一切經音義 14.194

14.194

麒麐（上渠宜反下力陳反蒼頡篇云牝曰麒壯曰[塵-土+(土/(八@(戉-戈)))]說文仁獸也[塵-土+(土/(八@(戉-戈)))]身牛尾一角經意比喻一角經文中二字並從馬作騏驎甚非也乃是班驪馬也今俗呼為連錢𩣭殊非瑞獸也書寫之類不達本字妄作誤用耳從鹿從吝正也）。

Qilin (qilin 麒麐: the first character is [pronounced with the] fanqie qu-yi 渠宜; the second is [pronounced with the] fanqie li-chen 力陳. The Cang Jie pian says: “The female is called qi 麒; the male is called lin [塵-土+(土/(八@(戉-戈)))].” The Shuowen says: “A benevolent beast; with a body like a lin [塵-土+(土/(八@(戉-戈)))], an ox's tail, and a single horn.” The intention of the sūtra is to metaphorically refer to a single horn. In the sūtra text, both characters are written with the 'horse' (ma 馬) classifier as 騏驎, which is extremely incorrect; that refers to a piebald horse, commonly called a coin-dappled horse today, and is by no means an auspicious beast! Scribes do not understand the original characters and rashly write them in error. Composed of 'deer' (lu 鹿) with lin 吝 as phonetic is the correct form).