Bonghwang

Also Known As: Korean 봉황, the Korean reading of the Chinese characters 鳳凰; bong is the male bird and hwang the female; often called the Korean phoenix
Region/Culture: East Asia
Mythos: Korean Mythology
Primary Type/Nature: Monsters and Beasts
Mythical Attributes: The bonghwang is a five-coloured bird of good omen that shows itself only when a wise ruler governs and the land is at peace.
Role in Mythos: It is the sign that heaven approves of a reign, and so it became the emblem of Korean kings and, later, of the president of South Korea.
Relation to Humans: The bonghwang harms no one and asks for nothing, and its coming is taken as praise of the ruler and good news for the people. Koreans carved, cast, painted and embroidered it for more than fifteen hundred years to call that good fortune down.

On the very top of a bronze mountain stands a bird. Its chest is pushed forward and its wings are lifted and curved, and a long tail sweeps up behind it toward the sky. Below its feet the mountain falls away in rows of peaks, crowded with tigers, deer, hermits and five small musicians playing to it. Lower still a dragon holds the whole thing up in its jaws. When incense burned inside, smoke came out through holes hidden among the peaks and in the bird’s own breast, so that it seemed to stand in cloud.

This is the gilt-bronze incense burner of Baekje, made around the middle of the sixth century and dug out of the mud of a temple site at Neungsan-ri, in Buyeo, in 1993. The bird on top is a bonghwang.

The word is the Korean way of saying two Chinese characters, and the bird came into Korea with those characters, in the books of the Chinese classics. In China it is the fenghuang. In Japan the same characters are read hō-ō. Bong is the male and hwang is the female, and together they make a pair that came to be spoken of as one bird. Korea did not invent the bonghwang. It took the bird in early and kept it for a very long time.

The old descriptions build it out of other animals. It has a rooster’s head and a swallow’s jaw. Its neck is a snake’s, its back is a turtle’s and its tail is a fish’s. The feathers show five colours, red, blue, yellow, white and black, and the tail feathers are long and trail like ribbons. Korean craftsmen rarely kept to the list. On the Baekje censer it looks like a proud, deep-chested cock. On later lacquer and silk it is closer to a pheasant or a peacock, all tail.

Its habits are few and strict. The bonghwang eats nothing but the seeds of bamboo, which a bamboo grove bears only once in many years. It will perch on no tree but the paulownia. That is the whole of its daily life as the stories give it: a bird sitting very still in a paulownia tree, waiting for food that almost never comes. Korean folk painters loved the scene and painted it over and over, the bright bird among the broad green leaves, sometimes with a stand of bamboo beside it.

There is no adventure in its story. The bonghwang fights no hero, guards no treasure and steals no one’s child. Its one great act is to appear. When a ruler is wise and just and the country is at peace, the bird comes down and is seen. When the ruler is bad, it stays away. That is all it does. But for a king it was everything, because it turned the bird into heaven’s verdict on him. To show a bonghwang over a throne was to say that the verdict was good.

Korean kingdoms said so early. In the tomb of King Muryeong of Baekje, who died in 523, the queen’s wooden headrest carried a pair of carved bonghwang heads. Roof tiles stamped with the bird have come out of Silla temple sites. In the Goryeo period it was inlaid in silver on bronze mirrors and incense boxes. Under the Joseon kings it moved to the ceiling. In the throne hall of Changdeokgung palace in Seoul, a visitor who looks straight up into the dim painted rafters will find two bonghwang carved in wood, circling each other above the place where the king sat.

It was put into music as well. In the fifteenth century, in the reign of King Sejong, the court composed a grand suite of song and dance to praise the founders of the dynasty. It was named Bongnaeui, which means “the bonghwang comes”. Rows of dancers moved slowly to drums, flutes and stone chimes while the words were sung. The score is written out in the annals of Sejong’s reign. Nobody on the floor played the bird. The title was enough: this is a reign the bonghwang would visit.

The kings are gone and the bird is still in office. In 1967 South Korea fixed an emblem for its president: two bonghwang facing each other, tails streaming, with a rose of Sharon, the national flower, between them. It hangs on the wall behind the president at official events and is fixed to the president’s car and aircraft.

What the bonghwang has is authority. It brings peace, or more exactly it proves that peace is already there. It is long-lived, it is never hurt and nothing in the Korean record hunts it. Its feathers hold the five colours that stood for the five directions and the five virtues, so that the bird carries a whole orderly world on its back.

Its weakness is the other side of the same thing. The bonghwang is the fussiest creature in East Asia. It needs one tree, one food and one kind of king, and if any of the three is missing it does not come. It cannot be caught, called or bribed. A bad ruler can paint it on every wall he owns and it will not make the bird appear. Koreans noticed this, and the bird over the throne was a reminder as much as a boast.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a bonghwang?

A bonghwang is the auspicious five-coloured bird of Korean tradition, often called the Korean phoenix. It appears only when a wise ruler governs and the country is at peace. The name is the Korean reading of the same Chinese characters that give the Chinese fenghuang and the Japanese hō-ō.

What does a bonghwang look like?

The bonghwang is described as having a rooster’s head, a swallow’s jaw, a snake’s neck, a turtle’s back and a fish’s tail. Its feathers show five colours: red, blue, yellow, white and black. Korean artists usually drew the bonghwang as a proud bird like a cock or pheasant with long, curling tail plumes.

Is the bonghwang the same as the Chinese fenghuang?

The bonghwang and the fenghuang are the same bird under two readings of the same Chinese characters. The bird came into Korea from China with the Chinese classics. Korea then used the bonghwang in its own art and court life for more than fifteen hundred years, from Baekje tombs to the modern presidential emblem.

What does the bonghwang eat and where does it live?

The bonghwang eats only bamboo seeds and perches only on the paulownia tree. Korean folk paintings often show the bonghwang sitting in a paulownia, sometimes with bamboo beside it.

Why is the bonghwang on the South Korean presidential emblem?

The bonghwang was the sign of a wise and just ruler, so Korean kings used it as a royal emblem, as on the ceiling of the throne hall at Changdeokgung palace. In 1967 South Korea adopted a presidential emblem showing two bonghwang facing each other with a rose of Sharon between them.