Chinese Phoenix sculpture, Nanning city, Guangxi province.
Fenghuang (鳳凰 pinyin: feng4 huang2) are mythological Chinese birds that reign over all other birds. The males are called Feng and the females the Huang; in modern times, however, such a distinction of gender is sometimes blurred into a single female entity, as the bird is often paired with the Chinese dragon which has male connotations. Fenghuang is also called August Rooster (鶤雞 hun4 ji1), and sometimes referred to as the Chinese Phoenix in English.
The fenghuang is said to be made up of the beak of a cock, the face of a swallow, the forehead of a fowl, the neck of a snake, the breast of a goose, the back of a tortoise, the hindquarters of a stag and the tail of a fish.
In ancient China, they can often be found in the decorations for weddings or royalty, along with dragons. This is because the Chinese considered the dragon and phoenix symbolic of blissful relations between husband and wife.
Fenghuang is also a county in western Hunan province of China, formerly a subprefecture. Its name is written with the same Chinese characters as the mythological bird. See also Fenghuang County
In Japan, as earlier in China, the mythical Phoenix was adopted as a symbol of the imperial household, particularily the empress.
During the Han period, 2,200 years ago, the Phoenix was used as a symbol to indicate the direction south, and was often shown in a pair of facing male and female birds.
An interesting difference between the way the dragon and the phoenix are shown in decorations is that the dragon is used to fill all the space available on a vase for example, while the phoenix is used to fill specific space in the decoration such as around trees, rocks, and flowers.
The phoenix was also compared to undying Rome, and it appears on the coinage of the late Roman Empire as a symbol of the Eternal City.
The Chinesephoenix was thought to have the beak of a cock, the face of a swallow, the neck of a snake, the breast of a goose, the back of a tortoise, hindquarters of a stag and the tail of a fish.
The Ho-Oo is the Japanese phoenix, the Ho being the male bird and the Oo being the female.
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