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Description
* EDIT 2013 NOTE: There are a some discrepancies about which character is male, and which is female. In the previous Century, much of my source materials for information were based on books written in English which based research NOT on primary sources, but sources which were secondary, or several generation translations removed, from dialects, to other languages, much of which was incorrect. However, when I lived in China, in THIS Century, my father in-law was the one whom did extensive research into special libraries in Taiyuan China, with access to ancient restricted actual physical texts. Since he is/was very well read on this subject & knowledge, and counts as a more legitimate source, I based the findings on his research which he wrote & reported to me. Since his passing many other texts throughout China have become more accessible (online) and have found a number of variations in dynasties about such subjects as this. So, it is entirely possible that there will be varying interpretations of this subject, even regarding the characters as to which one is male, and which is female. A more recently known discrepancy would be of which particular gods are considered the "9 sons of the dragon" or the actual origins of Guanyin, Zhong Kui, and Mazhu which appear to have multiple traceable sources, and many have combined over time, and changed over various dynasties & religious or cultural periods.

PLEASE Take care to read through the entire material, or else you'll miss the point because you've learned wrong, or incompletely learned.

The Point of this Tutorial:

* To learn and understand the Chinese characters for Qilin.
* To learn it simply, without getting overwhelmed, nor feeling it's over your head.

****************************

Understanding the Basics of the Chinese Characters for "Qilin"

INTRO:

I've written it many times in nearly all of my Qilin artwork descriptions published in my gallery here.

However, I find that the information is (well... let's face it...) over everyone's heads!

This is understandable, because Chinese characters and/or calligraphy are both a science and an artform, and it involves the cultural thinking and philosophies of it's ancient roots.

So, being merely told, it's this or that, won't help a Westerner to comprehend it. It needs to be explained through a process, in which to help the Western Observer to "get it".

In order to understand the Easterners' way, we must go their way... however, we can't, because it feels backwards to us.

(Sounds like Chinese Sage babble? Are you lost? Don't feel bad...)

So, being that I have some knowledge of this subject, I will go about explaining it the Western way, which we would call our "logical" way.

*****************************

Explaining the written Chinese words: 麒麟

* Let's take for example, the Wikipedia Page on Qilin 麒麟: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qilin

On the page they mention this:

"the Chinese word 麒 and 麟 both carry Chinese radical 鹿"

This statement here is packed with information... However, it's just soaring over all of your heads!

Let me expalin what you guys are probably looking at right now:

If you've read this far, you're probably sitting there looking at this screen, and seeing 3 tiny Chinese characters...
You might think: "Oh, that's nice."

But, to be honest... What does that mean to you?

Chances are, these 3 words don't mean anything to you. It's just some pretty looking Chinese words...

You've probably never studied Chinese, and whatever meaning this has is far beyond you.

Well... don't feel bad... You and everyone else is probably thinking & feeling the same thing.

So, what is it we're not seeing?

* Well, 1st of all, you probably don't understand the significance of the word for "deer" which is written as: 鹿

If you look at my illustrations, you can see how I've written out this word: 鹿
(yeah, it's too tiny in text, so look at the drawings)

* Notice at the bottom of the character 鹿 (deer) you can see it's drawn as 2 antlers... thus it's a pictorial word for "deer".

* The word 麒 (Qi) & 麟 (Lin) are actually written with this word 鹿 (deer) in the left hand 1/2 side of each character.

麒 is the word for "Qi" which is the female (yin) word.
麟 is the word for "Lin" which is the male (yang) word.

* Put them together, and you have "麒麟" .

How to tell the Male "Lin" word from the Female "Qi" word.

* 麟 The word "Lin" (Male) had the word "rice" 米 in the upper right hand corner.

***************************

So, as you can see, this is what is meant by 鹿 (deer) being in each character. Each left hand side has this word in them.
(BTW 鹿 is written as "Lu" in Chinese)

So, that's what it means!

***************************

NOTES For 麒麟 :

This word ( 麒麟 ) is ONLY for this god. NO other animal has this name, with these characters!

* HOWEVER: During the Ming Dynasty, China sent Admiral Zheng He on an expedition around the Seas of Asia to spread the "greatness" of (Ming) Chinese culture.
While on his expedition, he traveled to Africa and captured 2 giraffes and brought them back to China, thinking they were Qilin!

* In Japan, they still might think this beast is a Qilin, and they might still use the characters for this beast which are actually meant for the Qilin.
However, in Chinese in modern time, they do not use these characters for the word giraffe. They call a giraffe a "Chang Jing Lu", meaning a kind of deer.

*****************************

* Final NOTE:

I realize my Chinese characters probably aren;t the best in the world... I've only been practicing this word for about 3/4 of a year... it's 1 of the most difficult ones to write.

My Photoshop version doesn't let me use Chinese characters. So, I could only import screen captures of texts from the internet or word processors.

Anyways, the point was to understand... not to be a perfect calligrapher... which takes decades to master... and I drew it on my computer... which stinx for hand writing anyways...

* The clip art of the Qilin is a real Clip art from a Graphic Art/Design book from China. I acquired the copies from my Brother-in-law in Taiyuan (China).
It's based on Ancient Chinese designs, and is royalty free. Hey! It's clip art! Need I say more?

We're still learning, so expect changes in the fiture, and more tutorials of this nature...
I would also like to make a video.

If you have any information to contribute, please do.

There is actually much more information to present... however, I don't want to do it all at once, and overwhelm the readers.

Thank you!

Description
* EDIT 2013 NOTE: There are a some discrepancies about which character is male, and which is female. In the previous Century, much of my source materials for information were based on books written in English which based research NOT on primary sources, but sources which were secondary, or several generation translations removed, from dialects, to other languages, much of which was incorrect. However, when I lived in China, in THIS Century, my father in-law was the one whom did extensive research into special libraries in Taiyuan China, with access to ancient restricted actual physical texts. Since he is/was very well read on this subject & knowledge, and counts as a more legitimate source, I based the findings on his research which he wrote & reported to me. Since his passing many other texts throughout China have become more accessible (online) and have found a number of variations in dynasties about such subjects as this. So, it is entirely possible that there will be varying interpretations of this subject, even regarding the characters as to which one is male, and which is female. A more recently known discrepancy would be of which particular gods are considered the "9 sons of the dragon" or the actual origins of Guanyin, Zhong Kui, and Mazhu which appear to have multiple traceable sources, and many have combined over time, and changed over various dynasties & religious or cultural periods.

PLEASE Take care to read through the entire material, or else you'll miss the point because you've learned wrong, or incompletely learned.

The Point of this Tutorial:

* To learn and understand the Chinese characters for Qilin.
* To learn it simply, without getting overwhelmed, nor feeling it's over your head.

****************************

Understanding the Basics of the Chinese Characters for "Qilin"

INTRO:

I've written it many times in nearly all of my Qilin artwork descriptions published in my gallery here.

However, I find that the information is (well... let's face it...) over everyone's heads!

This is understandable, because Chinese characters and/or calligraphy are both a science and an artform, and it involves the cultural thinking and philosophies of it's ancient roots.

So, being merely told, it's this or that, won't help a Westerner to comprehend it. It needs to be explained through a process, in which to help the Western Observer to "get it".

In order to understand the Easterners' way, we must go their way... however, we can't, because it feels backwards to us.

(Sounds like Chinese Sage babble? Are you lost? Don't feel bad...)

So, being that I have some knowledge of this subject, I will go about explaining it the Western way, which we would call our "logical" way.

*****************************

Explaining the written Chinese words: 麒麟

* Let's take for example, the Wikipedia Page on Qilin 麒麟: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qilin

On the page they mention this:

"the Chinese word 麒 and 麟 both carry Chinese radical 鹿"

This statement here is packed with information... However, it's just soaring over all of your heads!

Let me expalin what you guys are probably looking at right now:

If you've read this far, you're probably sitting there looking at this screen, and seeing 3 tiny Chinese characters...
You might think: "Oh, that's nice."

But, to be honest... What does that mean to you?

Chances are, these 3 words don't mean anything to you. It's just some pretty looking Chinese words...

You've probably never studied Chinese, and whatever meaning this has is far beyond you.

Well... don't feel bad... You and everyone else is probably thinking & feeling the same thing.

So, what is it we're not seeing?

* Well, 1st of all, you probably don't understand the significance of the word for "deer" which is written as: 鹿

If you look at my illustrations, you can see how I've written out this word: 鹿
(yeah, it's too tiny in text, so look at the drawings)

* Notice at the bottom of the character 鹿 (deer) you can see it's drawn as 2 antlers... thus it's a pictorial word for "deer".

* The word 麒 (Qi) & 麟 (Lin) are actually written with this word 鹿 (deer) in the left hand 1/2 side of each character.

麒 is the word for "Qi" which is the female (yin) word.
麟 is the word for "Lin" which is the male (yang) word.

* Put them together, and you have "麒麟" .

How to tell the Male "Lin" word from the Female "Qi" word.

* 麟 The word "Lin" (Male) had the word "rice" 米 in the upper right hand corner.

***************************

So, as you can see, this is what is meant by 鹿 (deer) being in each character. Each left hand side has this word in them.
(BTW 鹿 is written as "Lu" in Chinese)

So, that's what it means!

***************************

NOTES For 麒麟 :

This word ( 麒麟 ) is ONLY for this god. NO other animal has this name, with these characters!

* HOWEVER: During the Ming Dynasty, China sent Admiral Zheng He on an expedition around the Seas of Asia to spread the "greatness" of (Ming) Chinese culture.
While on his expedition, he traveled to Africa and captured 2 giraffes and brought them back to China, thinking they were Qilin!

* In Japan, they still might think this beast is a Qilin, and they might still use the characters for this beast which are actually meant for the Qilin.
However, in Chinese in modern time, they do not use these characters for the word giraffe. They call a giraffe a "Chang Jing Lu", meaning a kind of deer.

*****************************

* Final NOTE:

I realize my Chinese characters probably aren;t the best in the world... I've only been practicing this word for about 3/4 of a year... it's 1 of the most difficult ones to write.

My Photoshop version doesn't let me use Chinese characters. So, I could only import screen captures of texts from the internet or word processors.

Anyways, the point was to understand... not to be a perfect calligrapher... which takes decades to master... and I drew it on my computer... which stinx for hand writing anyways...

* The clip art of the Qilin is a real Clip art from a Graphic Art/Design book from China. I acquired the copies from my Brother-in-law in Taiyuan (China).
It's based on Ancient Chinese designs, and is royalty free. Hey! It's clip art! Need I say more?

We're still learning, so expect changes in the fiture, and more tutorials of this nature...
I would also like to make a video.

If you have any information to contribute, please do.

There is actually much more information to present... however, I don't want to do it all at once, and overwhelm the readers.

Thank you!