CREATION
MYTHOLOGY OF PLANET
Impression, Sunrise (Claude Monet)
The mythology of the Rowan tree
While writing in Putnam Valley
Vertumnus: Portrait of Rudolph II (Giuseppe Arcimboldo)
The mythology of the chinese phoenix
The dream of the three white cranes
Prometheus and the theft of fire
Sunday afternoon on the island of La Grande Jatte (Georges Seurat)
SUMMER 2007
THE CHINESE PHOENIX
Bird Feng. Edmund Dulac. 1916.
The Chinese phoenix is also known as the red bird or feng-huang, one of the four celestial guardians (dragon, tiger, turtle, red bird). The appearance of the phoenix signals auspicious new beginnings. Her disappearance signifies the opposite.
Feng-huang was originally two birds: the masculine Feng and the feminine Huang. Later Chinese mythology combined the two and identified it as feminine. Often seen in conjunction with the dragon, the merged symbol represents the paradoxical wholeness that results when harmony and conflict are both present.
The Chinese phoenix is not the same mythological symbol as the western phoenix. The western phoenix is a symbol of death and rebirth. Feng-huang is a symbol of immortality and thus represents the transcendence of death and rebirth.
Notes
Edmund Dulac (1882-1953) created this illustration around 1916 as part of Edmund Dulac's Picture Book. Proceeds from the book went for the benefit of the London chapter of the French Red Cross. This particular illustration accompanied Story of the Bird Feng - A fairy tale from China.
