How did the swallow go from mythical progenitor of the Shang Dynasty to the symbol of Fujian? Ilina Tatiana traces its journey.
Edited by Nic Doering
The Shang dynasty, the earliest Chinese dynasty known to have actually existed, lived in the Yellow River valley and ruled China from 1600 to 1046 BC. They believed they originated from the miraculous conception of their ancestor, Xie. “Swallow, swallow, you flew away,” sang two glamorous ladies who liked to listen to music when they ate or drank, and especially to the singing of a swallow that the Supreme God had sent to spy on them. They caught the bird and put it into a jade basket. Once, when one of them, Jiandi, lifted the basket to look at the swallow, it flew away leaving two eggs. Jiandi swallowed one of the eggs and later gave birth to Xie.
The bird the Shang were born from was not an ordinary swallow but a magical black bird. It was the sun itself. Every morning one of the ten bird-suns (according to the Shang’s ten-day week), rose in the east to fly across the sky bringing light and darkness. Once, when the ten birds came out together, causing heat and destruction, archer Hou Yi shot down nine of them. This symbolized the victory of the Zhou (1046–256 BC), who believed in one sun, over the Shang. While the Shang dynasty declined, the myth about the ten bird-suns continued to live in art through the Zhou dynasty to the Han (206 BC–220 AD). A famous example is the T-shaped painting on silk from Xin Zhui’s tomb (2nd century BC). In the upper right corner, you can see a black bird on a red sun and below it eight smaller suns. (In total there are nine suns, but why not ten? The tenth is “at work” in the sky).
Hundreds of years later, by the Song dynasty (960–1279), the swallow could be found everywhere in southern China’s Fujian province, its forked tail soaring above the sweeping roofs of temples, public buildings and residential houses. Traders from Fujian traveled far and wide, and the swallowtails on flying eves, like the swallow’s nests under them, symbolized the hope that travelers would come back home like the swallows returned to their nests. So how did a bird totem from the northern plains become such a ubiquitous architectural detail in the south?
The bird was brought to Fujian by northerners fleeing from wars and calamities. In the 4th century, the Xiongnu tribe conquered the Western Jin (266–316), forcing people to move south of the Yellow river. Among the immigrants were eight educated families that settled in Fujian, later called “the pioneers of Fujian.” By the 6th century, the settlers had made the new territory their own – symbolically, for example by naming a river after their place of origin – Jin, and practically, by occupying fertile coastal lands. To suppress the rebellion of locals that naturally followed, Gaozong of Tang (r. 650-684) sent an expedition led by Chen Zheng. The colony Zheng and his son, Yuanguang, established (present-day Zhangzhou) survived despite malaria and continuing attacks and their kind governance was revered by the locals. Yuanguang was even deified as ‘King who Settled Zhang’. More northerners moved to Fujian during the late Tang Dynasty (618-907) when the empire, weakened by droughts and famine, was terrorized by revolting peasant gangs. Then, the Wang brothers (Chao, Shenzhi and Shengui) took over Fujian like “turning a palm.” The youngest brother Wang Shenzhi founded the Min kingdom (909-945), which prospered, both economically and culturally, attracting refugees from northern China. Due to this inflow, from the Tang to the early Song (960–1279), the population of Fujian increased threefold.
Surviving conquests and power struggles, the Shang bird found itself in Fujian as decoration on temples and emperor’s palaces. Today, you can see it on residential houses and even a modernized version on Xiamen North Railway Station. This may not have happened if not for a phonetic mistake.
Once during the rainy season, the Min Emperor saw his mother, Lady Huang, cry. After being told that she worried for her parents, whose dilapidated house might collapse under the rain, the emperor ordered that a palace be built for his mother. Instead, Fujian authorities put up buildings for themselves in the emperor’s style – including swallowtail roofs. To blame for this misunderstanding was the Fujian dialect, in which mother(母, mǔ) and government(府, fǔ) are pronounced similarly.
Thanks to generations of pioneers and a pronunciation mistake, the swallow has become a signature of Fujian architecture.
Have you seen swallowtail roofs in southern China? Do swallows have any meaning in your culture? Let us know in the comments below. We would love to hear your thoughts and insights on traditional Chinese culture!
 | Author Bio: Ms. Ilina Tatiana is an art lover and culture hunter. |  |
Photo Credits
– Ilina Tatiana unless otherwise stated.
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