A delightfully designed Chinese carved quartz vessel in the shape of a phoenix (fenghuang). Fenghuang is made up of the beak of a rooster, the face of a swallow, the...
A delightfully designed Chinese carved quartz vessel in the shape of a phoenix (fenghuang). Fenghuang is made up of the beak of a rooster, the face of a swallow, the forehead of a fowl, the neck of a snake, the breast of a goose, the back of a tortoise, the hindquarters of a stag and the tail of a fish. The fenghuang's body symbolizes the celestial bodies: the head is the sky, the eyes are the sun, the back is the moon, the wings are the wind, the feet are the earth, and the tail is the planets. Details have been carved in low relief and incised and the whole vessel has been finely polished.