Page 295 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book
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A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols 288
A pheasant
The South Gate of the Palace was known as the ‘Pheasant Gate’. A ‘golden pheasant’
with long tail-feathers, was the symbol of an official in the civil service.
Phoenix
feng-huang
The Chinese feng-huang has nothing to do with the phoenix of Egyptian and classical
antiquity, apart from the fact that it too is mythological. It is mentioned in texts dating
from as far back as the end of the second millennium BC; and in a commentary to the
‘Spring and Autumn Annals’ (4th century BC), we are told that the male phoenix (along
with the female unicorn, and the five magic beings – the white tiger, the tortoise, the
green dragon, the red bird and the dark warrior) is a sign that the land is being ruled by a
