Northeast Asian History Network

Two Vermilion Birds are painted on either sides of southern entrance in the Great Tomb of Gangseo. The Vermilion Bird is a fictional animal much like the ... SelectLanguage 中国语 日本語 한국어 NortheastAsianHistoryNetwork Japan'sMeijiIndustrialRevolution서브메뉴열기 SitesofDistortedFactsandConcealedTruth DokdointheEastSea서브메뉴열기 DokdointheEastSea DokdoinHistory OldMapsRelatedtoDokdoandtheEastSea DokdoisKoreanTerritory ControversiessurroundingDokdo TheHistoryofDokdo Dokdo!ItcanbeseenfromUlleungdo TenTruthsaboutDokdoNotKnowninJapan Educationalmaterial LearningaboutDokdo(ReadingLevelGrade3-4) ElementaryStudentVersion JuniorHighSchoolVersion HighSchoolVersion ComfortWomen서브메뉴열기 WarandtheWomen’sHumanRights ThetruthoftheJapaneseMilitary"ComfortWomen" StoriesMakingHistory KoguryoandBalhae서브메뉴열기 HistoryofKoguryo Korea-ChinaHistoryAwareness GreatTombofGangseo Tokhung-riTomb AnakTombNo.3 Susahn-riTomb Journals서브메뉴열기 JNAH JTMS Multimedia서브메뉴열기 HistoryIssues Dokdo,EastSea Koguryo ThusaurusSearch KoguryoandBalhae GreatTombofGangseo KoguryoandBalhae HistoryofKoguryo Korea-ChinaHistoryAwareness GreatTombofGangseo Tokhung-riTomb AnakTombNo.3 Susahn-riTomb GreatTombofGangseo IDNAHF.kk_001e_0010_0030 CopyID CopyURL View3D List Viewimagecollection Text VermilionBirdTitleVermilionBirdVermilionBird TwoVermilionBirdsarepaintedoneithersidesofsouthernentranceintheGreatTombofGangseo.TheVermilionBirdisafictionalanimalmuchliketheAzureDragonandissometimesreferredtoasRedBird.AccordingtoShuowenJiezi(literally“ExplainingandAnalyzingCharacters”,AChinesedictionaryfromtheHanDynasty),theVermilionBirdreceiveditsnameduetoitstendencyforsoaringintotheskyimmediatelyuponseeingflames.BronzemirrorsfromtheEasternHanerawereinscribedwiththephrase,"TheAzureDragonontheleftandWhiteTigerontherightwardoffevilspirits,andtheVermilionBirdandBlackTortoisefollowtheYinandYang."Thus,theVermilionBirdandBlackTortoiserepresenttheYinandYang,respectively.Accordingtohistoricalrecords,theVermilionBirdoriginatesfromtheetherealbirdFenghuang(sometimesreferredtoastheChinesePhoenix)andissimilarinappearance.Therefore,theVermilionBirdisoftentreatedasFenghuangintermsoficonographyandsymbolism. Arecordofparticularsignificancestatesthat"FengrepresentsthemaleandHuangrepresentsthefemalebirds."TheFenghuanghasbeenthefocusofinterestanddebatewhetherit'sahermaphroditicbirdortwobirdsofdifferentgenders.Interestingly,theFenghuangandtheVermilionBirdhavebeendepictedassingularbirdsaswellasinpairsinbothChineseandKoguryomurals. However,mostKoguryotombmuralsdepicttheVermilionBirdastwoseparateentities.ThedepictionoftheVermilionBird,whichsymbolizesthesoutherncardinalpoint,astwoseparatebirdsmaybeinterpretedasanecessitysincesoutherntombentrancesrequirethatimagesbepaintedonbothsidesofthecenter.BecausetheVermilionBirdisasymbolofYinandYang,however,thepracticecanbeinterpretedasawaytoemphasizebalancebypaintingbothmaleandfemalebirds. TheimageshowstheVermilionBirdspaintedonbothsidesofthesouthernentranceattheGreatTombofGangseo.Thetwobirdsfacetheentranceaswellaseachother.Theyseemreadytoflaptheirwingsandsoarintothesky.Atfirstglance,thetwoVermilionBirdsseemtobeidentical.However,differencesindetailsandthebackgroundsareapparentuponcloserinspection.Specifically,thedifferencesinthebeaks,faces,andoverallbodylinesdistinguishthemaleandfemalegenders.Thebirdontheleftoftheentranceisthefemale,andthemaleislocatedtotheright. 1 VermilionBird(Left) 2 VermilionBird(Right) 페이지상단으로이동하기