Kwoh, in his preface, proves the Lin to have a Kiun’s body.
The ’Rh Ya gives the drawing of a unicorn animal called the Ki; but no reference to the horn is given in the text, which simply describes it as a large Kiun with a yak’s tail and dog’s feet.
Fig. 81.—The Ki.
The Ki is not defined in the ’Rh Ya, and the only information I have as to it is derived from Williams’ dictionary, where it is stated to be “a fabulous auspicious animal, which appears when sages are born; the male of the Chinese unicorn. It is drawn like a piebald scaly horse, with one horn and a cow’s tail, and may have had a living original in some extinct equine animal.” But there is a very full account of an animal called the King. It is not impossible that it is identical with the King which, in the usual brief style of the original text of the ’Rh Ya, is epitomised as a large Biao (a kind of stag), with an ox’s tail and one horn; and the several commentaries on it are as follows:—
“In the time of the Emperor Wu, of the Han dynasty, during the worship of heaven and earth at the solstices at Yung, there was captured a unicorn beast like a Piao; it was at that time designated the Lin; it was, however, a Piao related to the Chang (a kind of deer).”
Fig. 82.—The King. (From the ’Rh Ya.)
The Shwoh Wan says: “The King is a large stag with an ox’s tail and one horn.” It may be a large form of the Piao. The Wang Hwu Analects say that the Piao is an object of the chase, and that it is as swift as a stag.
Kwan Tsz, in the Ti Yuen volume, says that as there are Mi and Piao and many species of deer, so also the Piao is a species of deer.