The Classic of Birds says: The male is called the feng, and the female the huang; together they are also known as auspicious birds. When they appear, all birds bow down. Of the three hundred and sixty feathered creatures, the fenghuang is their chief, so the character combines the bird radical with fan, meaning all. In ancient times it was written as peng, a pictograph. Huang means beautiful and great.
In mythology, every time a phoenix dies, flames engulf its body, and it is reborn from the blaze with a life force even greater than before. This is called "the phoenix's nirvana." The cycle repeats endlessly, granting the phoenix eternal life and earning it the name "immortal bird." Like the qilin, the phoenix is a collective name for both sexes: the male is the feng, the female is the huang, and together they are the fenghuang.
