Black Turtle-Snake

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Chinese mythology symbol

title: "Black Turtle-Snake" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["chinese-constellations", "chinese-legendary-creatures", "four-symbols", "japanese-legendary-creatures", "onmyōdō-deities", "mythological-and-legendary-chinese-turtles", "mythological-and-legendary-chinese-snakes"] description: "Chinese mythology symbol" topic_path: "philosophy" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Turtle-Snake" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Chinese mythology symbol ::

::callout[type=note] Chinese constellations ::

The Black Tortoise () is one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations. It is usually depicted as a tortoise intertwined with a snake.

According to Eastern Han philologist Xu Shen, the character wu (武) meant "knight" ( ) in the Jianghuai dialect. So the English translation Black ~ Dark ~ Mysterious Warrior is a more faithful translation.

It represents the north, thus it is sometimes called Black Warrior of the North ().

While neither character xuan (玄) or wu (武) literally means tortoise or snake, tortoises and snakes are known to hibernate during winter, so xuanwu (玄武) as a whole represents the season of winter.

The image of intertwined tortoise and snake likely symbolizes a state of inner struggle.

In Japan, the characters xuanwu (玄武) are pronounced as Genbu. It is said to protect Kyoto on the north side, being one of the four guardian spirits that protect the city. It is represented by the Kenkun Shrine, which is located on top of Mount Funaoka in Kyoto.

An important Taoist priest also has Xuanwu (玄武) as his clergy name. He is sometimes, as in Journey to the West, portrayed in the company of a turtle and a snake.

History

During the Han dynasty, people often wore jade pendants that were in the shape of turtles. Originally, there was a legend that said that turtles could not mate with other turtles, only snakes. This is why the Black Tortoise is depicted with a snake on its back.

The northern gates of Chinese palaces were often named after the Xuanwu. Most famously, the Incident at Xuanwu Gate, where Li Shimin killed his brothers Jiancheng and Yuanji and seized power in a coup, took place at the north gate of the Taiji Palace, in the north of Chang'an.

Legends

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Southern_Dynasties_Brick_Relief_11.jpg" caption="Black Tortoise with Snake. Southern Dynasties Brick Relief 11."] ::

In ancient China, the tortoise and the serpent were thought to be spiritual creatures symbolizing longevity. The Min people custom of building turtle-shaped tombs may have had to do with the desire to place the grave under the influence of the Black Tortoise.{{citation |publisher=Brill Archive |year=1892|first=Jan Jakob Maria |last=de Groot |title=The Religious System of China|volume=III |url=https://archive.org/details/religioussystemo03groo |pages=1082–1083

Xuanwu

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Yangzhou_-Zhenwu_Hall-tortoise-_P1070195.JPG" caption="Xuanwu subduing the tortoise. Wudang Palace, [[Yangzhou]]."] ::

Main article: Xuanwu (god)

In the classic novel Journey to the West, Xuanwu was a king of the north who had two generals serving under him, a "Tortoise General" and a "Snake General". This god had a temple in the Wudang Mountains of Hubei, and there are now a "Tortoise Mountain" and a "Snake Mountain" on opposite sides of a river near Wuhan, Hubei's capital. Taoist legend has it that Xuanwu was the prince of a Chinese ruler but was not interested in taking the throne, opting instead to leave his parents at age 16 and study Taoism. According to the legend, he eventually achieved divine status and was worshiped as a deity of the northern sky.

Other Chinese legends also speak of how the "Tortoise General" and a "Snake General" came to be. During Xuanwu's study to achieve enlightenment and divine status, he was told that, in order to fully achieve divinity, he must purge all human flesh from his body. Since he had always eaten the food of the world, despite all his efforts, his stomach and intestines were still human. A god then came and changed his organs with divine ones. Once removed, the original stomach and intestines were said to have become a tortoise and a snake, respectively. The tortoise and snake became demons and terrorized people. Now divine, Xuanwu heard of this and returned to slay the monsters he had unleashed on the countryside. However, as the snake and tortoise showed remorse, he did not kill them but instead let them train under him to atone for their wrongdoings. They then became the Tortoise and Snake generals and assisted Xuanwu with his quests (another legend held that the mortal organs were tossed out to become Wuhan's Tortoise and Snake mountains).

According to another source, once Xuanwu had begun his study of the Way, he discovered that he must purge himself of all of his past sins to become a god. He learned to achieve this by washing his stomach and intestines in the river. Washing his internal organs, his sins dissolved into the water in a dark, black form. These then formed into a black tortoise and a snake who terrorized the country. Once Xuanwu learned of this, he returned to subdue them as in the other story.

Seven Mansions of the Black Tortoise

Mansions As with the other three Symbols, there are seven astrological "Mansions" (positions of the Moon) within the Black Tortoise. The names and determinative stars are: ::data[format=table]

Mansion no.	Pinyin	Translation	Determinative star
8	Dǒu	(Southern) Dipper	φ Sgr
9	Niú	Ox	β Cap
10	Nǚ	Girl	ε Aqr
11	Xū	Emptiness	β Aqr
12	Wēi	Rooftop	α Aqr
13	Shì	Encampment	α Peg
14	Bì	Wall	γ Peg
::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Lingshan_Islamic_Cemetery_-turtle_tomb-_DSCF8473.JPG" caption="turtle-back tomb]]" in [[Quanzhou]], Fujian"] ::

Notes

References

(2017-04-02). "A "Black Cult" in Early Medieval China: Iranian-Zoroastrian Influence in the Northern Dynasties". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.
[[Xu Shen]]'s annotation: {{lang. zh. 「'''武'''士也；江淮間謂士曰'''武'''。」 on [[Liu An]] (compiler), ''[[Huainanzi]]'' ({{lang. zh. 淮南子), "Survey Obscurities" ([[s:zh:淮南鴻烈解_(四庫全書本)/全覽#覽㝠訓. 覽㝠訓]]); [[Siku Quanshu]] version. Main text: {{lang. zh. 「夫死生同域，不可脅陵，勇'''武'''一人，為三軍雄。」; English translation from John S. Major, Sarah A. Queen, Andrew Seth Meyer, and Harold D. Roth (transl.) (2010) ''The Huainanzi: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Government in Early Han China''. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. p. 215. quote: "One for whom death and life are the same territory, who cannot be threatened, such a single brave '''warrior''' is the hero of the Three Armies."
Zhang, Qian. (2017). "China's guardians of the galaxy".
Pregadio, Fabrizio (editor) (2008). ''The Encyclopedia of Taoism A–Z: Volume 1 & 2''. pp. 119, 194, 223, 478, 909, 1266
{{citation. link. {{lang. zh. 李永球 (Li Yongqiu). (2010-03-07)
"The Chinese Sky". [[International Dunhuang Project]].
Sun, Xiaochun. (1997). "Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures". [[Kluwer Academic Publishers]].
[[National Museum of Korea]], 2007, [https://www.museum.go.kr/site/eng/exhiSpecialTheme/view/current?exhiSpThemId=3542 Black Tortoise and Serpent, the Guardian Deity of the North]
[[Nancy Thomson de Grummond]], 2006, Etruscan Myth, Sacred History, and Legend, ''The Journey to the Afterlife'', p. 212, [[University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology]]

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