The Qilin is a heavenly creature that embodies the virtues and morals of Chinese culture. It is a maned creature, with the head of a dragon, body of a tiger or deer, and the tail of an ox, as well as the delicate hooves of a deer. The Qilin is an extraordinarily beautiful creature, and no two Qilin look the same; they each have their own, unique embellishments, such as carp whiskers, plumes of feathers, branched antlers, scales made of precious metals, fiery manes, or unicorn-like horns. Some say that the Qilin is the 9th son of the dragon. Its body is covered in scales and it is wreathed in fire. It also spews fire from its mouth to protect innocent people and incinerate evil doers. Only those who are chosen can see Qilin, as it is not visible to the mortal eye. This creature originates from China, and later became known all-over East Asia. Despite its fearsome appearance, the Qilin is an extremely gentle beast; it is vegetarian, and it travels by floating on clouds so as to avoid harming the grass.
The Qilin is a symbol of auspiciousness and prosperity and is one of the four noble animals in East Asia along with the dragon, phoenix, and turtle. It is said that these four creatures had free reign of the gardens of the Yellow Emperor, who is considered the father of Chinese civilization and the ancestor of all Chinese people. The creature’s presence in this magical garden symbolizes both how ancient he is and how noble the Yellow Emperor is.Later, the Qilin decided to grace Chinese civilization with a priceless gift. One day, the Yellow Emperor was sitting beside the Yellow River, gazing into its dirty water. Suddenly, a wondrous, hooved creature appeared and touched the water, transforming it a delicious shade of clear, bright green. It stomped on a rock, calling the Emperor’s attention, then turned to reveal a set of magical symbols shining across his scales. These symbols laid the foundation for China’s first written language.
Much like the storks in European culture, the Qilin brings babies to deserving parents, and those babies all grow up to be prodigies, thus bringing prosperity to that family; legend has it that Confucius, one of China’s greatest sages, was such a child. The Qilin had coughed up a jade tablet that was inscribed with the foretelling of the greatness of the child. Furthermore, a Qilin would appear to signal the birth or death of a particularly benevolent ruler or sage scholar. Like how the appearance of a Qilin signaled Confucius’s birth, it also signaled his death when one was hurt by a charioteer.
Because it has only been seen by an extremely small amount of people, other animals that possess certain features of a Qilin have been mistaken for this rare creature. Such an example is the giraffe. When the famous Ming dynasty eunuch and admiral Zheng He traveled to Africa, he brought back to China two giraffes, which greatly pleased Emperor Yongle, and thought by everyone to be Qilin. Although the traditional depiction of the Qilin has a much shorter neck, the association between the giraffe and the Qilin remain strong to this day. In Japan and Korean culture, the word for giraffe is kirin and gilin respectively, which closely resembles the Chinese Qilin.
By Wandi Zhu and Shaina Pang
Image citation: Dhwty. (2014, August 3). The gentle and benevolent Qilin of Chinese mythology. Retrieved from https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-asia/gentle-and-benevolent-qilin-chinese-mythology-001933