The Red Bird (zhuque) flutters across the surface of the tomb tile. His outspread wings, filigreed with delicate linear patterning, seem ready for flight. A flower with three petals is held in the bird's elongated beak. The back thigh, modeled in the highest relief, accentuates the curvature of the four layers of wing feathers as they pulsate behind him. A double-ridged line describes the contours of the left wing and the leading edge of the right wing, and a striped band runs from his neck down his chest to his legs.

Birds are important decorative elements on Shang and Western Zhou ritual bronze vessels. In the southern kingdom of Chu, elegant sculptures of birds with wings made of antlers acted as guardians in tombs, where they were placed in front of coffins, their feet sometimes entangled with snakes.[1] It has been argued that these guardian birds possibly provided the model for the Red Bird, which was adopted as the symbol of the south in the Han dynasty. Red birds were also associated with good omens (xiangrui) and became auspicious symbols for the empire. The depiction of the Red Bird is sometimes confused with the depiction of the phoenix (fenghuang), which later became the symbol of the empress, and in many cases there are no distinctions in the iconography of the two birds. By the Tang dynasty, two of the four directional animals, the Tiger of the West and the Dark Warrior of the North, diminished in importance, and the remaining Green Dragon and Red Bird assumed even greater roles as auspicious animals. Many important buildings and tombs in China were aligned from north to south with their entrances facing south, the most auspicious direction of all-the direction represented by the Red Bird.

Birds are also associated with the flight into the afterlife and the journey to immortality as can been seen on the ceramic bird with ding vessels on its wings in our exhibition (cat. no. 3). The posture of the bird, with outstretched wings, is also thought to be apotropaic.[2] Therapeutic exercises named the "bird stretch" (niaoshen), and the "bear ramble" (xiongjing) (see cat. no. 43 n. 2), are illustrated in three manuscripts from Mawangdui Tomb 3. These physical cultivation exercises imitate the movements of animals and have magico-religious significance. Just as a ruler adopted the ritually correct posture to bring order to his own person and to the world, so too might certain exercise postures restore health to any individual. In the Eastern Han, Hua Tuo taught a technique called the "disportment of the five creatures," modeled after the movements of the bird, bear, deer, gibbon, and tiger and intended to remove any sickness from the body. Because of their magical efficacy, feathered dancers performing avian movements were also included in the exorcistic performances during the New Year celebrations.