Before the Han Dynasty, the basaltic patterns unearthed were just the images of turtles. However, in murals, tiles (the most front-end block of the eaves in ancient buildings) and brick carvings after the Han Dynasty, the image of basalt has changed – several snakes have been added to the original tortoise, becoming a pattern of the combination of tortoise and snake. The following China story network editor will bring you a detailed introduction. Let’s have a look!
It is said that this is because the ancients found that the photographing turtle among the turtles liked to eat snakes. If the photographing turtle encountered a snake when crawling, it would go up and fight with it. After victory, the photographing turtle would carry the snake on its back and take it to a hiding place to enjoy delicious food. Inspired by this phenomenon, the ancients derived the simple basaltic turtle pattern into the pattern of turtle snake winding and two ends fighting, so as to highlight the valor of basaltic.
Xuanwu is a mysterious animal in ancient Chinese traditional mythology. It is the general name of the seven northern constellations in the twenty-eight constellations, and represents the north in the four symbols. The season is winter. According to the theory of Yin Yang and five elements, the North belongs to water, so Xuanwu is also known as “Heaven turtle water god”. Water is the source of life, an important basis for the growth of all things, and also the most important part of organisms. Human life is inseparable from water. Therefore, Xuanwu is highly respected among the people.
Xuanwu Xuanwu is a kind of spiritual object composed of turtles and snakes. The original meaning of Xuanwu is xuanming, and the ancient sounds of Wu and Ming are interlinked. Xuan means black; Ming means Yin. At first, xuanming described the tortoise divination: the tortoise’s back is black, and the tortoise divination is to ask the tortoise to go to the nether world and bring back the answer to the world in the form of divination. Therefore, the earliest basalt was tortoise.
The origin of basalt has been controversial since ancient times. The legend of Xuanwu originated from the Xia Dynasty. It is said that before Dayu controlled the flood, Yu’s father Gu also tried to control the flooding. He was bent on stopping the spread of the flood and took the method of plugging. He used the help of the divine object “xirang” to enclose the flooded areas, trying to narrow the scope of the disaster.
But the power of water is amazing. It didn’t take long for the flood to pass the barrier. Even because of the water level difference, the power of flooding and swallowing is more powerful than before. As a result, the flood has intensified. It was not until Dayu took over and adopted the method of dredging that the flood control was successful. The image of tortoise and Xuanwu appeared because the water control of GUI was the predecessor of Dayu’s water control, and the word Xuan Ming, also known as Xuanwu.
Another theory is that Xuanwu itself is a giant turtle in the North Sea. Because of its huge size, this turtle was used as a pillar to support Penglai fairy mountain. Later, Xuanwu was at the foot of Penglai fairy mountain. After hearing about morality day and night, he was actually infected with immortality. And because of its spirituality, after years of cultivation, it finally achieved the right result and became a turtle. Tortoises carrying steles are often placed in the tombs of later emperors, which is a metaphor for Xuanwu and the wishes of successive emperors to ascend to heaven after their death.
The basalt image we see today is usually a turtle or a combination of turtles and snakes – climbing on a turtle with many snakes wrapped around it. Why are there two different images? In fact, in the earliest times, Xuanwu was just the image of a turtle.
Xuanwu originally meant xuanming. In ancient times, the words “Wu” and “Ming” were interlinked. Xuan means black, while Ming means hell. Ancient Chinese people used black tortoise shells for divination, commonly known as “tortoise divination”. Its general meaning is to ask xuangui to ask his ancestors some questions, and then bring the answers back to the world in the form of divination. It can be seen that the original Xuanwu refers to a simple black turtle, and does not involve snakes. Disclaimer: the above content originates from the network, and the copyright belongs to the original author. Please inform us if your original copyright is infringed, and we will delete the relevant content as soon as possible.