The rhetoric of "the dragon looks up" comes from ancient astronomy. In ancient times, people chose 28 groups of stars near the equator of the ecliptic as coordinates as reference objects for observing celestial phenomena. According to the orbit and position of the sun, moon and stars, the ancients divided the astrology near the ecliptic into 28 groups, commonly known as "Twenty-eight Hostages".

"lodging" means living, because they are arranged around the sun, the moon and the five stars, much like the places where the sun, the moon and the five stars live, so they are called "lodging". "Twenty-eight Hostels" are divided into four groups according to the four directions of east, west, north and south, resulting in "four elephants": black dragon in the East, White Tiger in the West, Suzaku in the South and Xuanwu in the North.

The seven lodges in the East are called "Jiao, Kang, Di, Fang, Xin, Wei and Ji", which form a complete dragon-shaped astrology. People call it "Oriental black dragon", in which Jiao represents the dragon's horn, Kang represents the dragon's throat, Di represents the dragon's paw, Xin represents the dragon's heart and Wei. In winter, these seven nights in black dragon are hidden under the northern horizon.

In the middle of spring (from the time of fright to the vernal equinox), the Arcturus (one star and two stars) appeared on the eastern horizon. At this time, the whole body of black dragon was still hidden below the horizon, only the Arcturus was first exposed, so it was called "the dragon looked up". The rise of the dragon refers to the looming change of the seven stars in black dragon in the sky, not that there is really an animal dragon changing.

Extended information:

Related customs of "February 2nd"

Taking dragon breath

In the morning (between 5 o'clock and 7 o'clock), on the first morning of Uzuki, it is a good luck to go out and breathe deeply in the east. ?

Shaving the tap

refers to the second day of February, when children get a haircut, which is called "shaving their heads", to take advantage of the dragon's good luck to bless children to grow up healthily and get ahead when they grow up; Adults get a haircut, say goodbye to the old and welcome the new, hoping to bring good luck and a smooth new year.

Dragon Boat

In ancient times, the Dragon Head Lift Festival was a day for offering sacrifices to the dragon god. On this day every year, people went to the Dragon Temple or the riverside to burn incense for offering sacrifices to the dragon god, praying that the dragon god would revive the clouds and turn the rain into rain, so as to bless a bumper harvest of grain in a year. When the dragon looks up, there will be activities of "lifting the dragon boat" in some parts of China, inviting the dragon out of the water and praying for everything to go well.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Dragon Head Up