The Four Emperors are the four Heavenly Emperors who dominate all things in heaven and earth after the Three Qing Gods. 『Words * love * first * hair is the Jade Emperor, the Zhongtian Ziwei Arctic Emperor, the Gou Chen Shanggong Emperor and the Houtu Emperor Diyi. The most worshipped of the four emperors is the Jade Emperor, also known as the Jade Emperor of Xuanqiong Gao, and the Supreme Jade Emperor of Haotian Jinque. The full name is Haotian Jinque, the Supreme Supreme, and the natural wonder is Mi Luo, the true Jade Emperor God. It is the great god of Taoism who is the general ruler of the Heavenly Dao, and ranks first of the four emperors after the Three Qing Dynasty. The name of "Jade Emperor" was first seen in Liang Tao Hongjing's "True Spirit Position Karma Map", which listed the first middle of the divine spectrum "Yuqing Yuan Shi Tianzun", listed as "Jade Emperor Daojun", ranking eleventh on the right, and "High Jade Emperor", ranking nineteenth on the right. Volume 2 of "Three Caves of Beads" quotes the seventh cloud of Chen Mashu's "Taoist Biography" of the Southern Dynasty: "Lu Xiujing...... When he first arrived in Jiujiang, the king of Jiujiang asked about the Buddha's fate and differences, and Mr. (referring to Lu Xiujing) replied: "In the Buddha is to stay in Qin, in the Tao is the Jade Emperor, and Si is also the same way!" 1 Liuqin is the Sanskrit krakchda transliteration detention of Qin, and the translation of detention of Sun, which is one of the seven Buddhas of the past called after the tribal Buddhism, and here the Taoist "Jade Emperor" is compared with the Buddhist "Liuqin", indicating that the status of the Jade Emperor in the Taoist god system is not low. "The Legend of Taoism" said that this statement came from the mouth of Lu Xiujing, whether this is the case, it is difficult to verify, at least to prove that there is indeed a Jade Emperor with a high status in the Taoist god system of the Southern Dynasty Chen Shi. Tang Shichong et al. edited "A Qiē Taoist Jing Yinyi Miaomen from the Beginning" said that the Jade Emperor Tianzun is the highest Taoist god Yuan Shi Tianzun's alias or one of the three worlds, and its "Tomorrow Zun Second" quoted the "Heavenly Master Ask the Sutra" cloud: "The Tao is the most respectful, often in the three Qing, out of the heavens, because it is righteous, so it is called Tianzun." Or the Jade Emperor, or the High Emperor, with Shun a qiē also. 2 Quote "Lingbao Zhaiyi" cloud: "In the past, the Jade Emperor Tianzun was high, and in the future, Taiji Tianzun will see (now) in the Yuan Shi Tianzun." 3 He also quoted the "Bao Xuan Sutra" as saying that Tianzun has the number ten, "the first is natural, and the second is infinite...... No. 9 Jade Emperor, No. 10 His Majesty. 4 A similar statement is found in the Seven Signatures of the Clouds. The third volume of "The Beginning of Taoism, the Three Caves of Taoism" cloud: "Three generations of Heavenly Venerables, the past Yuan Shi Tianzun, see the Taishang Jade Emperor Tianzun, and the future Jinque Yuchen Tianzun." …… The three generations of Tianzun also have the number ten. One is nature, and the other is infinite,...... Nine is called the Jade Emperor, and ten is called Majesty. 5 The above statements are all from the Northern and Southern Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty. Tang poets Li Bai, Du Fu, Wei Yingwu, Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan, Bai Juyi, etc. There are also many sentences chanting the Jade Emperor. For example, Wei Yingwu's poem "Two Songs of Learning Immortals", one of which is a cloud: "In the past, there were Taoist priests who sought immortals, and it was true that Lingzhen tried his heart." A thousand huge stones are hanging, and they lie under the stone for thirteen years. Cundao died and tried, and the Jade Emperor ascended to heaven. The clouds are gradually disappearing, leaving a disciple but strong." 6 Bai Juyi's "Dream Immortal" cloud poem: "People have dream immortals, and the dream body rises to the top." …… A group of immortals came and led to Yujing. An period of envy of the disciples, such as the minister. Admire the Jade Emperor, and be sincere before the chief. Emperor Yan Ru Xiancai, don't take yourself lightly. But fifteen years later, you will not die in court. Bow to Siyan again, both happy and surprised. ......"7 In the poets' writings, the Jade Emperor is the supreme god of the immortal world, and those who have attained immortality must worship it. The two Song Dynasty admired the Tao, and the respect for the Jade Emperor was especially great. Song Zhenzong in the fifth year of Dazhong Xiangfu (1012) "November Bingshen, personally worship the Jade Emperor in the Chaoyuan Palace". September 87 "Xin Mao. The Holy Name of the Jade Emperor is said to be the Emperor of the Heavenly Calendar, including the True Body of the Jade Emperor and the Great Heavenly Emperor". 9 Huizong in the "Zhenghe six years (1116) September Shuo, re-enshrined the jade book, jade treasure, the Jade Emperor Zun called Taishang Kaitian Zhifu Imperial Calendar contains the true body of the Tao Haotian Jade Emperor God". ab Taoism also wrote scriptures and formulated fast rituals for it. The volume of "The Collection of the High Jade Emperor" has the story of the Jade Emperor's cultivation and enlightenment. Luoyun: In ancient times, there was a light and a strict Miaole king, and there was no heir. His queen dreamed that Taishang Daojun was holding a baby with him, and she was pregnant and gave birth to a prince. The heir has a way, and he returned to the country to practice in the mountains, and after 3,200 eons, he began to prove the golden immortal. Epiphany Mahayana authenticity, and after hundreds of millions of eons, the Jade Emperor was proven. Southern Song Dynasty Ning Quan Zhenzhu, Wang Qi Zhen compiled the "Shangqing Lingbao**" said: "Haotian God, the emperor of the heavens, the king of immortals, the lord of the saint." The right to lift and fall in ten thousand days, the opportunity for the generation of group products. The standard of the three caves and four auxiliary forbidden scriptures, the divine power of the great Brahma to the wonder of inaction, is the god of the three realms and the gods of the three caves. …… In terms of image, it is called the sky, and it is called the emperor in terms of domination, so it is called the Jade True Heavenly Emperor Xuanqiong to the Holy Jade Emperor. "AD, despite its lofty status, is still no higher than the supreme deity, the Sanqing. In Taoist scriptures, it is always used as a subordinate of the Yuan Shi Tianzun to listen to the lectures (as shown in the "High Jade Emperor Benxing Sutra"), and in the Zhaijiao Invitation to the Gods, it is only invited after the Three Qings are played. Such an arrangement of Taoism has been criticized by Confucian scholars. Zhu Xi said: "The Taoists wanted to imitate what they did, so they respected Lao Tzu as the Three Qings: Yuan Shi Tianzun, Taishang Daojun, and Taishang Laojun. And Haotian God sat under him, rebelling and disobedient, no matter what!" AE faced the criticism of Confucianism, and the Taoist priests had made many explanations. "The Jade Emperor's Commentary on the Book of the Jade Emperor" cloud: "The Jade Emperor, in Taoism, that is, the transformation of the three clears, the Taoist first three clears, first nothingness and then wonderful, the so-called infinite and Taiji, not the difference between respect and inferiority. AF Lin Lingzhen's compilation of "Lingbao Lingjiao Jidu Golden Book" Jiao Shen first listed three clear, and then the arrangement of the four royals made a specific explanation, saying: "Jiao altar is Jiao feast." There are three clear seats in the middle,...... There are also seven thrones (the first of the seven thrones is the Jade Emperor...... Gai Yuqing is the respect of the sect, and Haotian is the respect of the Three Realms, each in a row, and each has its own respect. "AG means that in the middle of the Jiao altar are two columns of gods, two chiefs, and there is no difference between dignity and inferiority. The second is the Zhongtian Ziwei Arctic Emperor, who is said to be the god who assists the Jade Emperor in ruling the heavens and latitudes, the sun, the moon and the stars, and the four seasons of climate. According to volume 10 of "Shangqing Lingbao**": "The Arctic Emperor is also the emperor in the purple wall. According to the "Astronomical Chronicles", the South Pole enters the earth at 36 degrees, the North Pole exits the earth at 36 degrees, the sky is on the side, half out of the ground, half back to the earth, all the stars and all the qi are left-handed, the hub of the North and South Poles, but this does not move, so the sky can be turned. The world looks at it in the north, and it is really in the middle of the sky, the suzerain of ten thousand stars, the sub-monarch of the Three Realms, second to Haotian, and the vitality of Shangying is called the Arctic Ziwei Emperor. "The third is the Emperor of Gou Chen's Shanggong, who is said to assist the Jade Emperor in ruling the North and South Poles and the three talents of heaven, earth and man, ruling the stars, and presiding over the god of military revolution. "The Emperor of Heaven is the left constellation of the North Pole Emperor with four stars, and its shape is slightly curved like a hook, which is the name Gou Chen, and there is a big star under it that is living in it, which is for the Emperor of Heaven. Its total ten thousand stars are the emperor of the universal stars, which is the same as the North Pole, but the North Pole is the hub, and the emperor also rotates with the sky, the upper should be the first qi, and the three qi will be below. Above the ten thousand heavens, among the three realms, all of them are respected by the three emperors. "ah four is the goddess of the earth emperor and the earth, and is said to be the goddess who holds yin and yang, gives birth to the beauty of all things and the beauty of the earth, mountains and rivers. The name of "Houtu" began in the Spring and Autumn Period. "Tuzheng said that after the soil,...... The Gonggong clan has a son called Julong, which is the soil of the future. "AI" Central Soil ...... Its emperor Yellow Emperor, its god Houtu. "AJ was enshrined as a male statue in ancient times, and Tang Wu Zetian was a female statue a day ago. Empress Pan of Song Zhenzong built a palace in Songshan. The statue of the Great Sage of Xuantian after Fenghou. And in the fifth year of Dazhong Xiangfu (1012), he was enshrined as "Hou Tu Huang Di Ji". In the sixth year of AK Hui Zongzheng and the sixth year (1116), the emblem was called "Chengtian, imitate Houde, Guangda, and then the emperor and the earth". Since LB is, the back soil is all female statues. There is another different interpretation of the Four Emperors, called the "Four Great Emperors", the north is called the Arctic Ziwei Emperor is the total emperor of ten thousand stars, the south is said to be the Antarctic Immortal Emperor of the total number of ten thousand spirits, the west is said to be the Taiji Emperor of the Great Emperor, and the east is said to be the East Pole Qinghua Emperor is the total emperor of ten thousand kinds. The appearance of the Four Emperors was probably not earlier than the Song Dynasty. "Ten Books of Xiuzhen" Volume 7 "Danjue Song" said: "Ninety-nine Dao to the day of fulfillment, three clear and four royal Chaotian Festival." "Daozang Collection" Liu Shouyuan's "Three Altars of Consummation of the Great Immortal Precepts": "Rely on my three Qing Dao ancestors, the Jade Emperor Supreme." Five elders and four royals, nine poles and ten flowers, and the ancient saint Gao Zhen handed over the wonderful way". From the different arrangements of these two materials for the four emperors, it can be seen that there are indeed two interpretations of the connotation of the "four emperors": the "Danjue Song" connects the three Qing and the four emperors, which are the four emperors headed by the Jade Emperor, and Liu Shouyuan connects the five elders with the four emperors, so the four emperors are the four great emperors. However, the former theory is more common, and is commonly used in the shaping of statues of gods and Jiao for Taoism. Note: 12345a**gah Daozang, vol. 25, p. 305, vol. 24, p. 724, vol. 24, p. 762, vol. 24, p. 762. Volume 22, page 14, Volume 1, page 717, Volume 30, page 730, Book 34, page 632. Volume 7, page 28, volume 30, page 731, jointly published by Cultural Relics Publishing House, Shanghai Bookstore, Tianjin Ancient Books Publishing House, 1988, 67 "Quantang Poems", Volume 6, page 2001, Volume 13, page 4655, Zhonghua Book Company. 1960 89ablb History of the Song Dynasty, Volume 1, page 152, Volume 1, page 157, Volume 8, page 2543, Volume 8, page 2543, Zhonghua Book Company, 1977 AE "Zhuzi Language", Volume 8, page 3005, Zhonghua Book Company, 1986 AIAJ "Commentary on the Thirteen Classics", Volume II, pages 2123~2124, Volume I, page 1371~1372, Zhonghua Book Company, 1980 AK "Three Religions Source Flow Sou Shen Daquan" Volume 1 "Hou Tu Huang Di Ji" Among the gods of the four directions, according to the Classic of Mountains and Seas, "Zhurong in the south, the body of a beast and a human face, multiply two dragons." "In the west, there is a snake in the left ear, and two dragons are multiplied. "There is a saying in the east, with a bird and a human face, and two dragons. "Northern Yujiang, black body and siblings, riding two dragons. One of the more interesting points is that the dragons in the Classic of Mountains and Seas are all ridden, while the snakes of the same kind are either held or manipulated or wrapped around their necks, showing the difference between the two; However, the five gods in the five directions are not quite the same as the four gods in the four directions, so I will not go into detail here. Vermilion Bird, Xuanwu (black turtle snake, Wu is the meaning of turtle and snake), green dragon, white tiger and respectively represent the twenty-eight quarters of the Quartet, the dragon is the seven houses of the East - horn, Kang, Di, Fang, heart, tail, Kei, and the shape of these seven Suku is very similar to the shape of a dragon, it can be seen from their literal meaning, the horn is the horn of the dragon, Kang is the neck, Di is the root, but the root of the neck, the fang is the shoulder, is the wedge, the heart is the heart, the tail is the tail, and the Kei is the end of the tail.

There is also the part of the dragon's heart, which some people call "fire", which is related to the rain and rain, and because the green dragon is wood, it is also the year of Jupiter. After the rise of Taoism, these four spirits were also named by people, which is convenient for human beings to call, the green dragon is called "Meng Zhang", the white tiger is called "supervisor", the red bird is called "Lingguang", and Xuanwu is "Zhiming", and in many dynasties, there are also some monarchs who take the green dragon to make their own year name, such as the Wei Ming Emperor of the Three Kingdoms is an example, and there are also records in the historical records that the Xia Dynasty belongs to the dynasty of Mude, so he has the auspicious omen of "the green dragon was born in the suburbs".

Classification of dragons

In ancient China, the horned head was a male dragon; The two-horned one is called a dragon, and the single-horned one is called a Jiao; The hornless one is the mantle, and in ancient times, the jade pendant often had large and small double dragons, and it was still called the mother and child mantle; The status of dragons is much higher than that of India. Because in China the dragon is a sacred object, it is supreme, and it is also a symbol of the emperor. It is also the representative of the East, the five elements are wood, and because the cyan is wood, there is a saying that the left green dragon and the right white tiger.

Including 46 constellations and more than 300 stars, the image of the composition is like a dragon. Many scholars believe that the Qiankun "Do not use the hidden dragon", "see the dragon in the field", "or leap into the abyss", "fly the dragon in the sky", and "Kanglong has regrets" are exactly the celestial phenomena described by the Qinglong Qisu in the spring. "Shi's Star Classic" said: "The horn is the head of the dragon, and the power of the real lord is born, that is, the horn of the dragon." "Shuowen" said that "Kang people's necks are also", so Kang Su is the neck of Canglong. It is also known as Tiangen, which is the chest of the dragon. Fangsu is the belly of the dragon, because the dragon is a heavenly horse, so the house is also called Tiansi or Matsu. Antares is the Great Mars. Ojuku is the tail of the dragon, according to the ancient division (the stars in the sky correspond to a certain area on the earth), Ojuku and Keijuku correspond to the mouth of the Jiujiang River, so Ojuku is also known as Jiujiang, it is near the Tianjiang Star, the Fish Star, the Turtle Star Its majesty and the ability to subdue ghosts in the legend make it also become a divine beast belonging to the yang, often with the dragon to go out, "clouds from the dragon, wind from the tiger" become a pair of best partners to subdue ghosts.

Kui, Lou, Stomach, Ang, Bi, Mi, Ginseng. Therefore, it is the representative of the West, and its whiteness is because it is the West, and the West is gold in the five elements, and the color is white. Therefore, it is called the White Tiger not because it is white, but from the five elements. (To be continued.) )