Peacock or phoenix?

To me it looks as though they are phoenixes, although we have hanging panels that are similar in design and clearly are peacocks. In China the emperor is thought to be the dragon while the empress is symbolized by the phoenix. The two totems are royal in nature and typify many regal and royal character traits.

Wikipedia has some very interesting and basic information that outlines the basics of the phoenix mythology. The male phoenix is Feng and the female phoenix Huang. Also known as the big red bird the phoenix is sometimes used to replace the rooster in the Chinese zodiac. The phoenix is also known as the firebird from the regeneration and reconstitution of itself from the ashes if it's own internal pyre.

"The Fenghuang is said to be made up of the beak of a cock, 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. Its body symbolizes the six celestial bodies. The head is the sky, the eyes are the sun, the back is the moon, the wings are the wind, the feet are the earth, and the tail is the planets. Its feathers contain the five fundamental colors: black, white, red, blue and yellow."[1]

From~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feng_Huang

The phoenix occurs in Egyptian and Chinese mythology and can be comparable to the Native Ameican Thunderbird. Just as there are dragons in Celtic, Chinese and Native American mythology as well.

These are but just a few examples~ the phoenix and the dragon can be found in many places in time as well as in many different places. They are most prominently joined together in Chinese mythology.