麒麟
麒麟 (kirin): the statue of a qilin, also known as the Chinese unicorn
| male unicorn | female unicorn | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| simp. and trad. (麒麟) | 麒 | 麟 | |
| alternative forms | 騏驎 obsolete 麒麐 obsolete | ||
Etymology
Qilin was a propitious beast in ancient Chinese mythology, with the shape of a deer, tail of an ox, a single horn and scales all over its body. Old Chinese pronunciation for this word was *g(ɯ)-rin (Zhengzhang), and in pre-Qin times the beast was also referred to as
the last two having been attested in the oracle bone script already. This is much debate as to what animal the qilin beast was; some maintain that the qilin was a beast only found in mythology, even though it may have been based on some animal in pre-historic times, and some argue that the qilin was, in reality, the river deer, the ox or cow, or the Indian rhinoceros (Wang, 2009).
During the Song–Ming Dynasties, the giraffe was introduced to China, either by envoys from other Asian or African countries or through Zheng He who commanded multiple expeditionary voyages to Asia and Africa (Zhang, 2007). Besides using the transcription 祖剌法 (zǔlàfǎ) (from Arabic زُرَافَة (zurāfa, “giraffe”)) to name the animal, the Chinese also referred to it as qilin, believing it was the prototype of the mythological beast qilin. Such association may be due to the phonological similarity of the words for “giraffe” in North African languages, to the pronunciation of 麒麟 (MC ɡɨ liɪn) at the time (i.e. a phono-semantic matching) (Zhang, 2007). Compare:
- Somali geri (“giraffe”), Sango kôlo, Amharic ቀጭኔ (ḳäč̣ne), Kazakh керік (kerik), Mursi kirin[1] and Arabic زَرَافَة (zarāfa), زُرَافَة (zurāfa) (whence English giraffe).
The “giraffe” sense of 麒麟 is obsolete in modern Chinese, but is preserved in the Sinoxenic loanwords in Japanese (麒麟 (kirin)) and Korean (기린). In modern Vietnamese (kì lân), this word refers to the beast qilin, as well as the western mythological beast unicorn.
Pronunciation
Noun
麒麟
- From: Mencius, circa 4th century BCE
- Qǐ wéi mín zāi? Qílín zhī yú zǒushòu, fènghuáng zhī yú fēiniǎo, Tàishān zhī yú qiūdié, hé hǎi zhī yú xíngliáo, lèi yě. [Pinyin]
- Is it only among men that it is so? There is the Qilin among quadrupeds, the Fenghuang (Phoenix) among birds, the Tai mountain among mounds and ant-hills, and rivers and seas among rain-pools. Though different in degree, they are the same in kind.
- (figurative, literary) outstanding person; man of ability
- (obsolete) giraffe (ruminant of the genus Giraffa)
Synonyms
- (outstanding person):
- (giraffe):
Derived terms
Descendants
麒
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Translingual
Han character
麒 (radical 198, 鹿+8, 19 strokes, cangjie input 戈心廿一金 (IPTMC), four-corner 04281, composition ⿰鹿其)
- legendary auspicious animal
References
- KangXi: page 1510, character 24
- Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 47657
- Dae Jaweon: page 2039, character 1
- Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 7, page 4731, character 19
- Unihan data for U+9E92
Chinese
| 麒 | ||
Glyph origin
| Historical forms of the character 麒 | |
|---|---|
| Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han) | Liushutong (compiled in Ming) |
| Small seal script | Transcribed ancient scripts |
 |  |
Pronunciation[edit]
Definitions
麒
- Only used in 麒麟 (qílín).
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