Nine-headed Birds, a Totem of Chu

By Chen Long

In Chinese mythology there is a magical bird with nine heads; its wings span more than three meters and its feathers have the colors of flames and blood.This creature is called the Flaming Phoenix.

The nine-headed bird is a symbol of the people born in Central China’s Hubei Province.Their ancestors from Hubei (called Chu in ancient times) worshiped the sun; they believed that in the middle of the sun there was a golden bird, and it was the soul of their ancestor.

This belief originated from an ancient official named Zhong Li, who served as Zhurong (an official title), or the “rectifier of fire,” under Emperor Di Ku, successor of the Yellow Emperor.It was hard to make fire in ancient times.The Zhurong was responsible for offering sacrifices to the sun and keeping fires burning.After the death of Zhurong Zhong Li, he was worshiped as the “God of Fire.”

Since Zhong Li, each Zhurong’s enfeoffed share of land now forms the area of Hubei.People in this area consider themselves descendants of the God of Fire.

In ancient times, Hubei was carpeted with thistles and thorns in the fields and mountains, often scratching people’s clothes and skin.These thorny plants are respectively called “Jing” and “Chu.” The ancestors of the Hubei people settled down after difficult reclamation, and therefore their country was called “Jing” or “Chu.”

The Chu people, who grew stronger from the thistles and thorns, thought that they were the bird in the sun that bathed its feathers with fire every day, so they regarded the Flaming Phoenix as their totem.

Why did the Flaming Phoenix have nine heads? The Chu people worshiped the number “nine,” thinking that “nine” is the largest among all single digit numbers.Song Yu, a poet of the State of Chu, once wrote an article entitled “Nine Debates,” which held that there were nine bright stars in the sky, nine rich lands on earth, and nine wise organs in the human body.The people of Chu painted nine heads for the Phoenix they worshiped in order to express their highest respect for it and display its holiness and beauty.

The Chu people dominated the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River for more than 800 years, defying the rule of the Zhou Dynasty to the north of their country.When the Chu people were strong in force, they sent people to inquire the Emperor of Zhou Kingdom about the weight of Jiuding (Nine Tripod Pots), which were the symbol of Emperors’ power in that era, and the “Winning of the Central Plains” expressed the Chu people’s aspiration to unite China through the Northern Expedition.

By 221 BC, the First Emperor of Qin had gradually eliminated the Zhou Dynasty and other great powers of the Warring States including the State of Chu, and eventually unified China.

After the Chu lost power, the Phoenix totem worshiped in this state was gradually replaced by the Dragon totem worshiped by the people in the far reaches of the Yellow River.From the Qin Dynasty to the Han Dynasty, the patterns of people’s clothes and articles gradually depicted more Dragons and fewer Phoenixes, and people worshiped Dragons instead of Phoenixes in their lives.

But the totem of Phoenix did not disappear completely.The emperor of China claimed himself as a Dragon and the queen as a Phoenix.In the Chinese view, the Dragon occupies the dominant position while the Phoenix is in the position of subordination and obedience.

Because the culture and beliefs created by the ancestors of Hubei people have become an important part of the Chinese spirit, the proverb of “Nine-headed Birds in the Sky and Hubei Fellows on Earth” has been widespread since then.It indicates that peoples in Hubei Province are full of wisdom.

(Translation: Qing Run)

長江之水，清澈秀美；黃河之水，渾濁雄壯。3000多年來，在戰爭或者人口遷徙的推動下，中國南北方的思想家、詩人、政治家、商人、平民，不斷地進行文化的交流。這種交流匯集成綿延數千年的中華文化，楚國圖騰九頭鳥便是其中之一……

天上九頭鳥

文/陳龍

中國神話里有一只神奇的鳥，它長著九個頭，翅膀張開有一丈多長，羽毛的顏色像火焰，也像血液。

九頭鳥是湖北人的代名詞。因為湖北人的祖先楚國人崇拜太陽，他們認為太陽中間有一只金色的鳥，那是他們祖先的靈魂。

這種信仰來源于遠古一個叫作重黎的官員，他在黃帝的繼承者帝嚳的手下擔任一個名為“祝融”的官職，因為在遠古取火是一件困難的事情，祝融的工作就是負責祭祀太陽，保管火種。“祝融”死后，被人敬奉為“火神”。

從重黎開始，每一任“祝融”分得的土地就是現在的湖北一帶。因此這一帶的人認為自己是火神的后代。

在遠古的時候，湖北漫山遍野布滿荊棘，經常劃破人的衣服和皮膚。這些帶刺的植物分別叫作“荊”和“楚”。湖北人的祖先經過艱苦的開墾，才定居下來，因此他們的國家被稱為“荊州”，也叫“楚國”。

在荊棘叢中強大起來的楚國人認為自己是太陽中的一只鳥，每天用烈火沐浴自己的羽毛，于是將火鳳凰作為自己的圖騰。

為什么火鳳凰會有九個頭呢？這是楚國人對數字“九”的崇拜，他們認為“九”是個位數里最大的一個數字。楚國詩人宋玉寫過一篇文章《九辯》，認為天上有九顆最亮的星星，地上有九塊最富裕的土地，人有九個智慧的器官。楚國人將自己崇拜的鳳凰畫上九個頭，是為了表達對它最高的崇敬，更顯出它的神圣和美麗。

楚國人在長江中下游地區稱霸了八百多年，他們不服從北方周朝人的統治，在楚國人兵力強大的時候，曾經派人詢問周天子的九鼎的重量。九鼎是周朝天子的權力象征，“問鼎中原”表達了楚國人有志于北伐統一中國。

直到公元前221年，秦始皇逐步消滅了周朝、也消滅了包括楚國在內的其他強國，統一了中國。

楚國失去政權后，這個國家所崇拜的鳳圖騰逐漸被黃河流域的人民所崇拜的龍圖騰取代。從秦朝到漢朝，人們的衣服和物品上的圖案逐漸多龍而少鳳，生活中人們崇龍而抑鳳。

但是鳳的圖騰并沒有完全消失，中國皇帝自喻為龍，皇后則自喻為鳳。在中國人的觀念中，龍占據了主導和支配地位，鳳則處于附屬和服從地位。

因為湖北人的祖先創造的文化和信仰，已經成了中國人精神的一個重要部分，“天上九頭鳥，地上湖北佬”的諺語從此流傳開來。