Oil painting: Maiden and Unicorn
In the Chinese mythical beast lineage, the Qilin, Phoenix, XuanGui, and Dragon are the highest-ranking teams, which the Book of Rites calls the "Four Spirits", while the Qilin is ranked first among the "Four Spirits" by Confucianism1. What is the reason for this? Because it transcends muddy water, it never tramples on bugs and flowers when walking. Compared with the dragon and phoenix, the unicorn carries more love, so it is a kind of "benevolent beast" and a symbol of auspiciousness, representing benevolence, peace and nobility, and has a strong symbolic meaning of life.
The unicorn is divided into male and female, of which the unicorn is male and the lin is female, and is the most famous unicorn in Chinese history. In terms of shape, it is said that its horns resemble a sika deer, its eyes resemble a tiger, its body resembles an elk, it is covered with dragon scales, and it has a cow's tail, although it is not as complex as a dragon, but it is also a rare "composite beast".
What is the strange origin of the divine beast with this appearance? A few different claims arise here. The first theory says that it is a descendant of a dragon. The Ming Dynasty notebook "Five Miscellaneous Tricks" believes that the dragon is a kind of sexually lascivious divine beast, it crosses with a bull, it will give birth to a unicorn, and when it crosses with a pig, it will give birth to an elephant, and when it crosses with a horse, it will give birth to a dragon horse 2. The second theory is from the Huainan Zi, which says that Qilin is a descendant of Ying Long3. This Ying Dragon, as I have said repeatedly before, is a dragon with eagle wings, and it gave birth to a divine beast called Jianma, and Jianma gave birth to a unicorn. Therefore, Qilin is actually The grandson of Ying Long.
The third theory is that the qilin is the descendant of the cow, and in this regard, the Qing History Manuscript provides many records of the cow giving birth to the unicorn. During the years of Yongzheng, Qianlong and Jiaqing, ordinary peasant families in Shouzhou, Jingzhou, Zhenhai and Mianzhou all had supernatural incidents of cows getting pregnant and giving birth to unicorns, and the most powerful one, when the qilin was born, the wind and rain were great, and golden light appeared in the courtyard, burning the surrounding grass and trees to a yellow, which was really incredible.4
Why was such a divine beast as the Unicorn born? In the past, Confucians insisted that the unicorn would only appear in the human world when the saints or the prosperous world came. For example, before Confucius was born and before his death, there was a phenomenon of qilin appearing. It is said that before Confucius was born, a qilin ran into the courtyard of his family, and spat out a piece of jade in his mouth, which was engraved with the words "Son of the Water Spirit, The King of the Decline of the Zhou Dynasty and the King of Su", ten characters, meaning that Confucius is the son of the dragon, can maintain the decaying Zhou Dynasty, and practice the way of the king.
A few years before Confucius's death, someone killed a qilin while hunting, and Confucius was so sad that he interrupted the writing of the book "Spring and Autumn" because he knew that his limit was coming, and sure enough, it was not long before Confucius died in a state of desolation and loneliness5. This story gives a strong impression, it not only proves that the unicorn is an auspicious beast, which can bring people excellent babies like Confucius, but also brings harvest, blessings, longevity to the world, and all kinds of light and hope in the world.
Since the Qilin is the highest divine beast representing Xiangrui, receiving its protection and blessing is one of the greatest wishes of successive emperors. The third emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di, launched a mutiny to overthrow the rule of his nephew Emperor Jianwen and became emperor himself, because he was worried that the legitimacy of his power would be questioned, and was keen to create various image projects, such as the Forbidden City Palace Complex, the Ming Great Wall, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, the Yongle Grand Ceremony, and so on, especially the dispatch of the Three Treasures eunuch Zheng He, seven expeditions to the West, to carry out tribute trade, to give high-end goods such as copper coins and silk porcelain to foreign leaders, and to tempt them to come to China to meet the emperor, so as to create a "dynasty of all nations". Pompous".
In the twelfth year of Yongle, that is, in 1412, the envoys of Bangladesh were taken to Beijing by Zheng He's fleet and presented the beast "Qilin". Zhu Di personally led the civil and military officials to the square to greet, the whole capital was sensational, although it was a cold winter moon, the people all went to the streets to watch, just like a festival. The royal painter also painted a portrait of the unicorn, which was widely circulated in the folk.
Tapestries: Maidens and Unicorns
The following year, Zheng He brought back another unicorn from the ma woodlands of East Africa, that is, today's Kenya, as well as grassland animals including lions, zebras and wildebeests, and the emperor was very happy, because the existence of the two unicorns fully proved that the current emperor was blessed by heaven, and his power was completely justified and in line with the Heavenly Dao.
Of course, if we look at the portrait of the unicorn today, we will understand that it is really a big misunderstanding: what Zheng He gave to the emperor is not the unicorn on the ancient portrait at all, but two African giraffes.6 Of course, the reason why Zheng He dared to "refer to the deer as a unicorn" is because this unique African giraffe, in addition to the neck and legs are too long, in other aspects, and the legendary unicorn, there are really some similarities. The head of the long deer has short antlers, as many as five, and it looks very similar to a sika deer, and the tail is also like an ox's tail, and the circular markings on the body can be said to be enlarged scales. But in order to make the qilin look more like a giraffe, the Ming court painters also added a horn to the head of the qilin and made this ancient unicorn into a two-horned beast.
The giraffe's long neck, long limbs and tall body can be regarded as the characteristics of the gods. In the eyes of Emperor Zhu Di, this is clearly the 3.0 update version of the Ancient Qilin! Even the emperor was convinced of this, and who among the slaves dared to make any presumptuous remarks? Therefore, Zheng He became the first person in the world to successfully "refer to the deer as a unicorn". This is the wisdom of the Chinese eunuchs, and it is also the sadness of imperial politics.
No one knows the whereabouts of the two unicorns, and no one questions them. This tropical animal simply cannot survive the slaughtering winter in northern China. But the death of the Unicorn must be secret, because the present life of the Qilin is a sign of auspiciousness, and its death is a terrible omen that must be covered up. Of course, after the throne of power was secured, Zhu Di didn't care much about the life and death of Qilin anymore. They were thrown into the Elephant Garden, the Royal Zoo, where elephants were housed, and died silently, like two discarded high-end toys.
Ming Dynasty court painter's painting of the Qilin entering the palace
Just as there are two versions of the dragon, there is a unicorn-like divine beast in the West called the unicorn. It is a symbol of elegance and nobility, exuding an air of virginal purity. In 398 BC, the ancient Greek writer ctesias was the first to record this magical animal: "India lives a wild donkey that is about the size of a foal, or even larger. They have snow-white bodies, crimson heads, and dark blue eyes, and a two-cubit-length horn in the middle of their foreheads. 7" Some scholars in modern times believe that the real prototype of the Western unicorn is not the Indian wild donkey, but the indian unique unicorn rhinoceros.
According to legend, the beautiful horn of the unicorn was cut off and has been circulated in European folklore for centuries. Its color is divided into three segments: "the sharp horns are as red as cinnabar, the middle is black, and the 8" is said to have strange magic. The powder that falls from the horn can cure hundreds of diseases, and it is not invaded by poisons, and it can even be revived. From the end of the 19th century, unicorns became one of the most typical creatures in fairy tale and fantasy literature. The great psychoanalyst Jung, in his book Psychology and Alchemy, also paid homage to this noble mythical beast9.
But the Eastern unicorn seems to have a different origin than the Western unicorn. The Western unicorn is not called a unicorn in the Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Classic of The Northern Mountains, but has another name, 䑏疏, which describes that there is a sacred beast in this place of the belt mountain, which looks like a horse, with a horn on its head and jagged lines on it. This could be an accurate description of the Indian unicorn 10.
In addition, There is also a kind of divine beast in China, which is also similar to the Western unicorn, that is, the famous badger in history, its body is like a sheep, its eyes are bright and divine, it has a horn on its forehead, it has a high degree of wisdom, it can distinguish between right and wrong and good and evil, it is the mount of the god of punishment under King Yao, gaotao, and is also responsible for helping Gaotao to resolve the case, and has never made a mistake, so it has become the embodiment of justice and justice, and it is also the most sympathetic of all the divine beasts.
獬豸 Image
concentrate:
1. Etiquette: "What are the Four Spirits?" LinFeng Turtle Dragon, known as the Four Spirits. Therefore, the dragon thinks of the animal, so the fish and the tuna are not muddy; the phoenix thinks of the animal, so the bird does not beast; the lin thinks of the animal, so the beast does not snipe; the turtle thinks of the animal, so the human feelings are not lost. ”
2. Xie Zhaochun, "The Five Miscellaneous Tricks": "The dragon is the most adulterous, so if you have sex with the ox, you will give birth to lin; if you have sex with the ox, you will give birth to an elephant; if you have sex with a horse, you will give birth to a dragon and a horse; that is, when a woman encounters it, there will also be those who are defiled by it." ”
3. "Huainan Zi Yuan-shaped training": "Mao Calves give birth to Ying Long, Ying Long sheng Jianma, Jianma Sheng Qilin, Qilin Sheng Shu Beast, And All Hairy Ones, born of Shu Beasts." ”
4. "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty: "In May of the eleventh year, the Yanting people's cattle produced one lin, two feet and five inches high, one meat horn, one inch long, eyes like crystals, scales and armor all over the body, two ridges to the tail each with meat grains such as beans, golden color, mulk body, eight feet, cow hooves, wind and rain during the birth, golden light full of courtyards, shooting grass and trees are yellow. ”
5. "The Book of Collected Relics and the King of Zhou Ling": "When the master was not born, there was a Lin Tuyu book in the Queli family, Wen Yun: "The son of the water spirit, the king of the declining Zhou and Su." "Therefore, the two dragons go around the room, and the five stars descend to the court." Signs are in the wise, and knowledge is divine. It is embroidered with a silk horn, and the letter stays and goes. Xiang Zhiyun: "The master is Yin Tang, the king of water virtue and su." "At the end of the reign of king Jing, in the twenty-fourth year of the Duke of Lu Ding, the Lu people hoeed Shang Tian in Daze and obtained Lin to show their master. The horns are still there. The Master knew that his fate was coming to an end, but he was holding Lin to untie the silk and tears. And when lin comes out, and the age of liberation, it will be a hundred years old. "Fourteen Years of Zuo Chuan Andrei": "Lin Ren Beast Ye." Those who have kings will come, and those who have no kings will not. There is a person who tells: "There is a man with a horn." Confucius said, "Why are you coming?" What's up! "Wipe your face and wet your robe." Yan Yuan died, and Zi Yue said, "Oh! Heaven forbid. Zi Lu died, Zi Yue: "Oh! Good luck. Confucius said, "My way is poor!" ”
6. "Ming Shi Liechuan 192 Hou Xian": "Pong Ge La, that is, the Han body poison country, the Eastern Han Dynasty Tianzhu." ...... In the twelfth year, the king sent envoys to thank him, pay tribute to The Qilin and the famous horse Fangwu. And "Ming Shi Liechuan 214 Ma Lin": "Ma Lin, go to China far away." Yongle sent an envoy to Gong Qilin for thirteen years. At the end, The Rebbe Shangshu Lü Zhen asked for a tribute, and the emperor said: "To the Confucian courtiers into the "Five Classics and Four Books", please go to the table, and approve it, so that this book is beneficial to Zhiye. Whether there is a lin or not, what profit or loss, it has been. "Ma Lin and the messengers of the various chambers have entered with lin and pegasus and sacred deer, and the emperor has accepted it at the Gate of Heaven. The first of the hundred officials praised He, the emperor said: "This emperor is caused by Houde, and it is also Lai Qing and other Yi praise, so the distant people are bilai." From now on, Yi Yi Bingde Di was not caught. "Fourteen years and tribute."
7.“there are wild asses in india the size of horses and even bigger. they have a white body, crimson head, and deep blue eyes. they have a horn in the middle of their brow >”详《克泰西亚斯：印度记（ctesias: on india）》,andrew nichols英译及笺注, 布卢姆兹伯里(bloomsbury)出版社, 2011
8. 同上书：“the tip of the horn is sharp and deep vermillion in colour while the rest in the middle is black.”
9. See The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, Chapter VI, Section II, The Paradigm of the Unicorn, Princeton University Press, 1968
10. "The Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Classic of the North Mountain": "Three hundred miles to the north, the belt mountain, the jade on it, and the green and green under it." There are beasts, their shape is like a horse, a corner is wrong, and their name is sparse, which can put out fire. ”
The pictures in this article are from the Internet
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