Feng Huang first appeared to the Chinese emperor Hung Ti around 2600 BCE. The Phoenix is one of the four celestial creatures that the Chinese believed created the world (the other three being the dragon, unicorn, and tortoise). After the creation of the world, the heavens were divided into four quadrants, one for each creature: north, south, east, and west. Feng Huang ruled over the southern quadrant of heaven which represented summer, and hence the sun. Feng Huang is also called the emperor of birds because all the other birds of the sky would follow it in flight in homage to it. It was also a symbol for yin and yang, another popular motif in Asian cultures

The Feng Shui element associated with the Phoenix is Fire and the Feng Shui Bagua area is south. In the traditional/landscape Feng Shui schools, the Red Phoenix is the Celestial Animal guarding the entrance, or the front of the house, as exemplary feng shui houses in China were the ones facing south.

Read more about legends of the Phoenix in Western and Eastern Culture.