Phoenix

The bonghwang is not the fire-bird of Western myth but a composite auspicious bird with a pheasant's tail, a swallow's chin and a rooster's beak that appears only when a country is well governed. It nests in the paulownia tree and eats bamboo seeds, so those two plants often accompany it. Where the dragon stood for the king, the phoenix stood for the queen, and it embroidered her ceremonial robe and crowned her hairpins (bongjam).

The bird survives in Korean state symbolism today: two facing phoenixes form the seal of the President of the Republic of Korea. In ornament it is usually shown flying with long streaming tail feathers, or curled into a roundel with the tail wrapping the body — the form used for palace ceiling coffers and textile medallions.

Vol.02 provides the roundel, a flying phoenix and a tail-feather bird from the national archive; Vol.04 adds a cloud-and-phoenix band for borders. The roundel is also the basis of a brick-layout seamless tile.