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Mythical tales of kylin lives on
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JUST like many other mythical creatures, kylin has features of many animals. It has a lion’s head, deer’s antlers, tiger’s eyes, horse’s body, fish’s scales, bull’s feet and dragon’s tail — all recognized by Chinese as animals with beautiful spirits.
Kylin has an auspicious significance in Chinese culture. It is said that if anyone manages to see a kylin, it will be the start of all things good.
Kylin is believed to enjoy an especially long life, bringing children to families, and capable of distinguishing and protecting the good from the evil.
There are different versions of kylin’s origin. Some stories suggest that it is the grandson of yinglong (应龙), a kind of Chinese dragon with wings; while some other theories classify kylin as one of the four great spirits together with Chinese dragon, phoenix and turtle.
There are also two genders of kylin. The male is called qi (麒), while the female is known as lin (麟).
As recorded in Confucius’ “Chun Qiu” (Spring and Autumn), a kylin was captured in the Lu Kingdom during the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC). It was later elaborated in many classics including Sima Qian’s “Shi Ji” (Historical Records).
A widely known version goes as follows: The king of Lu and his hunting team accidentally disturbed a kylin in the forest. Curious about the animal, the hunting team kept chasing it and eventually caught it.
Unable to identify it, the king asked Confucius (551-479 BC) for help. Seeing the hurt and shocked kylin, Confucius cried that such an auspicious animal was being treated so badly. He urged the king to take it back for treatment, but the kylin died. He later wrote an elegy for the kylin and stopped writing after that.
The kylin was said to be captured in today’s Qilin (kylin) Town of Heze City in Shandong Province. A memorial altar was built where it was buried and named “Qilin Tai” (Kylin Altar). It exists even today and protected as a historical and cultural site.
Another legend suggests that Confucius was born after his pregnant mother encountered a kylin, which also explains his great pain when he saw the kylin dying.
Though it does not enjoy the same status as the popular Chinese dragon, kylin is highly regarded among those who follow fengshui and is seen as a great protector.
The most important role of kylin in fengshui is to defuse various sha (煞) or evil spirits that hurt the family. More importantly, it is a spirit of mercy that can distinguish good from evil. It will protect the good people who worshiped it while punishing the evil ones. Therefore, there are not many restrictions on how and where to put it in the house.
It is also believed that it brings good fortune, wealth and prosperous careers. The pattern of kylin is also widely used as decorations in traditional Chinese architecture.
Probably because of the legend that Confucius was born after his mother encountered a kylin, the legendary animal is also believed to be capable of blessing families with children.
Those longing for children traditionally put up a painting of kylin with children (mostly boys) in their house. It is often accompanied with antithetical couplets like “the kylin son in the heaven, the number one scholar on the earth.” Many Chinese tend to address clever boys as lin’er (kylin son) even today.
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