In Buddhist art the peacock carries Mahamayuri, the Peacock Wisdom Queen. In China, where it is called kongque (孔雀), it was also a bird of rank: it marked civil officials on their robes, and its feathers on a Qing official's hat showed the emperor's favor.
The Peacock Wisdom Queen
Mahamayuri is known in Japan as Kujaku Myoo. Wisdom kings usually have fierce faces, but the Kyoto National Museum points out that this one alone looks kind. She sits on a peacock's back and holds a lotus, a peacock feather and two fruits. Sources differ on her gender: the Kyoto museum calls her a queen, while the Tokyo National Museum's catalogue writes "he."
The Tokyo National Museum holds a 12th-century painting of the deity, a National Treasure. Its entry explains that Kujaku Myoo is the central deity of an esoteric rite to bring or stop rain and to ward off calamities.
Poison into beauty
The peacock earned this place through an old belief. In an ancient Indian legend retold by the Kyoto museum, a peacock lets a snake coil around it, then throws it off with a burst of wings and feathers. The Tokyo museum calls Kujaku Myoo the deified form of a peacock that eats poisonous snakes and insects. The JAANUS dictionary of Japanese art gives the Buddhist reading: the peacock eats poison joyfully and finds in it the nectar of its beauty, so the deity is revered for transmuting the "poisons" of greed and anger.
In Hindu art the peacock is the mount of Skanda, the god of war, also called Kartikeya. Britannica notes that sculptures often show him riding it or standing beside it, and a Nepalese figure at the Met names the bird Paravani.
A bird of rank
From 1391, Ming court rules put birds on the rank badges of civil officials and animals on those of military officials. Early Ming rules gave the third and fourth civil ranks the peacock or the wild goose, and a peacock badge at the Spurlock Museum of the University of Illinois is labeled for either rank. The Met's Qing badges confirm the peacock as the mark of a third-rank civil official, and some are embroidered with thread made from real peacock feathers. Our guide to crane meaning covers the crane of the first rank.
Peacock feathers on Qing hats
Under the Qing, a peacock plume called hualing (花翎) could hang from the back of an official's hat. The National Palace Museum in Taipei calls it a symbol of imperial favor. The emperor granted it for merit, to officials of the fifth rank and above and to distinguished warriors. Plumes were graded by the number of eyes, from one to three, and the three-eyed plume was the highest honor. The Met adds that near the end of the dynasty such feathers were sold openly in shops.
Peacocks in painting
Peacocks also appear in Chinese bird-and-flower painting. In Apricot Blossoms and Peacocks by the Ming court painter Lü Ji, one peacock stands on one leg atop a large scholar's rock, with peonies and apricot blossoms behind it. The National Palace Museum in Taipei, which holds the scroll, explains its hidden meaning. The second half of the Chinese word for peacock rhymes with a word for nobility, so the painting alludes to high rank and an official's salary.
Peacocks at Buddha.store
Peacocks are embroidered on several bags in our accessories, and peacock feathers are printed on a silk folding fan. The fan has its own history, told in our guide to the Chinese folding fan.
