of Taoism. The deification of the four spirits After the Han and Jin Dynasties, the blue dragon and white tiger of the four spirits were deified and became the patron gods of Taoism. Qinglong is called “Mengzhang Shenjun” and Baihu is called “Jianbing Shenjun”. Taoist temples often use blue dragons and white tigers as gods to guard the mountain gate. Although the rosefinch has always been the guardian God of Taoism, there is no new development, but its changes are more mysterious, often appearing as a divine bird, that is, the later phoenix (Lingguang God), which is widely believed by Taoism as a God. Meng Xi Bi Tan, Volume 7: Images from the four directions, black dragon, white tiger, rosefinch, tortoise and snake. Only the rosefinch does not know what it is, but it is said that the bird and the rosefinch, the feather family is red and flying, the collection will be attached to the wood, which is the image of fire. Or a long separation.. “Or clouds, birds or phoenixes.” Xuanwu God absorbed the saying of “the northern black emperor, the body is basalt” in the Han Dynasty Wei Shu, personified it and became the great God of Taoism. From Xuanwu to Zhenwu Emperor During the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty, Xuanwu was renamed “Zhenwu” in order to avoid the taboo of Zhao Xuanlang. According to yuan Shi Tian Zun Shuo Bei Zhen Wu Miao Jing, Zhen Wu Shen Jun was originally the prince of Jingle Kingdom. He was long and brave. He vowed to get rid of all the demons in the world and not to rule the throne. He changed the name of Taihe Mountain to Wudang Mountain, which means “not basalt is not enough”. In Tianxi (1027-2021) of the Song Dynasty, he was granted the title of “Zhenwu Lingying Zhenjun”. In the seventh year of Dade of the yuan Dynasty (1303), he was given the title of “yuan Sheng Ren Wei Xuan Tian God” and became the highest God in the north.