Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Four Symbols : Vermillion Bird of the South



The Vermilion bird is one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellation. According to Wu Xing, the Taoist five-elemental system, it represents the fire-element, the direction summer, and the season summer correspondingly. Thus it is sometimes called the Vermilion bird of the South (南方朱雀, Nán Fāng Zhū Què) and it is also known as Suzaku in Japan, Jujak in Korea and Chu Tước in Vietnam.It is often mistaken as the Fenghuang . The Fenghuang (Similar to the phoenix in western mythologies) are legendary ruler of birds associated with the Chinese Empress in the same way the dragon is associated with the Emperor, while the Vermilion Bird is a mythological spirit creature of the Chinese constellations.As the other three Symbols, there are seven "mansions", or positions, of the moon within Vermilion Bird. The names and determinative stars are:[1][2]
Mansion no.Name (pinyin)TranslationDeterminative star
22井 (Jǐng)Wellμ Gem
23鬼 (Guǐ)Ghostθ Cnc
24柳 (Liǔ)Willowδ Hya
25星 (Xīng)Starα Hya
26張 (Zhāng)Extended Netυ¹ Hya
27翼 (Yì)Wingsα Crt
28軫 (Zhěn)Chariotγ Crv

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The Vermilion bird is an elegant and noble bird in both appearance and behavior, it is very selective in what it eats and where it perches, with its feathers in many different hues of reddish orange.

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