Jujak- Korean CreatureCreature · Beast"Guardian of the South"
Also known as: 주작, 朱雀, and Chujak
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Description
Crimson bird of trailing plumage painted on the southern walls of Goguryeo royal tombs. One of the four Sasindo, Jujak guards the warm direction: summer, fire, and the vitality of the year's peak. In the Gangso Great Tomb, its wings spread wide across the stone, shielding the dead with the heat of the south.
Mythology & Lore
The Southern Wall
Jujak is one of the four Sasindo, the directional guardian spirits of Korean cosmology, and holds the south. Goguryeo tomb painters from the 4th to 7th centuries rendered Jujak on the southern walls of royal burial chambers: a bird with wings spread wide and long tail feathers streaming behind in crimson and orange. In the Gangso Great Tomb and the Tomb of the Four Spirits, the Vermilion Bird appears to ascend from the stone wall itself, as though about to take flight. Its warm colors contrast with the cooler blues and blacks of Cheongryong and Hyeonmu on the opposite walls.
The four spirits guarded the deceased in the afterlife, shielding the burial chamber from malevolent forces approaching from each direction. Jujak's wall invoked the warmth and vitality of summer to sustain the dead.
The Warm Direction
In Korean geomantic practice, the ideal settlement site mirrors the tomb arrangement. An open area to the south allows warmth and light to reach the living, just as Jujak's wall brings warmth to the dead. Seoul's southern gate, Sungnyemun, carries the same protective association. The bird that guards the dead also guards the living, so long as they face the right direction.
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