China's worship of Kirin and Phoenix began in the Spring and Autumn Period. Kirin, as a legendary rare beast, looks like a deer, but it is bigger than a deer, with a horseshoe-shaped oxtail and a unicorn on its head. The male is the forest and the female is the qi, which is collectively called Kirin. Unicorns are ferocious in appearance, but kind in heart. Because of its gentle temperament, it is harmless to people and animals, and its hoofs are not covered with weeds, so Fu Ruizhi in the Song Dynasty said: "Kirin is also a benevolent beast." . "Ruiying Map" also said: "Lin is a benevolent beast, the animal name is Qi, the dog name is Lin, and the sheep head is a deer." Because Kirin's body is bigger than a deer and similar to a horse, there is a folk saying that it is a horse to stare at Kirin.

We have heard the story of "Confucius mourning for the forest", which was in fourteen years. Uncle Sun Shi caught a monster while hunting. Everyone didn't know it was Kirin, but they mistakenly thought it was ominous. Kirin was abandoned and died. Ran Qiu, a disciple of Confucius, told Confucius about it, calling it "like a roe deer with horns". Confucius went to see it himself. He said to the coachman, if Ranqiu said it, wouldn't it be Kirin? When I saw it, it really happened. Confucius said: "The world is at peace, and the appearance of phoenix, turtle and dragon is an auspicious sign. Now that Zhou is going out, why does it appear? " So I thought of myself and said with tears, "I am to people what the forest is to animals." Lin died as soon as he came out, and my way was over. " In fact, although Confucius' Tao has been robbed many times, it has not come to an end until today.

What is the relationship between Confucius and Kirin? "Notes on Shuowen Jiezi Collection" said: "Before Confucius was born, Lin spit jade books in Queli people." That is to say, when Confucius was about to be born, Kirin appeared, and a silk script was spit out from his mouth, which read: "Although the descendants of water are declining, they are kings and seek wisdom." The next day, the sage Confucius was born.

If the dragon and phoenix are symbols of emperors, then Kirin is often associated with them. For example, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty once built Qilin Pavilion to commend heroes. There is a saying in the Song Dynasty that "a thousand people serve Confucian generals, and all animals serve Kirin." Poetry; The unicorn emblem of the military attache in Qing dynasty is second only to the royal family with dragon pattern; There is also the spread of "Kirin to send children" among the people, which makes the family prosperous. It is said that it was also evolved from Confucius, a scholar who spoke out.

In ancient auspicious patterns, besides dragons and phoenixes, there are also dragons and phoenixes. "Wu Yue Chun Qiu" said: "Jade raises the people, the phoenix lives in the tree, and the unicorn walks in the court." You can see the peace at that time. There is an idiom called prestige Xianglin, which refers to the prestige of the phoenix and the auspiciousness of Kirin. The ancients believed that the phoenix and Kirin were auspicious animals, and the appearance of the phoenix also symbolized world peace. Rare means very rare.

What are Kirin's overseas counterparts? I searched the Encyclopedia Britannica and directly replaced it with Pinyin. Maybe I didn't find the corresponding animal. But in the online mythology encyclopedia, it is directly said that unicorns are called Kirin in China. Unicorns are also auspicious animals in western mythology. But when you look through English-Chinese dictionaries, some of them are translated into "Kirin" and some into "Dragon Horse", but the word Kirin is not used directly. In fact, unicorns, dragons and horses are two kinds of animals in ancient legends of China. The former is literal translation. The latter takes its auspicious meaning: "the emperor Yao and the government, the dragon and the horse hold the title of armor." Dragon horse also means bringing social peace. However, there is another word in English called Unicorn, and the note next to it is Unicorn, so we compare unicorn with unicorn. Although it is called Dragon Horse, it is actually a unicorn in the west, and its cultural function is similar to that of China.

According to the ancient Greek prophecy, the dragon horse is a fierce animal. Only when the virgin appears in the place where it haunts, the dragon and horse will lose their wildness, and when they see the virgin, they will squat at her feet. So it is also called "pure auspicious beast". This story became a prophetic story of the early church. Some people compare Jesus to a dragon horse and his mother to a virgin. The dragon horse is called Reem in Hebrew, and it is written as Monoderos in the Old Testament, which means "one-horned", because the dragon horse has a spiral horn in the middle of its forehead, and it is a beast with a horse-like posture, a goatee and a lion's tail. The dragon horse has a white body, a red head and blue eyes.

In 398 BC, the Greek historian Ctesias first described the dragon horse in detail. According to the tourists' experience in India, he recorded the dragon horse as a "wild donkey". According to this record, it is speculated that the prototype of the dragon horse may be a hybrid of Indian rhinoceros, Himalayan antelope and donkey.

In medieval Europe, it was generally believed that the horns of dragons and horses could prevent poisoning and treat diseases in any liquid, so containers marked with dragons and horses were used as mascots. There is a legend that a large group of animals can't drink water because the pond is poisonous. The dragon horse came after defeating the struggling elephant, soaked its horn in the water, and soon the water was clean. The animals cheered. Because of its legendary strength and noble temperament, the dragon horse is not only preserved in European and Arab art, but also selected as the patron saint by the British royal family and the Scottish royal family.

Although Chinese and foreign dragon and phoenix legends have different sources and contents, they all bear their own cultural imprint. China's dragon and phoenix culture can be said to be more intense, which is the interweaving of myth and history. Phoenix and Kirin in the East and West can be regarded as auspicious beasts in the world, but dragon culture is unique to China and has deeply influenced other countries in the East.