In the folk, I often hear the old people talk about the four immortals and the four small immortals, and many places collectively refer to them as the "Eight Earth Immortals". In today's society, it is a bit nonsense to talk about the Eight Immortals. In fact, the names that people give to these animal fairies are, in some ways, a warning to pay attention to the protection of wild animals. So today let's talk about what kind of animals the Eight Earth Immortals are.
Beijingers are famous for their love of animals, and legend has it that the Yongzheng Emperor personally designed clothes for dogs, and Empress Dowager Cixi specially built a zoo for animals from afar. It is estimated that the old Beijingers who mention these "four immortals" are certainly not strangers, they are the Huang Daxian Weasel, the Red Daxian Fox, the White Daxian Hedgehog, and the Green Immortal Snake. The most common of these great immortals now may only be White Immortals and Wong Tai Sin.
Where does that come from? Let's put it this way. If you are still "lucky" to live in the hutong, the chances of seeing Wong Tai Sin are not few. The elders have told me in person. These great immortals must not be "provoked." And if you see it, you should respectfully let them go first. Because these kinds of great immortals have spirituality in them. If you provoke one of these great immortals, you will be unlucky in the future. Although it is a bit superstitious, I am still convinced of this. You must not fight or coax, that is, you must respect them.
In the second ring of the Rishi Chahai, many complete courtyards are now preserved, and there are also many chaotic courtyards. These places became the homes of the Great Immortals. And the old Beijingers also have the habit of planting jujube trees in the yard, if you hear someone coughing in the yard in the middle of the night, don't be too afraid to panic, because the slightly older Beijingers know that It is Bai Daxian who is eating the dates that fell from the tree. It sounds a bit like a human cough. However, it is inevitable that this sound will be a bit maddening in the middle of the night.
Why are these great immortals not common in buildings, and living in hutongs is indeed so mysterious? This has to be explained to you in scientific terms. These four great immortals are all "nocturnal" animals. The habit of this nocturnal animal is nocturnal activity. Especially Wong Tai Sin, it is even more difficult to see it during the day. But Wong Tai Sin is a master of mouse catching, as for the White Da Xian hedgehog? Not to mention, hedgehogs feed on small insects, like earthworms. Thinking about the larvae of beetles, thinking of the silkworm pupae that come out of the dirt, these are the delicacies in the mouth of the White Immortal. The building is not suitable for these indigenous immortals to live in terms of structure and natural conditions, which is why only in the hutongs can you occasionally see several immortals.
The Four Immortals still live in the hutongs, but some places are different from people's traditional impressions. In the worship of the four immortals, the folk are more in awe of the fox immortals, yellow immortals and white immortals, and there are many legends about their spiritual signs, and they are attached to the third grandfather of Hu, the second grandfather of Huang, and the old lady of Bai.
The weasel gives the chicken a New Year's greeting - no peace of mind, this allusion is estimated that most people have heard of it. In fact, Wong Tai Sin does not eat animals larger than himself. The hedgehog's back is covered with fruit and he carries it home to enjoy slowly. This claim is also unrealistic, as hedgehogs do not eat fruit at all. Then you have to ask, didn't you just say that hedgehogs eat dates? Why don't you eat it again. I mean you can misunderstand, you think about it, this jujube tree can only pick up how many dates a year, how long can it be eaten when it falls, what to do if there is no date in winter, and eating dates here actually makes Bai Daxian grind his teeth.
It belongs to the commonly referred to fox, also known as red fox, red fox and grass fox. Their flexible ears can accurately locate sound, have a keen sense of smell, slender legs can run fast, and the maximum speed can reach about 50km/h, so they mainly feed on fish, mussels, shrimp, crabs, rodents, birds, insects and small animals, and sometimes eat some plants. In fact, fox is a folk name for this type of animal, there are many types, divided into arctic fox, red fox, silver black fox, sand fox and so on. Astute and timid, often appears as a "fox spirit" in ancient mythology, although it was also used as a totem in ancient times, it never appeared in formal sacrifices, all because of its "indecent image", mostly associated with cunning and sneaky. Over the years, the fox demon fox fairy has formed a unique goblin culture in various novels and anecdotes
The fate of the fox is the most tragic. Right now, there will be no foxes in downtown Beijing unless you see them at the zoo. There are also few foxes on the outskirts of Beijing. Foxes are foxes, and the "tanuki" here is not a tanuki cat, but a "raccoon" of a hill.
The fox, in the traditional culture of the Han people, has always been an image of both good and evil. In the book "Youyang Miscellaneous Tricks", it is recorded: "The old saying goes, the wild fox is named Purple Fox, and when it strikes its tail at night, it will be a monster, and it will wear a calf and worship the Big Dipper, and if it does not fall, it will become a human being." It is said that "the pearl in the mouth of the fox, if it can be obtained, should be loved by the whole world." "In northern China, there is a belief in fox immortals, begging fox immortals to bless food year after year.
Weasel (scientific name: Mustela sibirica), commonly known as weasel, is 280–400 mm long and females are 1/2-1/3 smaller than males. The skull is elongated and narrow, with a flat apex. Because of its brownish or orange-yellow body, it is called the weasel in zoology. It is a small carnivore. Its natural habitats are plains, swamps, river valleys, villages, cities and mountains. Nocturnal, feeding mainly on rodents, occasionally eating other small mammals, mating in estrus from March to April. Choose hidden places such as firewood and grass stacks, embankment caves, cemeteries, rock piles, tree holes, etc. The gestation period for females is 33-37 days. Usually, litters are born in May, with 2-8 litters per litter. Like many ferrets, they have stink glands that expel odor and paralyze enemies when threatened.
weasel
The Yellow Immortal, or Weasel, used to offer a statue of him in the Tianhou Palace. It is worshipped for two reasons. One is that it is quite beautiful and cunning like a fox, which makes people mysterious; another important reason is that it can influence the spiritual world of people and is related to a disorderly disease. This disorderly disease is called "hysteria", which is commonly known as "gram". Hysteria occurs once a weasel is possessed, most of which are women or people who are mentally depressed. When this disease is onset, weep and cry, and even sing with rap, telling some mysterious things or unfair things in life. Some people also sing some beautiful verses. Hysterical people do not know their families, relatives and friends when they are sick, and their tone of voice is different from that of Hershey. It is also said that there are rolling balls under the skin of the patient, and the weasel that can be attached to it can be placed in the place of death by pricking it with a needle, and it can generally be treated by stabbing the patient with a needle. There is also a strange phenomenon, legend has it that as long as a doctor, wizard or person who has beaten a weasel coughs outside the door, the attack stops immediately, just like a normal person. Although this hysteria does not leave sequelae, it is difficult to completely cure and is prone to multiple episodes. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the folk worship of the Yellow Immortal gradually lost its inheritance.
The dorsal and body sides of the body are covered with spines, the head, tail and ventral surface are covered with hairs; the mouth is long and the tail is short; the front and back feet have 5 toes, and the front and back feet are 5 toes, and the front feet are 4 toes; the teeth are 36 to 44, all with sharp tooth tips, suitable for insectivorous; when frightened, the whole body spines stand upright and curl into a spiny ball, and the head and 4 feet are not visible.
The worship of the white fairy, the Han folk sayings are different, most people regard it as a mascot for wealth and disease prevention, han folklore of the white old lady is a hedgehog evolved from the deity, mainly to treat people, and proficient in witchcraft. The first time the hedgehog was raised was very short, and it only took about a week to let it go. Because the family members were opposed, saying that this was a white fairy and could not be raised. The most important reason for the sharp decline of hedgehogs in Beijing is habitat loss and food loss. Now with the heavy application of pesticides and pesticides, there are fewer insects or other invertebrates in the soil, and hedgehogs have no food. Fruit makes up a very small proportion of hedgehog recipes, and even hedgehogs may not have eaten a few bites of fruit in their lifetime. With a little relief, you can still see the hedgehog occasionally.
The worship of the white fairy, the Han folk sayings are different, most people regard it as a mascot for wealth and disease prevention, han folklore of the white old lady is a hedgehog evolved from the deity, mainly to treat people, and proficient in witchcraft. When we were in elementary school, we basically had the experience of catching hedgehogs, because as long as we walked around the lawn or in the woods at night, we could catch hedgehogs. But generally when caught, the family will let it go, saying that this is a white fairy and cannot be raised.
Snakes belong to the reptile suborder Lentiformes. There are also snakes, cockroaches, silkworms, grasshoppers, grasshoppers, other nicknames, according to the species will also have pit vipers, cockroaches, pythons, vipers and other synonyms, belonging to the scaly order. The body is slender, the limbs are degenerate, the surface of the body is covered with scales, and the snake is a vertebrate although slender. Most are terrestrial, but there are also semi-arboreal, semi-aquatic and aquatic, distributed around the world except Antarctica and islands such as New Zealand and Ireland. Feeds on rats, frogs, insects, etc.
Fate is not as good as the hedgehog is the Green Immortal Snake. Once upon a time they were also found throughout the countryside. The color of snakes is naturally imagined to be cyan, or snakes are called "green snakes" and "grass snakes". The black-browed akebono and the white-striped snake are the most common snakes in the northern region, which is what we often call the grass snake. People's worship of snake fairies also comes from ancient times, and legend has it that Fuxi and Nüwa are gods with snake bodies. Snakes are often thought to be the embodiment of dragons, so in the Zodiac, if they belong to a snake, they are said to belong to small dragons. It is believed that the snake has aura, its shape is strange, it can lurk and molt changes, and its movements are mysterious and sensitive, its mana is even greater than that of a fox, and it can also form a shape, and it has the spell of a thousand miles. The Legend of the White Snake from the Song and Yuan Dynasties is a Han folk legend that depicts the White Lady and Qing'er as kind and lovely snake fairies. In Tianjin, the shadow of the snake fairy often appears in the performances of the Han folk elders and holy meetings. Especially in the stilt performance, these two snake immortals, the white snake is dressed in plain makeup, the green snake is dressed in green makeup, both wear swords, handsome appearance, feminine with fortitude, eye-catching. Although people love Bai Suzhen and Xiaoqing, snakes still can't escape the crisis of being killed in reality. In Our country, the population of snakes is one of the fastest declining taxa. In the past few years, I can still see weasels and hedgehogs, but the snake has never been seen again.
People's worship of snake fairies also comes from ancient times, and legend has it that Fuxi and Nüwa are gods with snake bodies. Snakes are often thought to be the embodiment of dragons, so in the Zodiac, if they belong to a snake, they are said to belong to small dragons. It is believed that the snake has aura, its shape is strange, it can lurk and molt changes, and its movements are mysterious and sensitive, the mana is greater than that of the fox, and it can also form a human form, and has the spell of a thousand miles.
The four immortals that are said in folklore are foxes, weasels, hedgehogs and snakes. In fact, in the past, it was often seen as an animal.
1. Wolves
The wolf's mouth is long and narrow, with about 44 teeth. Wolves have five types of teeth, front teeth, canine teeth, premolars, split teeth, and molars. It has four canine teeth, two on the top and two, and can be 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) long enough to pierce the skin of its prey to cause great damage. There are also four wolf cleavages, which are differentiated from molars, which are also characteristic of carnivorous, and the cleavages are used to tear meat apart. The 12 front teeth with 4 upper and lower teeth are relatively small and are used to bite things. Wolves prey mainly on medium- and large mammals, and studies say wolves are a key player in controlling the local ecological balance, with predators mainly humans.
According to legend, the Roman god of war, Mars Ares, took the wolf as his symbol, and it was he who lured his daughter Rhea Sylvia into becoming pregnant and gave birth to twin brothers, Romulus and Remus. Later, Rhea Sylvia was killed by the usurpers, and Romulus and Remos were thrown into the Tiber River. Waves and running water carry wooden basins containing children to the marshlands on the banks of the river. The twins were rescued by a she-wolf near Baleden Hills and fed to their nests. Later, a shepherd adopted Romulus and taught him martial arts. Gradually, he became a wise and courageous general, regained the throne, and became a wise king. To thank the she-wolf for her nurturing grace, he established his own city, Rome, on the mountain where the she-wolf fed them. From then on, Rome enshrined the wolf as a totem. Today, the city of Rome is still full of wolf symbols.
However, Romulus, in order to become the builder of Rome, killed his brother Remus. According to legend, because of the brothers' murder, the fate of Rome's future demise was doomed.
2. Badger
Badger, also known as "badgers". The badger (scientific name Meles meles) is an animal of the mustel family, Badger family. Badgers are larger in the mustel family , with a larger , hypertrophic , short neck , short limbs , short tail , a mixture of brown and white or creamy yellow on the back of the body , and a dark brown or pale brown on the inside of the limbs. Badgers are generally active in spring and autumn, fierce temperament, hibernation, burrowing and living, omnivorous, breeding once a year, 2-5 litters per litter, the habitat is relatively extensive, such as forests, shrublands, fields, lakes and other habitats, distributed in most parts of Eurasia.
3. Lynx
Lynx (scientific name: Lynx lynx): Belongs to the cat family, similar in size but much larger than cats, stout, with a very short tail, usually less than 1/4 the length of the head. The limbs are long and sturdy. The tips of the ears are covered with black towering tufts of hair. The cheeks are pale brown, earth yellow brown, light gray brown or hemp brown, or grayish with a pale brown hue, and the ventral surface is pale white, yellowish white or sand yellow. The tail end is black.
The lynx is a cold-loving animal with a wide variety of habitats, ranging from subarctic coniferous forests and mixed temperate coniferous and broad-leaved forests to alpine meadows, alpine grasslands, alpine shrub grasslands, and alpine deserts and semi-deserts. It lives in forested shrublands, and is more common in dense forests and mountain rocks. He likes to live alone, is good at climbing and swimming, has a strong hunger tolerance, can lie still in one place for a few days, brave the cold, feeds on rats, hares, etc., and also preys on small wild boars and fawns. Nests are mostly built in rock crevice caves or tree holes. 2-4 litters per litter. It is widely distributed in Europe and northern Asia.
4. Rats (weasels)
The weasel is the main rodent in the arid grasslands and semi-desert grasslands of northern China and prefers to be scattered. It feeds on the green parts of herbaceous plants, but also eats seedlings of crops, sometimes grass roots and larvae of certain insects. The weasel endangers crops, destroys pastoral pastures, and is the main carrier and spreader of plague bacteria, and is one of the key killing targets. The habitat is selective, except for the breeding season, the rat mostly lives alone along the single, and the caves are mostly built in the wasteland, the head of the ground, the cemetery, the barren grass slope, the roadside and the perennial grassland, divided into permanent caves and temporary f the same, there is no nest in the temporary cave, and there are as many as a few to a dozen. The permanent cave usually has only one opening, the opening is smooth and complete, the diameter is 7-8 cm, there are mounds and footprints in front of the cave entrance, there is no feces around, the cave is 2.9-4.3m long, the cave depth is 1.1-1.4m, there is no warehouse, no grain storage. The male nest is spherical, and the female nest is basin-shaped. Half a year of activity, half a year of dormancy, that is, hibernation. Activity range 300-500m. The weasel has strong digging power and can quickly "hit the wall" to escape when it is killed by the enemy. Sensitive vision, smell and hearing, strong memory and high vigilance. Weasels do not drink water.
Bats are pterodactyls, the order Pterodactyl is the second largest group of mammals after rodents, is the only type of mammal that has evolved a truly flight ability, there are 19 families and 185 genera and 961 species of living species, except for some islands in the polar and oceans, distributed throughout the world, the most tropical and subtropical bats. Most bats rest during the day and forage for food at night.
Bats are the only beasts that can actually fly. Although they do not have the feathers and wings of birds, their ability to fly is much worse than that of birds. However, its forelimbs are very developed, the upper arm, forearm, metacarpal bone, and phalangeal bone are particularly long, and from its thin and hairy layer, from the end of the phalangeal bone to the humerus, body side, hind limbs and tail between the soft and tough membrane, forming a unique flying organ of bats - wingman. Bats use ultrasound to determine whether there are obstacles ahead and use them to change their flight path. In the past, many people said that bats have poor vision, which is actually a big misunderstanding. Many scientists have pointed out that bats have not bad vision, different types of bats have different vision, bats use ultrasound, and their vision is not necessarily related.
There are also records of bats in ancient China that they also lived in stalactite caves, called fairy rats. The bats there were immortalized because they could drink the water in the cave, and after a thousand years, their body color also changed dramatically, from the original dark color to the snow white. I guess that's why they're called fairy rats.
Even if wild animals are not "fairies", humans must not indiscriminately hunt and eat wild animals in order to survive better.