According to legend, Qin Mugong has a daughter named Langyu, who loves **, especially good at playing sheng. Qin Mugong specially built a "phoenix tower" for her, so that she could play the sheng and attract the phoenix here. One night, Lang Yu took a break in the Feng Tower, and dreamed of a handsome young man, riding a colorful phoenix, flying in his mouth.
The boy claimed to be named Xiao Shi and came from the towering Huashan Mountain. He likes **, and has listened to the sheng music of Langyu in the mountains, so he wants to marry Langyu.
Xiao Shi's beautiful image made Langyu addicted. After waking up from the dream, she told Qin Mugong what she had seen and heard. Qin Mugong immediately sent people to Huashan to look for Xiao Shi. Unexpectedly, the realistic version of Xiao Shi is even more perfect, every time ** can attract double phoenixes to surround and hundreds of birds fly together, making others stunned as angels.
After Xiao Shi and Lang Yu got married, they often played the sheng flute ensemble. At this time, the "King of Birds" Phoenix will lead a group of spirit birds around the air to act as an accompaniment. One day, purple phoenix and red dragon suddenly fell from the sky, and Xiao Shi told Langyu that he was originally an immortal in the upper realm, and because of his special fate with Langyu, he was ordered to go down to earth. Now, they are moved to heaven by the harmony of the sheng flute, and the dragon and phoenix come to welcome them, and they can ascend to the immortals.
So, the jade crossed the phoenix, Xiao Shi rode the dragon, and both took off into the air.
Just as Xiao Shi and Lang Yusheng were together, the colorful phoenix danced in the sky as a companion, and the phoenix, a sacred bird that has been revered by the Chinese for thousands of years, has been inseparable from ** and dance since the day of its birth.
The earliest documentary record of the phoenix seen today probably comes from the "Shangshu Yiji" chapter. It is said that after the success of Dayu's water control, a water control celebration was held by the Yellow River. When it's time,".Xiao Shao ninety, the phoenix comes to the ceremony, hits the stone and throws the stone, and the beast dances".。Both humans and animals are attracted by this grand ceremony full of joy, and even phoenixes, which are not common on weekdays, also come together to add to the festivities.
In the perception of the ancients, the phoenix was a spirit bird. The male is called the phoenix, and the female is the phoenix. The so-called "phoenix comes to the ceremony", that is, the phoenix comes in pairs. The ancient sound "Yi" is connected with "E" and "Graceful", which has the meaning of dance. Therefore, the "Phoenix Coming to the Ceremony" further illustrates that the phoenix is a pair of "dancing birds".
Qing Dynasty] Shen Quan's "Hundred Birds and Phoenix" part. Source: Internet.
The sudden appearance of the phoenix did not stem from animal instinct. In a batch of earlier pre-Qin documents, the recorder often expressed "the phoenix is flying, and the feathers are feathers" as an auspicious omen. The ancients believed that to be eligible to participate in those famous ceremonies in history, in addition to the phoenix, it must be the "dancing god" Dijiang in the sky: "There are birds in the Tianshan Mountains such as Dan, and the song and dance are wonderful, and the famous day is Dijiang." "Dijiang, also called Dihong, like the phoenix, is also a kind of sacred bird.
Similar to the legendary "dragon", the phoenix is so famous, but not many people have seen it. As a kind of mythological symbol that has been written for a long time, the definition of "dragon" and "phoenix" in the academic community is biased towards nothingness, believing that they are imaginary creatures of the ancients, and the real forms of dragons and phoenixes only exist in the minds of the ancients.
However, even if the phoenix is a myth, in ancient times without any scientific support, our ancestors would never have deliberately fabricated a certain creature in order to promote mythology and spread civilization. The only explanation is that the phoenix may be real, but its appearance is beyond the scope of the ancestors' understanding of birds. For those species that deviate from the normal behavior and form of birds, the ancestors mistakenly believed that they were related to the gods in the sky, and gradually deified them over time.
So, what did it look like at first during the rheological process of the Phoenix Legend?
In the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty, there is such a record about the phoenix: ".Jiayinbu, Huming Net Pheasant, 隻 (obtained). Bingchen wind (phoenix), only (obtained) five. ”。According to the translation of the late ancient scholar Mr. Yu Xingwu, this divination says that the king of Shang once ordered a "Ming" net to catch pheasants, but five colorful birds came to the net. In myths and legends, phoenixes are in pairs and travel in groups, so "Ming" believes that the five birds that threw themselves into the net have the righteousness of sacrificing themselves and forgetting to die, and are not idle animals, but phoenixes with auspicious signs.
From this point of view, in the memory of the Shang Dynasty, the phoenix should look like a pheasant, or the phoenix is a pheasant.
Pheasants in the snow. Source: Photo.com However, this conclusion was quickly overturned by the Zhou Dynasty.
In some of the Zhou Dynasty Jin texts that have been circulated in the world, the Zhou people thought that the phoenix should be a kind of "high-footed" big bird, and the male bird's abdominal hair was blue-green, so it was called Qingfeng; The female bird's belly hair is yellowish, so it is named "phoenix". In addition, the mythical bird "Phoenix" is not just one variety, but has five elephants:The red phoenix, the yellow one, the green one, the purple one, and the white one, they correspond to the five elements, maintaining peace and tranquility in the world. Therefore, in the laws of the Zhou Dynasty, the phoenix feather was worth a thousand gold and could be used to atone for the crime, as long as the sinner took the green phoenix feather to the authorities to atone for his crime, even if it was a death penalty, he could be additionally exempted.
Of course, as a recognized sacred bird, in the consciousness of the pre-Qin people, the phoenix not only has an auspicious sign, but it is also an excellent ingredient in its own right. "The Classic of Mountains and Seas: The Great Wilderness of the West" once said: ".In the fertile field, the eggs of the phoenix bird are food, and the nectar is drink. "Although the phoenix is not easy to obtain, it seems that some people have eaten the phoenix eggs.
From the Qin and Han dynasties to the end of the Ming Dynasty, in the historical books, the records of the phoenix in the present world are still common, and most of the phoenix images in these accounts have elements of artificial imagination and artistic processing. However, there are a few exceptions.
For example, the Book of Han records that in the Han Dynasty, the phoenix counted to, and the bird body, "high."
five, six feet"; In February of the third year of manna (51 years ago), "the phoenix gathers Xincai, and the birds are lined up on all sides, all standing towards the phoenix, with tens of thousands." "Erya Shi Bird" says, "Phoenix".Chicken head, swallow's jaw, snake neck, turtle back, fish tail, colorful, six feet high”。In addition, some Han Dynasty historical materials have appeared in the records of "covering the nest and destroying the eggs, and the Phoenix Emperor does not fly", "the phoenix is eight feet high", and "the Phoenix Emperor is two feet tall". This fully shows that after the Qin and Han dynasties, people's cognition of the phoenix entity is basically the same as that of the Zhou Dynasty - the so-called divine bird "Phoenix" is probably a large bird between five or six feet to one zhang and two feet tall, and likes to live in groups and is not good at flying.
Does such a big bird exist in nature? According to scholar He Xin's research, the largest bird in modern times, the ostrich, is very consistent with the characteristics of the legendary phoenix.
He Xin believes that, first of all, the ostrich is huge and tall, and people stand on its side to appear particularly small, which is very in line with the Zhou Dynasty's perception of the image of the phoenix. Secondly, the keel protrusion of the ostrich is underdeveloped, unable to fly, and likes to travel in groups in the wild, which is very consistent with the Shang Dynasty's divination record that Chen Ming used a fishing net to catch pheasants but accidentally won a "phoenix". In addition, ostriches often make graceful dance moves during courtship to attract attention from the opposite sex. Their beaks are like chickens, their jaws are like swallows, and their feathers are patterned, and the body feathers of male birds are black and blue, and female birds are generally yellowish brown, which seems to meet the definition of phoenixes and phoenixes by the ancients. Moreover, ostriches live longer than ordinary birds, with an average lifespan of 60-80 years, compared with the average life expectancy of only twenty or thirty years in the Han Dynasty, it is obviously easier to derive the symbolic meaning of auspiciousness and longevity.
Ostriches, with black-blue body hair and a long lifespan, were once considered the prototype animals of the phoenix. Source: Photo.com.
It is worth noting that in modern archaeological excavations, complete ostrich egg fossils have been unearthed in Hebei, Shandong, Anhui and other places. In the Zhoukoudian Cave Man Ruins, ostrich egg fossils have also been unearthed along with ancient human fossils. It shows that at least tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years ago, China was a habitat and breeding place for ostriches, and the cave people on the top of the mountain once collected ostrich eggs to satisfy their hunger.
Similar to the crocodile, which is said to be one of the prototypes of the "dragon", the ostrich is only suitable for living in environments with abundant rainfall and high temperatures. According to the research of meteorological historian Zhu Kezhen, China's climate was still mild at the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, but between 3000 and 2000 years ago, there was a "Xiaoice Age" that cooled the climate, which led to the extinction of a large number of creatures that depend on the warm and humid climate of northern China. Ostriches may be one of them. However, such abrupt changes in climate did not last long, and around the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the climate in northern China gradually warmed up. This can be found in the historical books of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, "Zuo Chuan" and "Spring and Autumn", and the corresponding climate examples can be found. However, the intense alternation of cold and heat eventually led to the extinction of the ostriches that once bred in northern China. Therefore, the Confucian sage Confucius, who lived in the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, only lamented before his death: ".The phoenix bird is not coming, the river is not out of the picture, I am already a husband!
Yes, the phoenix bird did not come, and Ryoma did not appear, and the collapse of the ritual became an irreversible tragedy. And Confucius, who devoted his life to supporting the righteous path, has also come to the end of his life, and it is no longer possible to restore the former etiquette and order.
The ancient phoenix disappeared with the end of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, but the worship of the "phoenix" totem by people all over the world has increased unabated.
The people of the Han Dynasty worshiped the "Four Spirits" culture, believing that the "Four Spirits" had the function of guarding the four directions as the gods of the four directions under the blessing of the Yin and Yang Five Elements Theory. After the design of the Han Dynasty scholars, the "four spirits" represented by the green dragon, the white tiger, the red bird and the Xuanwu were embodied by the stars in the sky into the "four elephants".
Among them, the "three elephants" were replaced by dragons, tigers, turtles and snakes by the Han Dynasty, while the image of the Vermilion Bird has been confusing, and no one can tell its origin. However, the people of the Han Dynasty still generally believed that people could start a new life underground after death, and there were many ghosts and ghosts underground, and only the "four spirits" could protect the tomb owner forever. As a result, the image of the ancient phoenix as the prototype, the image of the Vermilion Bird with its wings ready to fly and its head held high was widely used in the imperial tombs at that time.
Han Dynasty Fengque portrait brick rubbing. Source: The incarnation of the Internet Phoenix as a Vermilion Bird to protect the undead does not mean that it has lost its rightful status in the human world and the heavenly realm.
Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty "deposed a hundred schools of thought and respected Confucianism alone", the phoenix has become a theological symbol of the prosperous era of Confucianism. "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" records that the phoenix".The first text is said to be virtuous, the wing text is said to be smooth, the text is said to be benevolent, and the back text is said to be righteous”。The phoenix was born with the word "de" engraved on its forehead, and is naturally the best moral embodiment in Confucian theology. In Confucianism, the emperor has "virtue" and a political need, and the so-called Ming Jun probably needs to meet the following three points: "Mingde", "Lingde" and "Yide". In this way, in the historical materials of the Han Dynasty, as long as the Ming monarch came into the world, there would always be a few phoenixes in the prosperous era
On the contrary, if in troubled times, if the monarch loses his morality and someone takes the opportunity to usurp the throne, the phoenix will definitely become the preferred political symbol of the usurper. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, when Zhonglang persuaded Li Fu to call Cao Pi emperor on behalf of the Han Dynasty, he used the excuse of "there is a phoenix in Shiyi County, a unicorn appeared in Linzi City, and Huanglong appeared in Ye County", asking Emperor Han Xian to abdicate and make way for Xian. In the same way, Sun Quan wanted to be the emperor, and he also used the mouth of the minister Zhang Zhao to say, "I heard about Wuchang Dongshan recently, and the phoenix came to Yi; In the middle of the river, the yellow dragon appears repeatedly", in order to show his identity as the true son of heaven.
It can be seen that in the mythological system guided by Confucianism, the virtuous and auspicious "Phoenix" failed to make the two Han Dynasty peaceful for a long time after all. Since the end of the Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms, China has entered a 400-year period of separation from chaos and strife.
After the Sui and Tang dynasties reunified the world, Phoenix underwent a dual transformation of politicization and secularization.
As the only female emperor in history, Wu Zetian had already listened to the government with Tang Gaozong before he ascended to the pole, and was called the "Second Sage" at the time. Ancient China has always been called the dragon and the phoenix, the dragon represents the emperor, since Wu Zetian listened to the government, the phoenix has become the symbol of the queen. And the original auspicious signs of the phoenix coming to the ceremony also gave Wu Zetian a reason and packaging for his identity in the harem.
With the death of Tang Gaozong, Wu Zetian gradually replaced Tang with Zhou. The first time she was in power, she asked Chen Ziang to write "Ode to the Great Zhou". In this enthronement edict that expounds the meaning of the divine right of the monarch, Chen Ziang uses the name of "phoenix" to play the title and says".The phoenix is the yang bird, the red finch is the fire spirit, and the yellow finch is from the earth. The son of earth is the son of fire, and the son follows the mother, so he usurps the mother's surname. Providence is like that, people are sincere, Your Majesty can you say goodbye? The purpose is to use the mouth of the phoenix to say for Wu Zetian the core idea of Tang Ruizong, who was the emperor at the time, to bow down to his mother Wu Zetian and conform to the will of heaven. Here, the "phoenix" and Wu Zetian carried out a deep **, and for a period of time surpassed the image expression of the "dragon" and became the absolute image of the symbol of imperial power.
Portrait of Wu Zetian. Source: Internet Before that, people generally separated the "phoenix" and "phoenix", with the male as the phoenix and the female as the phoenix. Because of his gender identity, Wu Zetian combined the "phoenix" and "phoenix" into one and called it "phoenix" to highlight his side of being a gentleman and a great social ruler after the Tang Dynasty.
With the blessing of the phoenix element, Wu Zetian, who proclaimed herself the emperor of the Great Zhou, finally began her reform of the original official structure of the Tang Dynasty. In the first year of Guangzhai (684), Wu Zetian issued an edict to rename the original Tang Dynasty Zhongshu Province as "Fengge", and Menxia Province as "Luantai". The exclusive official position of the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, "Tongzhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi", became the "Tongfeng Pavilion Luantai Pingzhangshi" of the Great Zhou Dynasty, endorsing the rhetoric of the phoenix coming into the world and the monarchy granted to Wu Zetian. Until the first month of the first year of Shenlong (705), taking advantage of the empress's old age and serious illness, Zhang Cambodia, who was then in charge of the Pingzhang of Luantai of Tongfeng Pavilion, united Cui Xuanwei, Jinghui, Huan Yanfan and others to launch the "Shenlong Coup" to set things right, and the "Phoenix" has since fallen to the altar.
Interestingly, the phoenix falls politically, but soars freely in secular life.
Since Wu Zetian's "endorsement", the phoenix, an auspicious symbol that was previously only attached to male images, has gradually become synonymous with aristocratic women in the Tang Dynasty. Shen Yan's "Sending the Princess of Jincheng to the West Fan System" said: "That can be a phoenix girl, and she also marries Wusun." "Feng Maiden" refers to the princess of Jincheng. The poem "Princess Yuzhen Mountain Residence", which describes the life of Princess Yuzhen, the sister of Tang Xuanzong, also uses "Feng Nu" to represent the princess herself, saying: ".Tianquan Garden, Shanbei, Shanxi Fengnu's home.
In addition, women in the Tang Dynasty were extremely favored for headdresses, face makeup, mirrors, etc., which contained phoenix elements. As Li Shangyin's "Nian Yuan" wrote:
The sun and the moon flooded Qindian, and the rivers and lakes moved more and more.
The cangtong should be exposed, and the white pavilion is deep from the clouds.
The bright is not a luan fan, and the phoenix hairpin is lost.
The bed is empty, and the pestle is cold.
The north thinks of the sand geese, and the south is a seafowl.
Guanshan has been shaken down, and heaven and earth have ascended together.
Luan fan, phoenix hairpin, that is, printed with the image of the phoenix feather fan and hairpin. Although this poem is written about the poet's homesickness, it is not difficult to see that the secularization of the phoenix belief has been blown all over the thousands of households in the Tang Dynasty at this time. Even if the fashionable women of the Tang Dynasty were simple, they had to hold a fan and wear a phoenix hairpin when they went out.
In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, when the writer Li Fang and others compiled the "Taiping Guangji", the stories of Xiao Shi, Langyu and his wife Qin Se and Ming were included in it. At the end of the story of Langyu marrying Xiao Shi, "Langyu crossed the phoenix, and Xiao Shi rode the dragon" - this is very reminiscent of the phoenix that Langyu is riding is a female animal, and the feminine image of the phoenix has unconsciously been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
The emperor of the Song Dynasty also issued an edict, requiring the concubines to wear phoenix crowns and veils on important occasions such as receiving canonization or congratulatory greetings. For example, the queen was required to "jewelry flowers with nine plants, small flowers with the same, and two buns, and the crown is decorated with nine feathers (Hui is a kind of brocade chicken with colorful feathers) and four phoenixes". As a means of transportation, the queen's car should also be decorated and transformed according to the elements of the phoenix.
As a model of motherhood in the world, the queen wants to demonstrate the evolution of the feminine image of the phoenix is far more than that.
According to the "History of the Song Dynasty", Empress Li of Song Guangzong was named Li Fengniang, and the origin of her name was related to the phoenix. "History of the Song Dynasty" said: ".At the beginning, the (Emperor) was born, and there was a black phoenix set (Li) Dao camp on the stone, (Li) Dao was different, and the word (Huang) was called Feng Niang. Obviously, the story of Li Fengniang's birth is a myth processed by later generations. When the narrative of this birth myth was completed, the "History of the Song Dynasty" quickly added a follow-up plot: "(Li) Daoist handsome Hubei, hearing that the Taoist Emperor Fu is kind to others, is out of the daughters to worship Tan." After seeing this, he was shocked and did not dare to worship, and said: "This woman is the mother of the world." 'Frankly admitted to (Song) Gaozong, he was hired as Princess Gong, Mrs. Rongguo, and Mrs. Jindingguo. After four years of dry road, he gave birth to King Jia. In seven years, he was established as the crown princess ......and the crown prince ascended the throne and was registered as the queen. "The legend of Empress Li's incarnation is so closely combined with the elements of the phoenix, if there is no respected prophetic figure to interpret and disseminate, how can the world really recognize the phoenix as the image expression of the supreme woman? Huang Futan, a famous Taoist priest who lived in seclusion in the seventh cave of Taoism, Tianemei Mountain, "responded to demand" and appeared at the right time.
Portrait of Empress Ciyi Li Fengniang. Source: The Internet is consistent with the historical process of Phoenix's feminization, and its image has become slim and slender, fresh and beautiful. Since the Song and Ming dynasties, a phoenix with a parrot beak, a golden pheasant head, a mandarin duck body, a crane foot, a large peng wing and peacock feathers has been formed.
Although the phoenix reborn in Nirvana has broken the stereotype of "the phoenix is the male and the phoenix is the female", its totemic meaning of benevolence, peace and sacredness that has been contained since ancient times has been completely preserved and passed down to the present day.
The reason why the Chinese belief in the phoenix totem can become a civilization is as the esthetician Chen Yan said: "The so-called civilization begins with the construction of a deep model." People not only want to transform the world through 'objectified' behaviors, but also give the material world a 'humanized' meaning. ”
The phoenix is a sacred bird endowed by the Chinese with the idea of "the unity of heaven and man", which stays everywhere in the long historical time and space.
End of full text. **10,000 Fans Incentive PlanReferences:Chen Qinjian: "Chinese Folklore", East China Normal University Press, 2007 Zhou Laixiang, Chen Yan: "Outline of Chinese and Western Comparative Aesthetics", Anhui Literature and Art Publishing House, 1992 Wu Yanrong: "Chinese Phoenix: From the Altar to the World", Zhejiang University Press, 2014 Xu Huazhong: "The Shape of the Chinese Phoenix", China Forestry Press, 2010 He Xin: "Talking about the Dragon and the Phoenix: The Zoological Prototype of the Dragon and Phoenix", Current Affairs Press, 2004 Wu Yanrong: Interpretation of the Meaning of Phoenix in Traditional Marriage and Love", Jianghan Forum, No. 5, 2009.