Qilin

Origin and myth

The qilin is one of the four benevolent or spiritual creatures of Chinese tradition, listed in the Book of Rites alongside the dragon, the phoenix and the tortoise. Its earliest appearance is in the Classic of Poetry (Shijing), whose ode "The Feet of the Lin" praises a lord's sons and kinsmen by comparing them to the lin's feet, forehead and horn. The Spring and Autumn Annals end with the capture of a lin during a hunt in the west in 481 BC, and the Zuo Zhuan commentary says it was Confucius who identified the beast. The Gongyang commentary has him lament that his Way had come to an end, and later tradition read the event as an omen of his death two years later. A further legend says a qilin appeared to his mother before his birth carrying a jade tablet, and the animal became the sign that a sage or a just ruler had come into the world.

The qilin was called a "humane beast": commentators said it harmed no living thing, not even the grass, and never used its horn to attack. Later, Buddhist-influenced art often shows it walking on clouds or water rather than on grass. Under the Ming, qilin rank badges were worn by nobles and high military officers. In 1414 a giraffe reached the Yongle Emperor's court with an embassy from Bengal, carried on the voyages of Zheng He's fleet; the interpreter Ma Huan names Malindi in East Africa as the source of these animals, and the court hailed the giraffe as a qilin. In Japanese (kirin) and Korean (girin) the same word still means both the mythical beast and the giraffe.

Over the centuries the qilin shifted from a single omen of Confucian virtue into a general symbol of good fortune, righteousness and the birth of gifted children, carved on temple doorways and cast as bronze guardians.

Appearance

The qilin is a composite beast, and descriptions vary. The Han-era dictionary Shuowen Jiezi gives it the body of a deer, the tail of an ox and a single horn. Later images usually add a dragon-like head, with a long muzzle, prominent brow ridges, a beard and flowing whiskers, and often two horns, either deer-like or dragon-like. The single-horn version is why it is often called the Chinese unicorn, though the two creatures have separate origins.

The body is commonly covered in scales and may be golden or multicoloured, with a lion-like mane, a flowing tail and sometimes flames licking from the shoulders and hocks. Late imperial bronze and stone qilin are often stocky and lion-like; Japanese kirin are frequently leaner, almost a deer in dragon skin. The essential recipe is dragon head, deer body, scales and cloven hooves.

In modern fantasy

The qilin, usually under the name kirin, is a familiar creature in East Asian video games, animated series and collectible card games, often portrayed as a rare, sacred and lightning-associated beast; in the Monster Hunter series the Kirin is a lightning-wielding monster. Tabletop role-playing games use it too: Dungeons & Dragons has the celestial ki-rin, and Pathfinder's kirin is an aerial beast that may serve a pure-hearted knight as a mount.

3D printing notes

The qilin is a hooved subject with a heavy head, which sets the print strategy: the four slender legs cannot support the mass on their own at small scales. At 28-32 mm tabletop scale, print in resin with a flame or cloud element connecting the belly to the base, or choose a seated guardian pose modelled on late imperial bronze guardians, which is stable and prints almost without supports.

At 75 mm, split into body, head-and-neck and tail, keyed with pegs. Supports go on the belly and inner legs where they are hidden; keep horns and whiskers at 1.2 mm or thicker. Hollow the body to 2 mm. FDM is practical for the seated guardian form at 100 mm and up if the scales are simplified into raised plates.

A 150 mm and larger centrepiece looks best as a walking qilin on a cloud base, with the clouds providing support to two hooves and the tail. Run a 3 mm brass rod through each rear leg. Flames at the shoulders and hocks can be printed separately in translucent resin. A hinged neck and jaw with 0.4 mm clearances add expression to a print-in-place display piece.

Painting and display

Gold is the traditional scheme: a dark bronze base, drybrushed with old gold and highlighted with bright gold on the scale edges, with a sepia wash in the recesses. The mane, tail and beard can be a contrasting colour - deep red, blue or jade green - and the flames painted from orange at the base to yellow at the tips. A multicoloured variant can use glazes of red, yellow, green, blue and white over a gold base.

A cloud base in soft white and grey with a touch of blue, or a temple courtyard in stone, suits the creature. Translucent resin flames at the shoulders are a natural spot for warm LED lighting.

Related creatures

The qilin is often called the Chinese cousin of the Unicorn, and its dragon head ties it to Chinese dragon lore, a very different tradition from the Western Dragon. Among the four auspicious creatures it stands beside the Phoenix, and in Japanese folklore it shares the stage with the fox spirit Kitsune.

Sources

• Wikipedia, Qilin, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qilin
• World History Encyclopedia, Qilin, https://www.worldhistory.org/Qilin/
• Pathfinder Reference Document, Kirin, https://pathfinder.d20srd.org/bestiary3/kirin.html

For a qilin guardian or a walking display piece, ask Fantasy Lab 3D for a custom print.