azdak

In a totally unexpected moment of fandom collision, I have just learned from John Finnemore’s substack post on Pictures of Giraffes in Order of How Sure I Am the Artist Has Ever Seen a Giraffe* that in Chinese mythology the mythical qilin is said to appear at - get this, NiF fans - the start of the reign of a “wise, auspicious and legitimate emperor.”** No wonder Prince Yu and the Crown Prince were falling over each other to get to Langya Hall first. And who topped the Langya List of Marketing Directors that year, I wonder?

*Unfortunately, I am not a subscriber, so I didn't get to see more than the Pictures By an Artist John Finnemore is Fairly Sure Has Seen a Giraffe (Even If a Few Details Are Slightly Off), but the commentary was still so funny I had to take myself off into another room so I could have hysterics in peace.

**Obviously this reference goes even more right over your head if the subs you are watching choose to translate "qilin*** talent" as Divine Talent.

***The qilin, as I learned from John Finnemore, is a "horse-dragon with fish scales" that looks a tiny bit like a giraffe if you squint hard. Which means that, amazingly, a vampire yeti is not the silliest creature in Mei Changsu's portfolio.




“Tell me honestly, do you like it? Or should I go back to spots?

"The giraffe Shen Du definitely saw was the giraffe sent to the Yongle Emperor of the Ming dynasty early in the fifteenth century.

"But, you might ask, if Shen Du definitely saw that giraffe, why did he give it overlapping hexagons instead of patches and spots? Well, who can say. Of course, if a giraffe did have overlapping hexagons, like a fish’s scales, then that would make it even more certain that it was not in fact a giraffe at all, but a qilin, the legendary Chinese horse-dragon with fish scales that appears at the start of the reign of a wise, auspicious and legitimate ruler. Kind of like how the Yongle Emperor, who has just now started ruling, is wise and auspicious and very legitimate indeed, and it’s a real shame about his elder brother being caught in that palace fire, and the Yongle Emperor is very cut up about that, actually, and only wishes he'd known his brother was in the palace when he set light to it. But he didn’t know that, as the prompt appearance at court of this approving qilin makes clear, so let’s all stop talking about it, shall we?" (John Finnemore)