Xiezhi
Sign in to saveAlso known as unicorn-lion, Haechi, Haetae, Kaichi, Giải trãi, Hāi-thuā, Haai-zi
The xiezhi ( < Eastern Han Chinese *gɛʔ-ḍɛʔ) is a mythical creature of Chinese origin found throughout Sinospheric legends. It resembles an ox or goat, with thick dark fur covering its body, bright eyes and a single long horn on its forehead. It has great intellect and understands human speech. The xiezhi possesses the innate ability to distinguish right from wrong and when it finds corrupt officials, it will ram them with its horn and devour them. It is known as a symbol of justice.
Key facts
- Chinese.w
- hsieh-chih
- Chinese.kanji
- 獬豸
- Chinese.title
- Xiezhi
- Chinese.float
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- Chinese.pic
- Xiezhi1.jpg
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- A xiezhi in the Forbidden City in Beijing, China
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- Sculpted , donated 1936
- Chinese.p
- (xièzhì)
- Chinese.hiragana
- かいち
- Chinese.romaji
- kaichi
- Chinese.hangul
- 해태
- Chinese.hanja
- 獬豸
- Chinese.rr
- Haetae
- Chinese.qn
- giải trãi
- Chinese.chuhan
- 獬豸
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- mythical creature
- Image
- Xiezhi1.jpg
Show 3 more facts
- Commons category
- Xiezhi
- native label
- giải trãi
- described by source
- Gujin Tushu Jicheng
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
11 sectionsContents
- History
- Etymology and Identity
- Homage
- In other places
- Japan
- Korea
- Gallery
- See also
- Notes
- References
- External links
The xiezhi ( Burmese da.rai "hog deer"), Old Khmer drāy > Khmer triəy "stag" and Stieng [Biat] draːi "swamp deer", whose Proto-Mon-Khmer ancestor was reconstructed by Shorto as *draaj (#1508).
Linguist Juha Janhunen (2011) counts the "real goat-like animal (perhaps an antelope)" underlying as one among many sources (besides the rhinoceros and others) which inspired the and notes that both the zhi and qilin were one-horned animals which could tell right from wrong. However, Janhunen thinks that the graphs and , rather than being variants of each other, might have denoted different animals "but they became confused to the extent that both can be used in reference to the same range of vague folkloric and mythical beasts". Indeed, Shuowen Jiezi describes the as ambush predators, not one-horned cattle-like ungulates.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Xiezhi” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
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