The Phoenix

In Earliest Chinese History

"Around 2800 BC, the Emperor Fu Hsi wrote of seeing a k'i-lin (closely associated with the phoenix). He saw markings on the coat of the animal, and perceived those symbols as a written language, thus giving credit to the k'i-lin for the establishment of the written Chinese language."





The Chinese recorded the male and female phoenixes appearing when there was a sun miracle. The male stands for the sun, the female for the moon. If you look at the Chinese characters for these phoenixes, at left, you will see a sun in one and a moon in the other in red. Both the sun and the moon must move 180° each time.

Huangdi recorded on the new moon, January 26, 2637 BC, the beginning of the cycle of 60 years and the cycle of 60 days:

"In his 20th year, brilliant clouds appeared; and he arranged his officers by names taken from the colors of the clouds..The vapours of the red quarter extended so as to join the those of the green [the east]. In the red quarter were two stars, and in the green, one; all of a yellow color, which appeared, when the heavens were clear and bright, in She-te, and were named the brilliant stars. The emperor in yellow robes fasted in the Middle palace. When he was sitting in a boat on the Yuen-hoo, above its junction with the Lo, there came together phoenixes, male and female. They would not eat any living insect, nor tread on the living grass. Some of them abode in the emperor's eastern garden; some built their nests about the corniced galleries of the palace; and some sang in the courtyard, the females gamboling to the notes of the males.

K'elins also appeared in the parks; and other spirit-like birds came with their measured movements. Four-horned low were produced as large as a goat, and the yin worms like rainbows. The emperor, considering that the influence of earth was thus predominant, reigned by virtue of the earth."
The Chinese Classics, part III, the Annals of the Bamboo Books p.108.

"In Hwang-te's (Huangdi) 50th year, in autumn, in the 7th month, on the day Kang-shin, phoenixes, male and female arrived."

"in his 100th year the earth was rent."

Perhaps the same day:
"When Che ascended the throne there was the auspicious omen of pheonixes."

"In his (Yao's) 70th year (2245 BC - a sun miracle marking the 38 years of Jesus' life in reverse to the sun miracle in Shun's 14th year 2207 BC = 2200 years to Jesus' birth in 7 BC).

"In the spring, in the first month.." (Spring = what would be the passover) "A brilliant star issued from the constellation Yih (Corvus?), and phoenixes appeared...The five old men flew away like flowing stars and ascended into the constellation Maou (Taurus)."

King Wan wrote:
"King Wan dreamt that he was clothed with the sun and the moon. A phoenix duck sang on mount K'e. In the first month of spring, on the 6th day, the five planets had a conjunction in Fang. Afterwards a male and female phoenix went about Wan's capital with a writing in their beaks, which said: 'The emperor of Yin has no principle, but oppresses and disorders the empire. The great decree is removed: Yin cannot enjoy it longer. The powerful spirits of earth have left it; all the spirits are whistled away. The conjunction of the five planets in Fang brightens all within the four seas.'"

Emperor Ching quoted Huangdi in 1150 BC:
"K'elins wandered in the parks; phoenixes flew in the courtyards; king Ching took a lute, and sang: --
'The phoenixes fly
All around my hall
What virtue have I
So spirits to call?

'From the former kings
This influence comes;
Theirs the joy that rings
In the peoples homes.'

"In his (Ching's) 18th year, in the spring, in the 1st month, the king went to Loh, and settled the place of the tripods there. Phoenixes made their appearance, and a sacrifice was offered near the Ho."

The sun's messenger and herald of peace that could always be seen flying high in the sky when a new Emperor ascended the thrown.

Feng-huang, Phoenix, is a bird that symbolizes the union of yin and yang, a sign of both peace and disharmony.

In the Western World

The winged sun disk symbol of ancient Egypt and the Assyrians, the Babylonians and the Hittites was inspired by the Phoenix bird "Bird of the Sun".

Ancient Greek historians such as Herodotus and Diodorus reported that the ancient Egyptians priests attempted to mathematically calculate the time of the return of the Egyptian Phoenix bird known as the Bennu.

From the Greek: Plutarch de Orac. defectu ii. 415 C:
"A chattering crow lives out nine generations of aged men, but a stag's life is four times a crows' and a raven's life makes three stags old, while the phoenix outlives nine ravens, but we, the rich-haired Nymphs, daughters of Zeus the aegis-holder, outlive ten phoenixes."

The sun often moved 180° from Pisces in spring to Corvus, the crow. The Chinese in 168 BC depicted a jade crow carrying the sun, a pink pearl, in its beak. Also in like Arctic legend after the sun was hidden in a box, the raven flew up the smoke hole with the sun.

Aesop's Fables

In the Garden of Paradise, beneath the Tree of Knowledge, bloomed a rose bush. Here, in the first rose, a bird was born. His flight was like the flashing of light, his plumage was beauteous, and his song ravishing. But when Eve plucked the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, when she and Adam were driven from Paradise, there fell from the flaming sword of the cherub a spark into the nest of the bird, which blazed up forthwith. The bird perished in the flames; but from the red egg in the nest there fluttered aloft a new one- the one solitary Phoenix bird.

The fable tells that he dwells in Arabia, and that every hundred years (even 100 year x68 BC to Jesus' sacrifice April 3, 33 AD, and even 100 years x07 BC to Jesus' birth in 7 BC and even 100 years from x45 BC + 38 years of Jesus' life to x07 BC), he burns himself to death in his nest; but each time a new Phoenix, the only one in the world, rises up from the red egg.



See Joshua's Long Day