Four Symbols of Eastern Mythology

As a typical nerdy 2nd grader, I was drawn to flashy monster/robot-based franchises:

Transformers, Pokemon, Zoids, Bionicle, etc. I even had brief obsession with Beyblades despite owning only a dark blue one, because it came with a buildable model of a mechanical dragon that was absolutely sick. I did as much research as a 7-year old’s attention span would allow and found that Beyblades even had its own anime. Which of course, was a completely accurate portrayal of real Beyblading.

In the show, characters’ Beyblades could be possessed by “Bit Beasts”, powerful monsters that helped them in competition, be their best friend, and attack other people in real life. Because children’s games-based plots need to up their stakes somehow. The protagonist’s Bit Beast was Dragoon, a blue eastern-style dragon with giant claws; his cheerful orange-haired friend used a black bipedal turtle, Draciel; the edgy, antagonist rival had a red phoenix, Dranzer; and the cool calm kung-fu guy was helped by the white tiger, Driger. Aesthetically awesome to a 7-year old. Also rather forgettable.

The main character was an orphan boy who possessed some kind of fengshui WMD called the Xuanhao, and was naturally, the Prophesied One to Save the World; helping him was an overly serious girl who used the fiery Vermillion Bird, a reckless guy who yelled a lot and clawed people using his White Tiger, and some others that aren’t relevant to the article. Cackling evily and trying to steal the Xuanhao is an old businessman who could brainwash people using the Dark Warrior snake-turtle, and a small Japanese boy who used blood magic to augment his Azure Dragon.

Hey wait, that sounded familiar, I thought as a 12 year old. Why these four animals? What do they mean?

Turns out, in Ancient China, astronomers divided the night sky according to the path of the Moon, identifying 28 stars as “mansions” that the Moon appeared to move to from night to night. The mansions have names that seem rather random today, with characters like “Ghost”, “Stomach”, or “Chariot”; the original meanings behind the names have been lost in history. Each mansion is also governed by a minister in the Taoist pantheon; at least one of these guys have gone rogue in the classic novel Journey to the West.

Where the four animals come in is how these mansions are grouped by cardinal direction: the Northern mansions comprise the Dark Warrior, the Eastern mansions became the Azure Dragon, the Southern mansions became the Vermillion Bird, and the Western mansions formed the White Tiger. Together, they are the Four Auspicious Beasts. Each Beast also embodies one of the 5 Taoist elements, which in turn comes with a season of the year, a planet, their own personality traits, a part of the body, a kung fu style, and more.

The Vermillion Bird (朱雀 or Zhuque aka Suzaku aka Jujak) is a fire-covered pheasant associated with, uh, fire, and the summer season. It’s pretty similar to the Western phoenix, it can endlessly die and be reborn in flame; however, an important distinction should be made between it and the Feng Huang, aka Chinese phoenix and the symbol of the Empress, which does not have an inherent association with fire. Another distinction is with the 3-legged crows that embodied the Sun.

The Azure Dragon (青龙 or Qinglong aka Seiryu aka Cheong-nyong) is what the name implies, a bluish-greenish dragon that actually has dominion over the wood element, instead of water; its element matches its season of spring as a champion of growth and renewal. This dragon is the one on the Qing dynasty flag; however, the Azure Dragon is not The Imperial Yellow Dragon of the Emperor, who we will discuss later.

The Dark Warrior (玄武 or Xuanwu aka Genbu aka Hyeonmu) is the turtle and the snake wrapped around it; together, they represent winter and water. The pair share their name with a Chinese god of war, and they are frequently associated with him. One legend says that once the Dark Warrior had reached enlightenment and immortality, he ripped out his own stomach and intestines, which respectively became the turtle and the snake. And he kept them as pets.

The White Tiger (白虎 or Baihu or Byakko or Baekho) is also self-explanatory, and embodies metal and autumn. White tigers in real life are rare, and so it is said that the White Tiger will only appear to mortals when the country is prosperous and peaceful. The White Tiger is also the most combative of the Four Auspicious Beasts, and is frequently called upon to be a guardian against evil.

But wait, there’s only four Auspicious Beasts, but five elements? Who’s missing?

Presiding over all four Auspicious Beasts is the Imperial Yellow Dragon of the Center, whose element of earth is the most important to an agrarian nation’s survival. Emperors took the Yellow Dragon as their personal symbol to drive home that they are the center of the empire, yet also responsible for supporting everyone in it. Anyone caught using a depiction of the Yellow Dragon could be put to death.

In older days, they were depicted all throughout architecture, sculpture, pottery, and more. Today, they still make quite a few cameos in media, sometimes even taking center stage, such as in Beyblades and Xuanhao Chronicles. A few more examples:

Yu Yu Hakusho: The Four Beasts are a quartet of demons that run an underworld criminal organization
Kung Fu Panda: the Paws of Destiny: The four main protagonists accidentally absorb the spirits of the Four Constellations, granting them awesome kung fu skills to help the Dragon Warrior Po.
Final Fantasy: References to the Beasts span across a couple games, multiple enemies, locations, items, most notably the Four Lords bosses.
Overwatch: For the 2018 Lunar New Year event, Mercy, Genji, Pharah, and Zarya got skins themed after the beasts. In my opinion, Genji’s Baihu is easily his best skin.
World of Warcraft: The August Celestials are nature gods that protect Pandaria. They have different names, the Xuanwu is replaced by an ox, and the cardinal direction and seasons of the White Tiger and the Black Ox are swapped.
Kill la Kill: One of the rival academies was led by a quartet of Guardian Students who were named and themed after the beasts.
Digimon: The Four Sovereign Digimon each rule a cardinal direction and 3 of the 12 Zodiac-based digimon, and are together lead by Huanglongmon, who is a golden dragon. Azulongmon’s element seems to be Lightning instead of Wood.
Kylie Chan Xuan Wu fictional universe: Kylie Chan’s first books in the universe, the Dark Heavens series, are named after the other three Auspicious Beasts. The Beasts and other Chinese mythological figures take human form, bringing magic, kung fu, and danger to the world.

What do the Four Auspicious Beasts do for us today? Well other than guarding the skies against evil and keeping the lunar mansions in order, maybe not much, in the same way that Greek zodiacs and constellations aren’t really that useful either. Yet, we still know about the Cancers and the Capricorns and the Sagittaruses, so would be nice to understand our ancestor’s characterizations of the stars as well. If nothing else, they help us win spinning top duels.

Resources:

https://web.archive.org/web/20151104154237/http://idp.bl.uk/education/astronomy/sky.html

http://idp.bl.uk/4DCGI/education/astronomy/sky.html

http://english.visitbeijing.com.cn/a1/a-XBPATC6323CE280784C533

https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-asia/four-mythological-symbols-china-001792