Documentary Records of Phoenix Paper

In the twenty-fourth act of The Peach Blossom Fan, Qing dynasty playwright Kong Shangren recreated the Ming court's use of phoenix paper through the allusion “signing with phoenix paper to summon musicians.” Chen Weisong's “Tiao Xiao Ling: Ode to Antiquity”—which mentions “a scroll of blue-inked phoenix-patterned paper”—reflects the literary perception of such specialized paper among the scholar-official class. In philological treatises, the Shuowen Jiezi Zhu defines phoenix paper as “paper used for imperial edicts and decrees,” establishing its authoritative status within the traditional cultural context.