Mythic beast

A piece of hetian jade with flaws has been largely stained with brownish areasthat contrast strongly with the remaining green areas in a carving of a mythic creature. The single-horned winged beast lies with its feet tucked under it and its head slightly raised. The creature is depicted in realistic detail. Its open mouth reveals teeth and tongue, and its big eyes have bulging pupils. The nose resembles a fungus head (ruyi), and the body is rounded. The tail splits into two spirals that curl up onto the beast's back. The claws are carefully finished. Extremely refined striations, especially those in short, parallel lines, precisely define the mane, wings, and tail hair.

The beast is identified as either a kilin (qilin or a tianlu. The tianlu image—with a deer head but without wings, as illustrated in a Qing period book—seems to follow the description of both tianlu and bixie in Han books, which refer to a beast with a deerlike, elongated body (Liang Shizheng [1700–1800] 1965, vol. 6, chap. 38, p. 37). If that was an accurate image of Han tianlu, then modern identifications of winged beasts with the heads of lions or dragons as tianlu and bixie are incorrect.