Vermilion Bird

The Vermilion Bird (Chinese: 朱雀; pinyin: Zhū Què) is one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations. According to Wu Xing, the Taoist five-elemental system, it represents the fire-elemental, the direction of south, and the season summer correspondingly. Thus it is sometimes called the Vermilion Bird of the South (南方朱雀). It is often mistaken for Fenghuang, but they are two different creatures. Fenghuang is the king of birds, while the Vermilion Bird is a mythological spirit creature of the Chinese constellations.

The Seven Mansions of the Vermilion Bird

Like the other Four Symbols, the Vermilion Bird corresponds to seven "mansions", or positions, of the moon.

• Well (Chinese: 井; pinyin: Jǐng)
• Ghost (Chinese: 鬼; pinyin: Guǐ)
• Willow (Chinese: 柳; pinyin: Liǔ)
• Star (Chinese: 星; pinyin: Xīng)
• Extended Net (Chinese: 張; pinyin: Zhāng)
• Wings (Chinese: 翼; pinyin: Yì)
• Chariot (Chinese: 軫; pinyin: Zhěn)

Nature of The Vermilion Bird

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.

Vermilion Bird in different languages

The Chinese constellations were not only used by Chinese cartographers, they were also used by Korean and Japanese cartographers as well.

• Standard Mandarin: Zhū Què / 朱雀 (the character 雀 is not allowed to pronounced by "qiao" here)
• Japanese: Suzaku / スザク
• Korean: Ju-jak / 주작
• Vietnam by Sino-Vietnamese: Chu Tước (Pronounced by "Tsu Terk")

See also

• Vermilion

External links

• "Star Charts and Moon Stations"
• The Red Bird of the South

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