The Folk Indication（2）--Siling

狮子、麒麟、福禄（福鹿）和玄武（乌龟），合称“四灵”或“四祥”，就是四种祥瑞之物，它们出而天下太平。

Silingor Sixiang consists of lion, kylin, deer and tortoise, four auspicious things. When the auspicious four turn up, the country is at peace.

狮子为祥瑞之物。民间信仰中认为，国泰民安则狮子至。狮是百兽之王，象征权势和地位。古“狮”作“师”，例如太师，就是很有权势的官员。民俗中狮可用来祝吉，辟邪。

Lion is an auspicious animal. It is said by folk belief, lion will be here if the country is prosperous and the people are at peace. Lion symbolizes power and the elevated status since it is the king of animals. It was once said that 师[shī] is 狮[shī] , just like 太师[tàishī] who is an official with much power. Lion can be used to congratulate someone or ward off evil.

麒麟象征稀世贤才。特别是指非常聪慧的小儿。麒麟是幸福吉祥的象征，有“麒麟送子”之说，麒麟本身就是中国古代人集美思想的合成。多用于祝贺新婚、祝贺人家生子的对联。

Kylin symbolizes the rare talent, especially the intelligent kid. The unicorn was the happy propitious symbol, has the unicorn to deliver saying of the child. Unicorn is in itself the Chinese ancient Jimei thought synthesis. It can be used to congratulate someone on someone’s marriage or on the birth of someone’s child with a pair of couplets.

福禄，即福鹿。鹿，长寿之义。神仙传说中，鹿是经常出现的神物。鹿，谐音“禄”，有蝙蝠（福）和鹿（禄）的图画，叫做《福禄双全图》，象征“福禄双全”。鹿的谐音还有“路”，两头鹿的画面，寓意“路路顺利”。另外，还有谐音“陆”，画面背景为春天，有鹿有鹤的图画叫做《鹿鹤同春图》，寓意歌颂社会太平，又是祝贺长寿之语。

福禄[fúlù] is 福鹿[fúlù]. Chinese鹿[lù] is deer. Deer has the meaning of longevity as it usually turns up in fairy tales. 禄[lù] is a homonym for 鹿[lù], that’s why Chinese call a picture Fu Lu Shuangquan Tu withbats（蝙蝠[biǎnfú]）and deer（鹿[lù]）. Fulu Shuangquan means the fortune and the property will come to you. 路[lù] is also a homonym for 鹿[lù]. A picture with two deer means everything is great（路路[lùlù]顺利[shùnlì]）. What’s more, 陆[lù] is the third homonym for鹿[lù]. A picture, spring as the background, with deer and crane, is called Lu He tong Chun Tu which means social harmony and longevity.

玄武，即龟。为通灵之物，又有长寿之意。据说，它不吃不喝，也能活很长的时间，因而古代人名中用“龟”字的，即用来祝愿长寿。龟，是祥瑞之物，在古代，有大官的印纽为龟。除了以上祥瑞之意，龟也有贬义，比如，表示一个人懦弱无能，遇到危险就退缩。

玄武[xuánwǔ] is tortoise（龟[guī]）, which means longevity. It is said that it can live a long time without food and water. As a result, many people named oneself after it to wish long life. Tortoise is an auspicious animal that the magnifico used it for chop in ancient time. Excepting its commendatory senses, tortoise has a derogatory sense. As one man running into difficulties, he resemble shrinking however head tortoise.