In our folk traditional culture, in addition to those invisible ideological cultures, there are many tangible traditional cultural contents, such as ceramics, folk architecture and so on.
In the folk architectural culture, there is such a saying, that is, "the white tiger looks up, and the family home is worried." So, what does this saying mean? What is the meaning of the so-called "white tiger looking up"?
In order to understand the saying that "the white tiger looks up, the house is worried", we must first understand what is called "white tiger".
The white tiger has a lot to say in our traditional culture. In the beginning, the white tiger referred to the stars in the sky. Later, the white tiger became a mythical beast in our ancient mythology. At the same time, because the white tiger is another name for the Seven Houses of the West, the white tiger can also represent the western orientation in the folk.
Not only that, because in our traditional culture, the white tiger is located in the west, and the west is gold, which represents the spirit of killing, so the white tiger is also regarded as a symbol of inauspiciousness.
In this saying that "the white tiger looks up, the home is worried", the so-called "white tiger" is used by people to indicate the direction.
Next, let's talk about "White Tiger Looking Up". Since the white tiger represents the West, then the "white tiger looking up" naturally means that the position of the West is higher. At first glance, this sentence may be a bit of a problem, because this saying lacks a subject.
And if we add the word "family house" before "white tiger looks up", we will understand that "white tiger looking up" actually refers to the tall buildings on the west side of our own house; and the derived meaning is that the mountain on the west side of the house is too close to make the family feel oppressive; and then there is the west house being built, or demolished, and so on.
So, why does the "white tiger look up" cause "the house to worry about"?
In fact, this brings us back to the word "white tiger." The white tiger represents the western orientation in this saying, and when the ancient ancestors built houses and chose the homestead, they often followed the saying of "left green dragon, right white tiger, former suzaku, and later Xuanwu".
At the same time, people will also have the white tiger position can not be higher than the green dragon position. That is to say, the east side must be higher than the west side, and the west side cannot be higher than the east side.
This kind of exquisiteness actually has a certain truth.
When the ancestors built houses, under normal circumstances, they would sit north and face south as the principle. In this way, the cold wind in the northwest can be blocked by the high wall, and the warm wind in the southeast can be blown in. At the same time, it is also so that the house can enjoy full light throughout the day.
If the house on the west side of the house is higher than the east side, it will affect the lighting of the house on the east side. Thus making the houses on the west side cold and damp, thus affecting the life of the owner.
In fact, the folk not only have such a saying that "the white tiger looks up, and the family house is worried", but also "it is better to let the green dragon rise to the top and not let the white tiger look up", "the white tiger builds the green dragon, and there are people who are poor from generation to generation", etc. These sayings also have the same meaning. They are all talking about folk houses, and it is okay to be higher in the east, but it must not be high in the west.
The reason why there is such a custom, the influence of lighting is one thing. More importantly, the old ancestors believed that the height of the west would affect the lives of people in the family house, their careers and wealth, so people would be so taboo!