Qilin

A gentle horned beast of Chinese legend, with the body of a deer, the tail of an ox and scales like a fish, whose appearance was said to announce a wise ruler or the birth of a sage. In English it is often called the Chinese unicorn.

Chinese mythology and symbols. Also called chi lin, chinese unicorn, ki-lin, kirin, kylin, lin, qilin meaning, qilin symbol.

Meaning

The qilin (麒麟, qílín; ch’i-lin in older books) is one of the four spiritual creatures of Chinese tradition with the dragon, the phoenix and the tortoise. W. Perceval Yetts, lecturing to the China Society in 1912, gave its leading quality as “perfect goodwill and benevolence to all living things”: it will not tread on growing grass, and the tip of its horn is covered with flesh to show that, though able for war, it wishes for peace. When it appears, the belief went, a sage is about to be born or a wise sovereign is on the throne, and a legend says one was seen when Confucius came into the world. The qilin belongs to Chinese culture today as a sign of good fortune: in Hong Kong the Hakka unicorn dance of Hang Hau, in Sai Kung, is on the national list of intangible cultural heritage.

Origin and history

Yetts found the earliest mention of the lin in the Book of Odes, and a description centuries later of a deer’s body, an ox’s tail and a single horn, sometimes with fish scales. The China Institute Gallery, describing a stamped tomb tile of the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220) from Jinqueshan in Shandong, notes that in Han tombs the qilin is often found with the four directional animals, and that its power in the Han came from its ability to portend good government or the birth of a virtuous ruler. In 95 BC the emperor Wudi ordered gold ingots to be made in the shape of horse or qilin hoofs as rewards for the nobility. The qilin kept its standing to the end of the empire: under the Qing it was embroidered on the badges of military officials of the first rank.

Confucius and the captured qilin

In early Chinese writing the qilin is tied to Confucius. The China Institute Gallery notes that the capture of a qilin is credited as the immediate reason Confucius wrote the Chunqiu, the Spring and Autumn Annals, and Yetts records the tradition that the sage saw the captured animal himself. Yetts thought it possible that the lin had been a real but rare animal, a few of which survived in Confucius’ time.

The giraffe of 1414

In 1414 part of Zheng He’s fleet, at Bengal, met envoys from Malindi on the coast of present-day Kenya, who gave the Chinese one of the giraffes they had brought as tribute. Sarah Zielinski, writing in Science News, follows Dale Peterson’s account of why the court took it for a qilin: a male qilin was to have a flesh-covered horn on its forehead, and giraffes have skin-covered horns; it had a deer’s body, cloven hooves and an ox’s tail. Owning such an animal may have helped the Yongle emperor, who had taken the throne by force, to shore up his claim. The court painter Shen Du made the identification plain, Sally Church writes: in his painting the giraffe’s spots turn into the fish-scale pattern of the qilin.

Is the qilin a unicorn?

Only loosely. Yetts calls it “the Chinese unicorn” and the old description gives it one horn, and the China Institute Gallery notes that it is often shown with a horn on its forehead like a unicorn. Peterson points out that a qilin could also have two or three horns, and the V&A describes the qilin on a Ming vase of the 1630s as a creature “with horns, hooves and a body similar to a deer but with scales”. The Han tile from Jinqueshan has the face of a bulldog and the body of a dog. The winged, lion-like beast with one horn is the Pixiu (bixie), a different animal.

Worn for luck

E. T. C. Werner, writing in 1922, listed figures of the unicorn among the charms worn in China to ensure good fortune or ward off sickness and fire. He also describes pictures of P’an Ku, the giant who shaped the world, attended by the four supernatural creatures: the qilin, the phoenix, the tortoise and the dragon.

Sources

Symbolism in Chinese Art (W. Perceval Yetts, 1912), W. Perceval Yetts, “Symbolism in Chinese Art”, read before the China Society, 18 January 1912 (Leyden: E. J. Brill, 1912), The China Society, pp. 24–25
Tomb tile with a qilin (China Institute Gallery, Brilliant Artifacts from Shandong), China Institute Gallery, “Providing for the Afterlife: ‘Brilliant Artifacts’ from Shandong”, cat. 50, Tomb tile with a qilin, Eastern Han dynasty, Linyi Municipal Museum, China Institute Gallery, cat. 50, entry text
The giraffes that sailed to medieval China (Science News), Sarah Zielinski, “The giraffes that sailed to medieval China”, Science News (Wild Things blog), 1 October 2013, citing Dale Peterson, Giraffe Reflections, and Sally Church, The Medieval History Journal (2004), Science News, article text
Vase with phoenix and qilin (Victoria and Albert Museum), Victoria and Albert Museum, London, vase painted in underglaze blue with phoenix, qilin and insects, Jingdezhen, Ming dynasty, about 1630–44, Victoria and Albert Museum, summary description
First Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage for Hong Kong announced (Hong Kong Government), Hong Kong SAR Government press release, “First Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage for Hong Kong announced”, 14 August 2017, Government of the Hong Kong SAR, press release text
Myths and Legends of China (E. T. C. Werner, 1922), E. T. C. Werner, Myths and Legends of China (London: George G. Harrap, 1922), Project Gutenberg ebook 15250, George G. Harrap, ch. I, Superstitions; ch. III, P’an Ku

The same shape elsewhere

Browse symbols formed from curves and waves.

Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 10, 2026. How we research

Added October 10, 2026.

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