Dijun became the supreme ruler of the East. He was revered by all tribes, considered wise and beautiful. His appearance was very strange: the head of a bird, the body of a monkey with a short tail. He was born so quickly and miraculously that only one leg had time to grow. Dijun moved, leaning on a stick. But this shortcoming did not hinder him at all. He managed to harness the elephant and plow the land. And all the people realized that if the supreme ruler was able to force the majestic elephant to pull the plow, then they were also able to subjugate horses, oxen, and donkeys.
The beautiful Xihe was not put off by Dijun's strange appearance. She fell in love with him for his wisdom and kindness. Therefore, fate rewarded them with amazing children. Xihe gave birth to ten sun sons. At the Sweet Spring she washed them with cool water. And when the sons became fresh and clean, like the morning dawn, she released them into the sky one by one.
Dijun was also friends with the fenghuang birds. Fenghuang is a wonderful king bird. As researchers suggest, the word feng (wonderful bird) was originally a designation for the wind deity - the messenger of the heavenly ruler (Tian-di). The etymology of the concept of huang is quite complex. Some scholars suggest that huang was originally the name of a special crest on the head of the feng bird, graphically representing an image of the rising sun, the rays of which resemble a trident.
The Jade Emperor had never seen fenghuang birds, but had heard a lot about them and asked his high dignitary:
-What do these birds look like? The dignitary had also never seen fenghuang,
but he was afraid to admit his ignorance and said:
— From the front, fenghuang resembles a swan, from the back it looks like a unicorn. It has the neck of a snake, the tail of a fish, the coloring of a dragon, the body of a turtle, the throat of a swallow and the beak of a rooster.
“Is Di-jun friends with such strange creatures?!” — the jade sovereign exclaimed angrily and refused to look at them.
Because of this, fenghuang birds began to visit people less and less. And during wars, the sages increasingly had to exclaim sadly:
- But the fenghuang don’t appear!
But what can the wise men do if the emperor has a bad opinion about birds? After all, only a high dignitary has access to the ruler’s ear...
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru