一切經音義 11.58

11.58

麒麟 (The first character is pronounced qí. The second character is pronounced lín. The Cang Jie pian says: "The male is called qí; the female is called lín." The Commentary on Birds, Beasts, Insects, and Fish in the Mao Poetry says: "The qílín is an auspicious beast. When a ruler possesses utmost benevolence, it appears. It has the body of a river deer (pronounced jūn), the tail of an ox, the feet of a horse, round hooves, yellow color, a single horn tipped with flesh, and harms no creature. Its cry accords with the bells and pitch-pipes, and its stride matches compass and carpenter's square. In wandering it must choose its ground, and settles only after deliberation. It treads on no living insect, and breaks no living grass. It does not live in herds, does not travel in pairs, falls into no pitfall, and is caught in no net." The Shuowen jiezi also says: "A benevolent beast. It has the body of an elk (pronounced méi), the tail of an ox, one horn, and is formed from [the semantic component] 鹿 (deer) with 其 as its phonetic component. The 𪊱 is the female qí; it is formed from 鹿 with 𠫤 as its phonetic component." In the sūtra text it is sometimes written with 馬 as 騏驎, which is not the same as this).