Eagle eyes:
What people call eagles actually include over 200 species of diurnal birds of prey around the world with a variety of shapes and characteristics, including hawks, falcons, buzzards, vultures and so on.
But whether one speaks of the smallest, such as the sparrowhawks, or the largest, such as the condors, they almost all share the same characteristics: "Of valiant bearing and ferocious character, they wheel through the skies, attacking swiftly and violently." Today they also symbolize flight--mankind's greatest technological accomplishment of the 20th Century.
Air forces of almost all countries use various kinds of birds of prey as their school crests and squadron insignia. Apart from their love of circling on air currents and the beauty of their flight, they inspire many reveries in people's minds. "Their sharp eyes can see 1000 miles!" Huang Nien-chun, a graduate of the Air Force Academy, says he loves birds of prey.
In his Watching a White Falcon Fly, a poem in four lines of five characters each, the Tang dynasty poet Li Pai (701-762 AD) wrote: "In the high desert wind of the eighth month, the falcon with its rich white plumage, wheeling like a lone snowflake, can discern a speck of down a hundred li distant." From high aloft he can see everything that moves on the ground, for an eagle relies on its vision to eat. According to research by naturalists, an eagle's vision is more than ten times more acute than a human being's. With only one-fiftieth of the light which human sight requires, it can unerringly snatch prey from six feet away . In the words of the Tang dynasty poet Kao Yueh: "His snowy talons and star-bright eyes are something rare in this world; he disdains to fly over the short grasses of the plains."
The encyclopedic Kewulun contains the following simple and vivid description: "The eagle: a raptor, golden eyes, hooked beak, steely claws, pointed wings, skilled at snatching prey." This is why the eagle has come to symbolize strength. In ancient times such peoples as the Romans, the Germans, the Poles, the Spaniards and the Incas all made the eagle a symbol of military might.
In ancient China, the flight of eagles and falcons was often used as a simile for the martial bearing of soldiers and for the power and vigor of political and judicial authority. In its description of how King Wu (founder of the Chou dynasty, 11th C. BC-256 BC) defeated Chou (last emperor of the Shang dynasty, 17th-11th C. BC), the Book of Songs says: "Supreme Commander Lu Wang was always like a soaring eagle." In the Shang dynasty, military and judicial power were seen as harsh and merciless, like hawks chasing sparrows, and so officers of justice were referred to as birds of prey, and called "Those fierce vultures, the law officers."
There are many countries in the world today with the eagle as their national bird or national emblem. Today's great superpower America, which has the bald eagle as its national bird, is one example. Birds of prey are probably depicted more frequently on coinage than any other birds. And there are many banks and countless commercial companies which use the eagle as their logo, to denote their financial strength, vigor, security, reliability and permanence.
Taiwan's professional baseball teams include the China Times newspaper's Eagles team, which regularly does battle with such teams as the Tigers, the Elephants, the Dragons and the Lions. If the team were called the Swallows or the Songthrushes, it would sound soft and weak, as if ready to be slaughtered by its opponents. Western political parties often divide into factions called hawks and doves on an issue. Hearing the name hawks one knows straight away that they are the faction which will be hard to deal with, combative and uncompromising.
(Above) Sculptor Fan Kang-lung Says: "Eagles are so often just a black speck in the sky. You can't get close to them." His work is filled with eagles' aloof solitude.