"Oh, that's right." It's the first time I've heard of Huangshi.

"Of course, I saw his copy painting at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the United States, called "Ruiying Qilin Picture".

"What kind of copying painting?"

It is a copy of the "Ruiying Qilin Picture", but the original "Ruiying Qilin Picture" was painted by Shen Du in the Ming Dynasty by the Confucian Lin Lang Hanlin Academy. By the way, I remember, that country called hemp is in today's Somalia, and their pronunciation of giraffe in Somali at that time was giri, which is very similar to the pronunciation of our unicorn. ”

"What about the original "Ruiying Qilin Diagram"?"

"The original version was collected in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, because I was very curious at the time, I also checked it on the Internet, and found that in the copied painting, the giraffe has a net pattern on the body, but there is no on the original painting."

Huang Shi let out a "hmm" and turned his head to look at Shi Wenbo, waiting for his next step.

Shi Wenbo didn't sell it, so he continued, "The painting I saw is just one of the two copies, which was copied by Shen Qing of Huating in the Ming Dynasty, and the unicorn in the picture has zigzag patterns on its body. The painting was originally acquired by an American collector, so it is still in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the United States. ”

"Hmm."

"Another copy is painted by Chen Zhang in the Qing Dynasty, but the title of the painting is called "Bang Ge Ra Tribute Qilin Picture", which is now collected in our Chinese History Museum, and the unicorn on this facsimile painting is also reticulated. Later, experts verified that this 'unicorn' was actually a Somali reticulated giraffe. ”

"Are you sure?" Huang Shi was a little moved, because although he didn't know that the Dao Qilin was a giraffe, he knew that the Dao Qilin was an auspicious beast. This is what he heard from a history teacher named Yu Kuotian, that Teacher Yu is a colleague of Teacher Bai Biyu, one day when Huang Shi invited Teacher Bai to dinner, he and several professors and lecturers were also present, so Huang Shi was also invited at that time.

During the banquet, someone at the same table saw Bai Biyu eating wildly, so he compared him to the reincarnation of gluttony, and Bai Jasper said that the gluttony was one of the nine sons of the dragon, and then he made a pass to the people present to popularize the pronunciation of the other eight sons.

The names of the nine sons of this dragon are 赑屃 (pronounced bìxì), 螭kiss (pronounced chīwěn), 饕餮 (pronounced tāotiè), 睚眦 (pronounced yázì), 狴犴 (pronounced bìàn), 狻猊 (pronounced suānní), 趴蝮 (pronounced bàxià), Jiaotu (pronounced jiāotú), and Pulao (pronounced púláo), and legend has it that this dragon has a variety of temperaments and performs its own duties.

However, some people immediately raised different opinions, saying that there is no unicorn in the middle, this unicorn is clearly one of the nine sons of the dragon, and its reputation is far above that of other dragons. This argument was naturally refuted by another group of people, but neither of the two sides could convince anyone.

So everyone turned their attention to Yu Kuotian, who was the only history teacher at the wine table, and it was estimated that he had studied this historical legend, so they named him to comment on the truth.

Who knows, Yu Kuotian is also a slippery head, looking at the main generals of the quarrel between the two sides, one is the vice president, and the other is also the vice president, neither of which he can afford to provoke.

Moreover, in the process of forming its image, the dragon has brought together a variety of strange images. Later, these strange dragon images developed and combined with a certain characteristic of the dragon, forming a different theory that the dragon gave birth to nine sons. But there is no exact record of what the nine sons of the dragon are, and who is the eldest and who is the second. There are also various folk sayings, which are different.

So he made a mud, and he said that this unicorn has a deep relationship with the sage Confucius, and according to legend, the unicorn appeared before Confucius was born and before he died.

Before Confucius was born, there was a unicorn in the courtyard "mouth spitting jade book", and the book wrote that "the son of the water spirit, the king of the declining Zhou Dynasty". Confucius was born when he met Lin, and then he saw Lin die. In the spring of the fourteenth year of mourning, the retainers of the Shusun family captured a unicorn, thought it was inauspicious, and abandoned it outside the city. "Weeping with grief.

Disciple Zigong asked, "Master, why is he crying!" Confucius explained: "Lin Zhi is the king of Ming, and I am hurt when I am not at the right time." Confucius wrote another song: "Tang Yu Shilin and Phoenix Tour, what do you want when this is not the time?" I'm worried. At that time, Confucius was 71 years old, and he was so worried that he stopped writing and died in 479 B.C. In the Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai's "Ancient Style Poems", there is also a song: "If the sage is established, the pen will be in the lin."

Yu Kuotian said, "This unicorn is also called 'Qilin', in our ancient Chinese books, and phoenix, turtle, dragon together called 'four spirits', because its head resembles a dragon, its horns are like a deer, its shape is like a horse, its body is covered with scales, its back is colorful, its tail is like a cow, and its feet are cloven hooves." The unicorn, like the phoenix, is also divided into male and female, the male is called the unicorn, which is a single horn, and the female is called the unicorn, which has no horn. ”

Everyone listened to a lot of knowledge, and Huang Shi also hurriedly replaced the wine with tea in the interval between Kuotian's speeches, and frequently persuaded others at the table to drink, and after drinking two rounds, he asked Teacher Yu to continue to speak.

Yu Kuotian didn't shirk it, and then said, "According to legend, when this peaceful and prosperous era or the birth of a saint, the unicorn will appear. According to records, Fuxi, Shun, Confucius, etc., were accompanied by the appearance of unicorns. For example, Wang Chong's "On Balance? Speaking of Rui", there is a record that '(Han) Emperor Wu was in the time of Emperor Wu, and the west hunted a white horse, with one horn and five toes. To this end, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty also deliberately made the song of Bailin, changed the original year name 'Yuan Shuo' to 'Yuan Hunt', in order to celebrate auspiciousness, and also built the Qilin Pavilion in Weiyang Palace, and painted the image of the hero in the pavilion to show his merits. As a result, most of our later generations used 'Kirin Pavilion' to express outstanding merit and the highest honor. ”

"And ah, in the traditional folk culture of our country, the unicorn is also the main peace, good years, blessings, longevity and beauty. As a mascot, there are blessed unicorns, town house unicorns, the most famous of which is the 'unicorn sending children', which is derived from the saying that before the birth of Confucius, the 'unicorn spits jade book' before the birth of Confucius. The common people also believe that worshipping the unicorn can give birth to a good son, and also call the outstanding genius children 'unicorn', in the Tang Dynasty Du Fu's "Song of Xu Qing's Two Sons" has written that 'you don't see Xu Qing's two sons. Induction auspicious dreams followed. Confucius Shi personally embraced and sent, and it is a unicorn in the sky'. ”

Everyone nodded frequently, and Teacher Yu felt that he was standing on an eight-foot podium, and the drinkers at this table were the students under his podium.

"The unicorn is second only to the dragon among the beasts, and is the king of hairy animals, and it is also used in the court clothes of our ancient Chinese officials. In the Tang Dynasty, Wu Zetian embroidered the robe with the unicorn as a pattern, called the 'unicorn robe', which was specially rewarded to the generals above the third grade to wear, and became a symbol of the hierarchy. In the Ming Dynasty's "Ming Huidian", it was recorded that in the twenty-fourth year of Hongwu, that is, in 1391, it was stipulated that the gong, the marquis, the horse, and the uncle, with the unicorn as the supplement pattern, were called a product of the unicorn. In the Qing Dynasty, the unicorn was embroidered on the 'complement' of the military attaché, which was second only to the imperial relatives who wore dragon ornaments. ”

"Hey, in addition, the name of the ancient emperor or the name of the ancient building and the ancient place is often named after the unicorn, what is the reason for it, is to take its auspiciousness, for example, I will give a few examples, Tang Gaozong's year name is 'Linde', and Wu Zetian's Zhongshu Province is called 'Lintai'. And in the folk it is more, generally on both sides of the gate decorated with stone carved unicorns, which not only shows the nobility of the courtyard, but also can avoid evil spirits. ”

"However, the cultural relics are badly damaged, and now the most famous image of the unicorn in our country is the unicorn of the Southern Dynasty Emperor's Mausoleum in Nanjing. Now outside the Zhongshan Gate in Nanjing, there is a sculpture, called the evil spirit, which is the symbol of Nanjing, in fact, it is the unicorn taken from the tomb of Emperor Xiaoliang of the Southern Dynasty outside Nanjing. Everyone can go and see it if they have the opportunity, it is a lion-shaped tiger elephant, with a straight chest and bent waist, eyes and mouth, a short and wide neck, looking up to the sky and a long roar, magnificent and vibrant. ”

"Come, come, come, everyone toast to Teacher Yu Kuotian, thank him for ...... for us"

Before Huang Shi finished speaking, the people at the table stood up, one by one either shouting "less" or "Teacher Yu", and everyone raised a glass to Yu Kuotian.

Yu Kuotian poured down glass after glass of wine, his face was flushed with drink, although he was a little slurred, but he was still muttering in his mouth, "The unicorn can also be worn on the body as a talisman, and the texture of the good is gold, silver, copper, and jade, and it can be auspicious and the house ......is safe."

However, before the teacher finished speaking, he had already fallen to the top of the jade mountain, and suddenly fell under the wine table, holding the big fat leg of Bai Jasper is a wild kiss, looking at the people next to him was dumbfounded, and his eyes fell to the ground.

Therefore, as soon as he heard Shi Wenbo mention the Rui Beast Qilin today, he remembered what Teacher Yu said, and said in his heart that if it is really confirmed that the reticulated giraffe is the Qilin, then if you send this Rui Beast to Daming to pay tribute, you will not be able to become a national teacher, but you can also change some other conveniences, but you need to plan it well.

When Swenbo saw Huangshi, he asked, "Can you be sure?" "Of course I can be sure, let me tell you, until now, in the two countries of South Korea and Japan, their giraffes are still translated as unicorns." ”

He looked at Yellowstone as if he was still thinking, and then said, "Giraffes still use Kirin in Japanese, have you ever watched the Battle of Itachi in "Hokage", and when Sasuke says kirin, the subtitles are translated as Kirin?" ”