Chinese Phoenix VS Western Phoenix: What's the Difference?

The Phoenix is ​​a mythical bird associated with dying and coming back to life. In the West it comes from Greek mythology, but in the East there is also a bird that we translate as Phoenix, but these two birds, like Chinese dragons and Western dragons, are not the same. animal and in this video we are going to review the

difference

s. This is the Chinese Phoenix versus the Western Phoenix. The Greek historian Herodotus spoke of the Phoenix in ancient Egypt. The Egyptians also have another sacred bird called the Phoenix which I have never seen except in pictures, in fact it is a great rarity that was written down in the 5th century BC.

C. and goes on to describe that the bird is about the size of a large eagle with red and gold feathers; apparently it would come to Egypt from Arabia once every 500 years and that was about its lifespan when the Phoenix dies, bursts into flames and burns to ashes but then miraculously from its ashes it is reborn and would then bring back the ashes of its former self wrapped in an egg of myr to the Temple of the Sun at Heliopolis in Egypt therefore comes to Egypt once every 500 years and now the Western Phoenix has been included in numerous stories and myths over the centuries as well as films and, of course, in video games.

There have to be some Final Fantasy fans. the audience is right, but anyway,

what

about the Chinese Phoenix? Well, the Chinese Phoenix is ​​actually called Fun Hang originally, the fun character meant a male Phoenix and the Hang character meant a female one, but these characters were later put together to mean any Phoenix, regardless of the Phoenix. It is normally associated with the female gender, especially when combined with the dragon. There is a saying: "I hope your sons become dragons and your daughters become

phoenix

es", which is a saying that the Chinese use to say that they hope their children will be successful in life and they actually use the original character which meant a male

phoenix

in this saying, but it has actually lost its original meaning and now just means a Chinese phoenix, but

what

are these Chinese phoenixes actually like?

Well, they don't burst into flames. There is nothing in the Chinese text that says that Chinese phoenixes get set on fire to what is written in the ancient texts long before we get into that, let me take a sip of my delicious Taiwanese high mountain ulong tea, this is the tea that I always like to drink when reading classical Chinese texts and If you are interested, we have a link below to this tea that comes from Ali Shan in Taiwan, its main tea-producing region. The tea is grown on the slopes of mountains 3,000 feet or 1,000 m above sea level and is completely organic, so check it out.

It is a tea that I personally recommend and I want to share it with you. The link is below, so let's take a look at the description of a phoenix from the classic of mountains and seas or Shanhai, there is a bird, its shape is like that of a chicken. five colors and patterns is called fun hanging the pattern on your head represents virtue the pattern on your wings represents righteousness the pattern on your back represents etiquette the pattern on your chest represents benevolence and the pattern on your belly represents faith is A bird eats and drinks naturally and sings and dances and if you see one it means there is peace under the sky.

Okay, let's break that down a little bit so that the five main colors of the Phoenix that you're talking about, we know from other texts that they are black. white red green and yellow and the five virtues that represent the different parts of the bird in the shanhai Jing are very similar to the five virtues of confusion, in fact you have four of the five and in the Ming dynasty it was common for them to replace virtue with knowledge. knowledge, thanks to our Confucian scholar there, so with knowledge added instead of virtue, the Phoenix really represented those five Confucian virtues, but maybe there is an internal meaning in Chinese culture right there, virtue and knowledge are perhaps the same after all, all the knowledge that students would accumulate studying for the imperial exams was based on the Confucian teachings of morality, which is virtue, so the last part of that quote from Shanhai Jing refers to the fact that He believes that the Phoenix hides in times of trouble and only appears when the world is at peace. or at the beginning of a new era, while the dragon is a symbol of imperial power and in particular the emperor, the Phoenix has become associated with the empress dragon and Phoenix motifs have become common in Chinese art and in porcelain, which shows the role that these two animals play in representing an emperor and his empress a man and a woman strength and gentleness or fundamentally it is the balance between yin and yang the dragon and the Phoenix are included in the four celestial beasts or sing the other two are the chilin and the Turtle in terms of appearance We have already seen that the colors of the Chinese Phoenix are very different from the red and gold that is spoken of in the West and the shape of its body is also different .

The head of the Phoenix is ​​often compared to the golden pheasant. Meet that bird that looks like Donald Trump, the legs are those of a crane, the wings are those of a swallow and the tail is like that of a peacock, so the next time someone talks about a Chinese phoenix, you might want to say: oh, you mean fun? hangs well, that's just a joke. I think it's still okay to call the bird a phoenix, as the name has come to mean a supernatural mythological bird in both the East and the West, but let's be clear, the Chinese phoenix and the Western or Middle Eastern phoenix are not the same. same species, although what do you think we should start calling the funny Chinese phoenix and the long Chinese dragons because Chinese dragons and Western dragons aren't the same either?

Let me know what you think in the comments below, don't forget to check out the delicious Taiwanese high mountain ulong tea I recommend at the link below so you can sit back and read the Chinese classics with a cup of this beautiful drink. M oh look at a phoenix and if you've never made loose leaf tea before, I'll also put my video guide on how to make Taiwanese high mountain oolong tea in the description. Alright, thanks for watching guys, my co-host Jared is still on tour with Shenyin. They have a few more weeks until the tour ends, so if you haven't seen the show this year yet and want the chance to witness beautiful performances of traditional Chinese culture on stage.

Check our link below and link T to book tickets for Shenyun and you can get your booking rate. our link please subscribe to the channel if you are new and see you next time bye