According to the Erya's chapter 17 Shiniao, 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.

[1] Today, however, it is often described as a composite of many birds including the head of a golden pheasant, the body of a mandarin duck, the tail of a peacock, the legs of a crane, the mouth of a parrot, and the wings of a swallow.

[citation needed] The earliest known ancient phoenix design dates back to about 7000–8000 years ago and was discovered in Hongjiang, Hunan Province, at the Gaomiao Archeological Site.

[3] The earliest known form of dragon-phoenix design, on the other hand, dates back to the Yangshao culture (c. 5000 – c. 3000 BC) and was found at an archeological site near Xi'an in Shaanxi Province.

[3] During the Han dynasty (2,200 years ago) two phoenixes, one a male (feng, 鳳) and the other a female (huang, 凰) were often shown together facing one other.

Later, during the Yuan dynasty the two terms were merged to become fenghuang, but the "King of Birds" came to symbolize the empress when paired with a dragon representing the emperor.

[citation needed] The first chapter of the Classic of Mountains and Seas , the "Nanshang-jing", states that each part of fenghuang's body symbolizes a word.

[10] The fenghuang originally consisted of a separate male feng and a female huang as symbols of yin and yang.

This is because the Chinese considered the dragon-and-phoenix design symbolic of blissful relations between husband and wife, another common yang and yin metaphor.

[12] In China and Japan, it was a symbol of the imperial house, and it represented "fire, the sun, justice, obedience, and fidelity".