The Story of Phoenix

The Story of Phoenix

In ancient Greek and Egyptian mythology,the phoenix is associated with the sun god.According to the Greeks,the bird lives in Arabia,,near a cool well. Every morning at dawn, the sun god would stop his chariot to listen to the bird singing a beautiful song while it bathed in the well.Only one phoenix exists at a time. When the bird felt its death was near, every 500 to 1,461 years, it would build a nest of aromatic wood and set it on fire. The bird then was consumed by the flames. A new phoenix sprang forth from the pyre. It embalmed the ashes of its predecessor in an egg of myrrh and flew with it to Heliopolis, "city of the sun," where the egg was deposited on the altar of the sun god. In Egypt, it was usually depicted as a heron, but in the classic literature as a peacock or an eagle.(quoted from Baidu Baike)

In Chinese,the phoenix is the totem.The phoenix bird symbolizes immortality,resurrection and life after death.It has the ability to fire.If the dragon means the emperor,then the phoenix means the queen.Therefore,in China,the phoenix is supreme.

Different countries have different customs.For example,the dragon is a symbol of good fortune in China.However,in western countries,it is a symbol of bad luck.But it doesn’t matter.We don’t need to censure the foreigners.We just need to worship our toterm,to respect for our own culture and to remember that we are Chinese.That is enough.