The Identification of the Chinese Phoenix.

London: Royal Asiatic Society,, 1924. A scarce monograph by the ornithologist Masauji Hachisuka, nephew of the last Tokugawa shogun, addressing a key issue in Chinese mythography: the identity of the legendary fenghuang bird first referenced in ancient Chinese manuscripts. According to the Bamboo Annals (Zhushu jinian), the fenghuang first appeared in China in 2647 BCE, contemporaneous to references to the benu in the Pyramid Texts of ancient Egypt. In successive dynasties, the fenghuang became a key motive of Chinese culture, being referenced in received texts such as the Analects, on bronze vessels and stone stelae, in paintings, and on clothing. In this work, Masauji Hachisuka (1903-1953) dismisses attempts, begun with the translations of James Legge (1815-1897), to equate the fenghuang with the phoenix of Western mythology. He argues instead that the bird actually existed in nature as the ocellated pheasant (Reinardius ocellatus), a reclusive species still found in parts of Asia in the early 20th century. Born in Tokyo, the 18th Marquess Hachisuka moved to England aged 19 and studied zoology for five years at the University of Cambridge. During a number of field expeditions, he developed an astonishingly wide field of expertise including the birds of China, Egypt, Iceland, North Africa, the Congo, and the Philippines. Henrik Gronvold (1858-1940) was a well-known bird illustrator who contributed drawings to many classic texts such as George Shelley's The Birds of Africa (1900) and Herbert Robinson's The Birds of the Malay Peninsula (1927-1976). Octavo, pp. 5. Original light brown wrappers, stapled as issued, front cover lettered in black. half-tone plate after a drawing by Henrik Gronvold. Two small closed tears at head of front cover, couple of creases to wrappers, internally clean and bright. A near-fine copy.