Talk:Qilin

message: Where does the spelling "ki'lin" come from?  All other spellings is associated with which dialog it comes from except this one.  Is it WG?  I'd prefer the pinyin spelling.  I am surprised that most mysterous spelling becomes the default spelling throughout the whole article.  Kowloonese 02:24, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  spelling 

message: The Qilin is not "spelled" as Sabitun Sabintu, Hariharipo Hariharimo, Билигтэй Бэлэгтэй Гөрөөс, Kỳ lân, or Ki len. It is "called" those names in other languages. It is almost invariably called "Qilin", "Kirin" or "Kylin" in English.
This is the English wikipedia. Users who are interested in finding out its translation in world languages can click on the interwiki.
As a compromise, I have preserved the list of foreign language names for you. --PalaceGuard008 04:14, 31 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: emm,Kỳ lân, or Ki len seems not to be able to be distinguished from Kylin, Keilun , or Kirin.BTW,I really appreciate your username.--Ksyrie 07:14, 31 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  To User:Ksyrie re other languages 

message: :Image:KirinGW.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.
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BetacommandBot 21:28, 6 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Fair use rationale for Image:KirinGW.jpg

message: This image appears to be a Lion Dog or Fu Dog/Chinese lion and not a Qilin.  Fus are usually shown in pairs where when facing them the right flanking one has a ball under its left front paw and the left flanking one has a boar under its right front paw.  This image is that of the right flanking Fu.  Qilin, even in its most basic depiction, have three characteristics: horns like a deer, mane like a horse and body like a cow... and this Porcelain figurine have none. CJLippert (talk) 14:42, 16 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Image:DD-Dehua-Qilin.JPG not a Qilin

message: An interesting example of a stone engraving shows the azure dragon, red bird woodpecker, and Mythic Qilin or kirin was discovered nearby Cahokia Mounds in Wickes, Missouri, USA. This interesting artifact is pictured here: http://www.freewebs.com/historyofmonksmound. I suggest adding a piece in the ancient cultures area about the Native American symbolism of the Qilin. This appears to be one of the only examples of the four guardians of the cardinal directions. Any suggestions? Marburg72 (talk) 02:05, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: American Indian use of the Kirin or Qilin

message: I'm removing some. Just having the same name isn't enough, for instance, that could be just a coincidence and isn't meaningful. Dougweller (talk) 11:11, 17 April 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Contemporary media references 

message: :However, the Chinese characters of Qilin  and  both carry the Chinese "deer" radical , suggesting that they were conceived of as a deer like animal, or perhaps a kind of antelope.
I have removed this unsourced sentence from the Origins section of the article, for the following reasons:
*As the lede states, the characters in qilin can also be written with the "horse" radical 馬 (maybe a more recent, less traditional variant, but this would have to be addressed, and sourced).
*The giraffe is also "conceived of as a deer-like animal" in Chinese, in fact even more explicitly than the qilin. The word for "giraffe", 长颈鹿, means "long-necked deer".
CapnPrep (talk) 07:05, 6 August 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Problematic character analysis "Qilin 麒 and 麟 both carry the Chinese "deer" radical 鹿" 

message: I noticed that the article doesn't include the Kirin from Guild Wars: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Kirin 98.157.215.93 (talk) 05:56, 7 March 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Can you provide sources that explain why Suicune is notable enough to be mentioned here?--Mr Fink (talk) 23:43, 11 February 2016 (UTC)

text: Suicune's crest resembles the kirin's one horn, it has a deer-like physique like the kirin does, and it can walk on water just like the kirin can.Rth1991 (talk) 21:25, 3 March 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: A description of the pokemon is not a source that describes its notability.  Please provide a reliable source that explains its notability.--Mr Fink (talk) 21:42, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

text: What does notability have to do with anything?Rth1991 (talk) 23:01, 3 March 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: Did you try reading the links I provided?  Simply because something looks like a qilin doesn't necessarily mean it should be mentioned in the page, especially since not everyone knows or cares what Pokemon are, and Wikipedia pages should not be or contain long, laundrylist-like lists of trivial appearances.  That, and I've asked you twice for sources about Suicune.--Mr Fink (talk) 23:20, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

text: Here's an image. http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/5/57/245Suicune_GS.pngRth1991 (talk) 18:11, 4 March 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: How does a picture explain why it's notable enough?  Did you even try to read the links I showed you?--Mr Fink (talk) 18:23, 4 March 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: Can't you just take my word?Rth1991 (talk) 18:51, 4 March 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: No, because you can not explain the notability of a pokemon monster, because you can not be bothered to provide sources explaining the importance of that pokemon monster to the topic of qilins, and because you apparently have no desire or ability to click on explanatory links.  I mean, if you can not be bothered to explain why anyone should take your word in the place, why should you be surprised if no one will bother to take it?--Mr Fink (talk) 20:55, 4 March 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  In games 

message: The theory that qilin derives from the Somali word geri was proposed by Gabriel Ferrand in "Le nom de la giraffe dans le Ying yai cheng lan" in "Journal Asiatique" (July-August 1918) pp.155-158, and has been widely repeated; but the theory was refuted by Berthold Laufer in his "The Giraffe in History and Art" (1928) pp.98-99, where he says: "This ingenious supposition is not entirely convincing for several reasons. First, a direct contact of the Chinese with the Somali is unproved. Second, the old Chinese pronunciation gi-lin holds good only for the T'ang period, not for the fifteenth century when the Chinese actually made the acquaintance of the giraffe and when the word was articulated k'i-lin as at present. Third, the name k'i-lin was applied to the animal in China when it arrived there as early as 1414, the Chinese naturally believing that it virtually was the k'i-lin of their ancient lore. Ferrand insists that Ma Huan heard the Somali word giri at Aden, but Ma Huan himself did not visit Aden; his account of Aden is based on the report of the eunuch Li who was at Aden in 1422, but at least eight years earlier the giraffe was designated k'i-lin on Chinese soil. For these reasons the Somali hypothesis appears to me unnecessary. The question is merely of an adaptation of an old name to a novel animal, not of an attempt at transcribing a foreign word."  Clearly the Chinese word "qilin", which dates back to the mid 1st millenium BCE could not have been derived from a Somali word 2,000 years before there was contact between China and Africa, and the most one could say is that the similarity of the Somali word geri with the Chinese word qilin was a reason why the Chinese called the giraffe a qilin.  This is a far cry from claiming that "The word Qilin is derived from the Somali word Geri, which means Giraffe." BabelStone (talk) 20:39, 4 December 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Incidentally, a foreign name for the giraffe was brought to China by Zheng He's mariners, but it was zulafa (祖剌法), from Arabic زرافة zarafah - which perhaps is ultimately derived from the Somalian word. (See e.g.  郑和下西洋与麒麟贡). -- Vmenkov (talk) 21:25, 4 December 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Etymology of the word qilin 

message: How did this article get connected to Cryptozoology? I don't see any text (possibly removed?) suggesting that this was anything but a mythical beast.
Kortoso (talk) 00:34, 8 December 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: At some point a reference was added saying "after they disappeared from the wild". There is no evidence to suggest that anyone seriously thinks they were real creatures, so I have removed that half hearted attempt to make them sound like real world animals. --62.189.73.197 (talk) 13:57, 4 December 2015 (UTC)
thread_title: How did this article get connected to Cryptozoology?

message: Is there a source for the paragraph about unicorn being a mistranslation for qilin?  At the moment it reads like some wiki editor's own interpretation and not an academic opinion.  獨角獸 seems to be a modern Chinese word translated from English or other European languages, and I don't think there is such a thing as unicorn in old Chinese text, so it is a bit odd to say that there is an actual word in Chinese for unicorn, given that Chinese won't want to confuse unicorn and qilin and they obviously won't use the same word as qilin, therefore the "actual word" is actually a word from the West.  The use of unicorn as a translation for qilin appears to be a Western approximation of the mythical creature so that a Western reader can easily understand an alien concept from another culture. That happens very often, while you can say that it is not entirely accurate, that doesn't make it a mistranslation. Hzh (talk) 14:41, 12 February 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Unicorn, 獨角獸:  Is there a source for a "mistranslation" for qilin? 

message: Just the standard mandarin pronunciation should suffice?
If you want to add the cantonese version, then why not add the versions for other chinese dialects?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 219.92.61.229 (talk) 10:08, 3 April 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Why bother adding the cantonese pronunciation for Qilin?  

message: The Japanese name needs to also be given in Japanese script, and both this and the Thai name (native and romanized) should be in the lead as alternative names.  In English, by far the most common name for this topic is kirin, not qilin, due to its use in branding of a popular Japanese beer, its appearance in the Dungeons & Dragons game as the kirin, etc.  — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ ≽ʌⱷ҅ᴥⱷʌ≼  03:27, 13 June 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: "Qilin" refers to the Chinese mythical beast, whereas "kirin" refers to the Japanese name for the beast, hence the article being named "Qilin."--Mr Fink (talk) 04:57, 13 June 2016 (UTC)
replies: text:  They are the same thing, therefore both names should be given.  The person who removed Kirin is wrong as alternate name is normally given in the lead so that people who come to the article would know that they have come to the right article. Hzh (talk) 17:02, 26 March 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: You are wrong! You don't put a bunch of other foreign variants in the introduction of an article just because it's popular elsewhere. The Qílín is undoubtedly older since the Japanese language didn't even had final N before Chinese influence. How the myth of the Qílín spread to other countries can be included in main part. Beer brands and pop culture due to desperate otakus don't change anything. --88.67.115.83 (talk) 23:32, 23 August 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: No, with all due respect, you are the one who is wrong. Despite the origin of the creature, it is believed in by more than one culture. Therefore, it is  stylistically acceptable to be presented in the lede of the article. To  be eligible for nomination as a "good article" in the future, it may even be necessary.  Something culturally relevant to more than one nation shouldn't be exclusively hoarded by China. That also means it should mention the languages other than Japanese. Persistent Corvid (talk) 23:10, 31 March 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Alternative names 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: It's based on a Qing era art of a Qilin, and its edited from the Qing dynasty's flag of China, made in 2021 (going by file history) instead of being from that era.
Maybe the caption should be changed to something like "Qilin based on Qing era depictions"
Dromeoraptor (talk) 20:25, 30 October 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: My suggestion is, "Modern recreation of a Qing era depiction of the qilin". CentreLeftRight ✉ 20:45, 30 October 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Qing era depiction of a qilin" isn't from Qing era 

message: I hacked away a lot of unreferenced material today, and have removed the tag. Springnuts (talk) 10:52, 11 August 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Cleaned up by removing OR 

message: — Assignment last updated by Softballdad (talk) 17:26, 4 October 2022 (UTC)
thread_title: Wiki Education assignment: HUM 202 - Introduction to Mythology