Is Phoenix the mascot of China?

Dragon, phoenix and unicorn turtles are called four spirits. No one has seen the other three except the tortoise. But since ancient times, the beautiful and auspicious image of Phoenix has been deeply left in people's minds, praised and praised by people from generation to generation.

Because there is no such bird as Phoenix in nature, we can only appreciate the image and beauty of Phoenix from ancient books, such as Er Ya. Guo Pu's Note: "The fishtail on the back of the head of a plesiosaur is five colors and six feet high." According to "Praise of Mountains and Seas", the Phoenix has five pictographs: "The first word is Yue De, the wing is Shun, the back is Yi, and the abdomen is Yue Xin, which is like Ren Yue." Xu Shen said in Shuo Wen Jie Zi in the Han Dynasty: Phoenix "comes from the country of oriental gentlemen, flies across the four seas, crosses Kunlun, drinks the mainstay, drags its feathers into the weak water, stays in the wind (Dan) cave at dusk, and then the world is peaceful." The book quoted Tian Lao, a courtier of the Yellow Emperor, as saying: "A phoenix is also like a phoenix, with a snake-neck fish tail, cheekbones and brooding (cheekbones), a dragon face and a tiger's back, a swallow's beak and five colors." As for the phoenix, this is the beauty of many animals. Relevant scholars believe that the phoenix is a kind of bird totem worship of ancient ancestors. From the image of Phoenix, it combines the characteristics of natural objects worshipped by different clans in ancient times, resulting in the beautiful totem of "Phoenix".

So, who is the prototype of Phoenix? Some scholars say it is a peacock, some think it is a golden pheasant or pheasant, some suggest it should be a domestic chicken, and some say it is a crane. Ancient scholars believed that Peng and Feng were the same bird. Song Yu's "Songs of the South" said: "The phoenix strikes nine thousand miles, absolutely, and it is also invisible." "Zhuangzi Xiaoyao Tour": "There is a bird named Peng, whose back is like Mount Tai, whose wings are like clouds hanging down to the sky, and whose horns are curled up by nine Wan Li, which is absolutely negative." In myths and legends, the phoenix is also called the mysterious bird. Qu Yuan said in Tian Wen, "What should I do with Judy in Taiwan Province? Mysterious birds are born, why not women? " "Book of Rites" Zheng Xuan's note: "The mysterious bird, Yan Ye." According to scholars such as Wen Yiduo, Yan is one of the archetypes of Phoenix. Er Ya Shi Bird: "Zan, Feng Ye, its orpiment." "Feng, a cockroach." In ancient times, Yan and Yan were homophonic.