Romance of the Blue Bird and Plum Blossoms

Blue birds symbolize uplifting sentiments such as happiness, faith and guardianship in folktales and modern narratives around the world. On the flip side, some storytellers have come to depict the birds, and the spiritual goods they promise, as elusive and even nowhere to be found in the material world, to the extent that people perpetually dissatisfied with their current lives are now characterized as suffering from a “blue bird syndrome” in some parts of the world. Back in 6th century Silla, one general fought his most uphill battle not against rival armies but in the conquest for his own blue bird.