The male bird _H[=o]_, and female _w[=o]_, by their inseparable fellowship furnish the artist, poet and literary writer with the originals of the ten thousand references which are found in Chinese and its derived literatures.

Of this mystic Phoenix a Chinese dictionary thus gives description: The Phoenix is of the essence of water; it was born in the vermilion cave; it perches not but on the most beautiful of all trees; it eats not but of the seed of the bamboo; its body is adorned with the five colors; its song contains the five notes; as it walks it looks around; as it flies hosts of birds follow it.
Older than the elaborate descriptions of it and its representations in art, the H[=o]-w[=o] is one of the creations of primitive Chinese Animism.
The Kwei or Tortoise is not the actual horny reptile known to naturalists and to common experience, but a spirit, an animated creature that ages ago rose up out of the Yellow River, having on its carapace the mystic writing out of which the legendary founder of Chinese civilization deciphered the basis of moral teachings and the secrets of the unseen.

From this divine tortoise which conceived by thought alone, all other tortoises sprang.

In the elaboration of the myths and legends concerning the tortoise we find many varieties of this scaly incarnation.

It lives a thousand years, hence it is emblem of longevity in art and literature.