The _Shwoh Wan_ says: "The King is a large stag with an ox's tail and one
horn." It may be a large form of the Piao. The Wang Hwu Analects say that
the Piao is an object of the chase, and that it is as swift as a stag.
Kwan Tsz, in the _Ti Yuen_ volume, says that as there are Mi and Piao and
many species of deer, so also the Piao is a species of deer.
The "Shi Ki," in the book _Fung Shen_, says that during the worship at the
solstices at Yung, there was captured a one-horned beast like a Piao, and
that the local authorities assert that as His Majesty was making
reverential invocations on the country altar to the Supreme Being, he was
recompensed for the sacrifice by a beast which was a unicorn.
Wu Chao's preface to the _Loh Yiu_ says: "The body is like that of a
muntjack, and it has one horn"; while the Spring and Autumn (Annals)
allude to this animal in speaking of the horned Kiun.
The inhabitants of Ch‘u say the Kiun is a Piao. Kwoh, in his preface, says
that the capture made in the time of Wu, of the Han dynasty, was actually
a Piao, as demonstrated by the Han books. The _Chung Kiun_ narrative
states that in Shang Yung was captured a white Lin bearing one horn, of
which the tip was fleshy. At the present day nothing has been heard of a
Piao with a fleshy tip, therefore these must be different beasts.
Kwoh also says that the Piao is identical with the Chang, and the Chang
with the Kiun. This corresponds with what Wei Chao So had already stated,
that the people of Ch‘u assert that the Kiun is a Piao, and that the Piao
is certainly a kind of deer.
Its meat is eminently savoury.
Luh Ki says that of all four-footed creatures, the Piao is the most
excellent.
Yeu Shi states in the _Kiao Sz_ annals ("Sacrifices to Heaven and Earth"),
that the Piao is a kind of deer. Its body exactly resembles that of the
Chang.
Finally, the explanatory prefaces of many classical works, when commenting
on the _'Rh Ya_, say that the Piao is identical with the Chang and of a
black colour; and they confirm Kwoh's opinion, although the _'Rh Ya_
forgets to allude to the three characters denoting the black colour.
[Illustration: FIG. 83.--THE KI-RIN. (_From a Japanese Drawing in a Temple
at Kioto._)]
It was probably some unicorn animal which is referred to in the General
History of China, called the _Tong Kien Kang Mu_ (_vide_ Père de Mailla's
translation), as having been presented to the Emperor Yung Loh of the Ming
dynasty, in A.D. 1415, by envoys from Bengal. De Mailla says it was called
a Ki-Lin by the Chinese out of flattery.
Again, the same History says that in the succeeding year the kingdom of
Malin sent as tribute a Ki-Lin similar to that from Bengal.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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