Chi Lin

[Dragonzbane76]

Morgantown.....who is your teacher...do you train in Kung Fu?

My teachers were Sifu McClain and Sifu McCullough. I currently have my own class I teach along with another member of this board at Fairmont ST. I teach Pai Lum/Judo/MMA/ all around stuff. Primary is Pai Lum which was my base style if you would call it that.

[Dragonzbane76]

MAS, MAS, MAS!

He said "iron dog"

Haha... good form reminded me of a hung ga form, but i wouldn't classify it as such. Many would be the furious hung ga if I stated it so. LOL

[ablinkin]

Dragonzbane76,

I didnt realize there was a kung fu scene in Morgantown, I am up there periodically, next time I will have to look up your school, if it is an open school?

[Dragonzbane76]

HAHA well you have to look for it.

Sure thing man give me a PM and work out the details. I'm not in morgantown exactly but yeah if your up this way come on over and have a work out.

[ablinkin]

rock on man, I will for sure!

our Kung Fu scene here is not so hot, we have 2 schools here.....
but we have about 200 TKD schools

[GeneChing]

Lair of King Tongmyong's Unicorn Reconfirmed in DPRK
Pyongyang, November 29 (KCNA) -- Archaeologists of the History Institute of the DPRK Academy of Social Sciences have recently reconfirmed a lair of the unicorn rode by King Tongmyong, founder of the Koguryo Kingdom (B.C. 277-A.D. 668).

The lair is located 200 meters from the Yongmyong Temple in Moran Hill in Pyongyang City. A rectangular rock carved with words "Unicorn Lair" stands in front of the lair. The carved words are believed to date back to the period of Koryo Kingdom (918-1392).

Jo Hui Sung, director of the Institute, told KCNA:

"Korea's history books deal with the unicorn, considered to be ridden by King Tongmyong, and its lair.

The Sogyong (Pyongyang) chapter of the old book 'Koryo History' (geographical book), said: Ulmil Pavilion is on the top of Mt. Kumsu, with Yongmyong Temple, one of Pyongyang's eight scenic spots, beneath it. The temple served as a relief palace for King Tongmyong, in which there is the lair of his unicorn.

The old book 'Sinjungdonggukyojisungnam' (Revised Handbook of Korean Geography) complied in the 16th century wrote that there is a lair west of Pubyok Pavilion in Mt. Kumsu.

The discovery of the unicorn lair, associated with legend about King Tongmyong, proves that Pyongyang was a capital city of Ancient Korea as well as Koguryo Kingdom."

Coincidentally, I'm running an article on Chinese unicorns in our next issue (not the Jan+Feb 2013, the Mar+Apr 2013). I am totally serious about this.

North Korea Has Found a Secret Unicorn Lair, Apparently
Alexander Abad-Santos 148,805 Views 8:44 AM ET

"Archaeologists of the History Institute of the DPRK Academy of Social Sciences have recently reconfirmed a lair of the unicorn rode by King Tongmyong, founder of the Koguryo Kingdom," reports the — wait. Stop. UNICORNS? That's an actual snippet from a report from the Korean Central News Agency, the state news agency of North Korea and fine, okay, we totally understand that this might be a retaliatory joke in response to China getting fooled by The Onion naming Kim Jong-un the Sexiest Man Alive or something.

But experts don't lie, do they?

Jo Hui Sung, director of the Institute, told KCNA:

"Korea's history books deal with the unicorn, considered to be ridden by King Tongmyong, and its lair.

And these are the history books Hoi Sung is talking about :

The Sogyong (Pyongyang) chapter of the old book 'Koryo History' (geographical book), said: Ulmil Pavilion is on the top of Mt. Kumsu, with Yongmyong Temple, one of Pyongyang's eight scenic spots, beneath it. The temple served as a relief palace for King Tongmyong, in which there is the lair of his unicorn.

And there's more. It's not like this is a National Enquirer/Bat Boy type of fleeting story. This one has significance It looks like North Korea is using the unicorn lair to prove a bigger point:

The discovery of the unicorn lair, associated with legend about King Tongmyong, proves that Pyongyang was a capital city of Ancient Korea as well as Koguryo Kingdom.

Taking into account that this is the same country with news agencies telling their people that mountains cry and birds lament when Kim Jong-il died and did so because he was sent down from the cosmos to destroy the Japanese to sink holes in one and that's totally normal, this isn't too far-fetched of a — you know what? I give up.

Note: As a commenter has pointed out, western ideas of a unicorn and Korean ideas of a unicorn are a bit different and a unicorn is called a Qilin in Korea. It's still a mythical creature. You can see the Qilin here.

[Kellen Bassette]

It is incredible how many diverse groups of ancient people came up with dragons and unicorns. I mean, could all these societies have had communication thousands of years ago?

Not just Asian cultures either, you'll find dragons and unicorns in books and artwork through the Himalayas, the Middle East, Europe, the Bible, ect... ect...
Do we all have the same imagination, or was it more...just saying...

[sanjuro_ronin]

It is incredible how many diverse groups of ancient people came up with dragons and unicorns. I mean, could all these societies have had communication thousands of years ago?

Not just Asian cultures either, you'll find dragons and unicorns in books and artwork through the Himalayas, the Middle East, Europe, the Bible, ect... ect...
Do we all have the same imagination, or was it more...just saying...

First off, what we name things may not be what things were.
Second, just because we don't have those things NOW< doesn't mean they never were.
3rd, things aren't always what they seem...

[Kellen Bassette]

How come everyone on the history channel nowadays seems like one of those characters??

[GeneChing]

Unicorn is definitely a mistranslation of Chilin (or Qilin 麒麟) which is a common mythological creature in Asian legend. I imagine Asians would have as much difficulty translating Chimeara.

As for this author, hasn't he ever been to a Japanese restaurant?

North Korea 'Secret Unicorn Lair' May Have Belonged To Beast With Dragon Head, Deer Body, Cow Tail (PHOTO)
Posted: 12/08/2012 11:59 am EST | Updated: 12/08/2012 12:06 pm EST

Was it a unicorn or something even more bizarre?

In a bizarre twist to the earlier claim that archeologists had found a secret unicorn lair in North Korea, new reports claim that the liar may not have been the stomping grounds of the legendary animal after all. Instead, the fabled resting place, located in Pyongyang, may have belonged to this mythical mishmash of a beast:

mythical north korean creature unicorn
(Courtesy: Gawker Media)

Citing a report on the International Business Times, Gizmodo's Jesus Diaz, who put the composite image of the strange animal together, writes:

[T]he magic unicorn was based on a "mistranslation" of the original study. The reality is that the unicorn lair was actually the nest of a "beast with a dragon's head, a deer's body, the tail of a cow, hooves and a mane."

I put together the illustration above so you can clearly picture this amazing beast. It's definitely not a unicorn.

The "magical" animal hideaway made headlines last month when a North Korean state news agency reported the bizarre news that archaeologists had found "the lair of a unicorn once ridden by an ancient Korean king."

According to an earlier Huffington Post report, Korean Central News Agency claimed that the "lair of the mythical creature is located 200 meters (about 219 yards) from the Yongmyong Temple in Pyongyang. A rock that sits in front of the lair contains carvings that some believe date back to the period of the Koryo Kingdom (918-1392)."

However, experts have since asserted that a mistranslation of the original Korean had likely led to the misuse of the word "unicorn" to describe the lair's former occupant.

Sixiang Wang, a Korean scholar, explained to i09 that "Kiringul," the name archeologists used to describe the lair, has nothing to do with unicorns.

James Grayson, emeritus professor of Korean studies at Sheffield University, told the Guardian that the confusion had centered on the translation of the word kirin or qilin, which he describes as "a four-legged beast with a dragon's head." Sukyeon Cho, a colleague of Grayson's, added that kirins have "the body of a deer, the tail of a cow, hooves and a mane, as well as a horn jutting out from the top of their heads."

Hmm.

[mawali]

It's an Asian Pegasus! How delightful!

[GeneChing]

See Qilin: Kung Fu's Other Martial Dance By Williy Pang (March/April 2013).

[lkfmdc]

well, ask the typical English speaker to describe / explain a Chimeara and see what happens....

[GeneChing]

I'll start with this little news item:

Genghis Khan versus the Unicorn
By Geoffrey Humble
Posted 29th March 2016, 9:54
The Mongol leader's encounter with a mystical beast marked him as a great leader, but says at least as much about his adviser.


Mirror stand in the shape of a unicorn. Chinese, 1100-1350

Mongol forces were poised to enter the territory of the Delhi Sultanate in northern India in 1224, after a long campaign against the forces of the Shah of Khwarazmshah in Transoxania and eastern Iran. After destroying the shah’s forces in the Punjab, however, Genghis Khan returned north, leaving the sultanate intact. The Persian historian Juzjani, writing from exile in Delhi, reported that a combination of climate, terrain and divination caused Genghis’ return. The latter may relate to an encounter, described in Chinese histories, between Genghis and a single-horned animal and its interpretation by the Khan’s adviser Yelü Chucai (1189-1243).

The encounter is recorded in two medieval biographies of Chucai, a scholar and official in Mongol service, which locate it near the Iron Gate Pass in ‘East India’ (the Buzgala Pass, in modern Uzbekistan). ‘Shaped like a deer [with] the tail of a horse, green in colour and with a single horn’, the animal could ‘speak like a human’ and addressed the imperial bodyguard, recommending: ‘Your lord should return early.’ Genghis turned to Chucai for an explanation and, on receiving it, followed the creature’s advice by withdrawing immediately.

Genghis had given Chucai the nickname Urtu Saqal (‘Longbeard’) at their first meeting. He had already spent six years in the Khan’s retinue, interpreting various portents – deep summer snow, a winter thunderstorm, a meteor – as omens of victory. Ordered to perform divination before every campaign, Chucai conducted scrying sessions at which his calculations were compared to Genghis’ own from scapulimancy (charring sheep’s shoulder blades and reading the cracks).

Chucai was descended from the Kitan Yelü family, which had ruled northern China and Inner Asia from 907 to 1125 as the Liao Dynasty. After its fall, his father and grandfather served the Jin Dynasty (1125-1234). Chucai received an education based on the Confucian canon, covering medicine, mathematics, astrology and music and got top marks in the civil service examination set by Jin emperor Zhangzong. After surviving the Mongol siege of Zhongdu (now Beijing) in 1214-15, he spent several years at a Buddhist retreat. He was among many Kitan aristocrats recruited by Genghis in the vital and fluid frontier between the plains of China and the Inner Asian steppe. Besides divination, Chucai governed former Jin territories conquered under Genghis, the second Great Khan Ögödei and Ögödei’s widow, Töregene, until his death in 1243.

Chucai drew on his education to identify the single-horned animal as a jueduan, a loan word related to Sanskrit khadga and Persian kargadān, ‘rhinoceros’. This fits modern scholars’ conclusions that this is an embroidered encounter with the Indian rhinoceros. Chucai’s explanation is less mundane; paraphrasing the Songshu, the history of the southern Chinese Liu Song Dynasty (420-79), he reported to Genghis:

Able to travel 18,000 li [6,000 miles] in a day, it understands the languages of the four yi [i.e., foreigners]; symbolizing the abhorrence of taking life, it must have been sent from Heaven Above to warn Your Majesty.
Chucai’s identification is selective. Chinese readers might know that the Songshu goes on to state that the jueduan appears at times of enlightened rule and would be expected to present the monarch with a message.

Chucai interpreted the jueduan and its message as meaning ‘return early’. Both biographies quote him telling Genghis that the animal brings him a message expressing divine will. Choosing to accept this confirms Genghis as a monarch worthy of receiving such a message and links heaven’s will to the protection of human life. Sitting uneasily alongside what we know of the Mongol conquest after 1224, Genghis’ obedient withdrawal seems an insufficient reaction to such a message. For readers of the encounter in the Yuanshi, the most important source on Mongol rule in China, the episode both confirms and questions the divine basis of Genghis’ authority.

As importantly, however, Chucai’s identification of the jueduan makes him a sage in a long Chinese intellectual tradition.

Beside the animals’ nature as messengers to rulers, accounts of such encounters, prominently with the ‘Chinese unicorn’ qilin (Japanese kirin, hence the beer), similarly associated with royal status, emphasise those who recognise and name them. Chucai is thus linked to Confucius himself, who reportedly identified a qilin from eyewitness descriptions in 481 bc. It is also significant that, whether or not Genghis is a monarch worthy of messages from heaven, Chucai is clearly essential to his understanding of those messages. Chucai’s sagehood is, it seems, far more secure than Genghis’ empire, and the appearance of the jueduan – rhino or unicorn – is no simple event, but a tale making Yelü Chucai more than equal to his warlike rulers.

Geoffrey Humble is a PhD student at the University of Birmingham, researching imperial Mongol historiography.

[GeneChing]

Giant Siberian unicorn may have existed at the same time as humans, fossil find hints
MICHAEL GRAHAM RICHARD
March 28, 2016, 2:21 p.m.


A painting from the 1920s by Heinrich Harder showing what the Siberian unicorn might have looked like. (Photo: /Wikimedia Commons)

The discovery of a fossilized skull in Kazakhstan is making paleontologists rewrite the timeline of the Siberian unicorn, Elasmotherium sibiricum. This impressive animal was a real-life unicorn, though it didn’t match the image most of us have for the fairytale creature.

Closer to a rhino than a horse in appearance, it was similar in stature to the mammoth. Measuring up to 6.5 feet tall and almost 15 feet long, it weighed up to 9,000 pounds. Its most recognizable feature was its single horn, which is thought to have been much longer than a rhino’s, up to multiple feet long. Its habitat was the vast territory from the Don River in Russia to east of modern Kazakhstan.

Here's a reconstructed Siberian unicorn skull at the London Natural History Museum. Note how sword-like the horn is, very different from the horn of a modern rhino.


A Siberian unicorn's reconstructed skull and horn. (Photo: Ghedoghedo/Wikipedia)

The Siberian unicorn, which first emerged in the fossil record around 2.5 million years ago, was thought to have disappeared 350,000 years ago. But the discovery made by researchers from Tomsk State University in Siberia, Russia, seems to show that E. sibiricum might have stuck around much longer. In fact, the beast and humans might have met, since our ancestors began spreading across Asia more than 50,000 years ago and likely went to Siberia around 35,000 years ago.

The well-preserved skull found in the Pavlodar Priirtysh region of northeast Kazakhstan was dated using the radiocarbon Accelerator Mass Spectrometry method and found to be about 29,000 years old. "Most likely, it was a very large male of very large individual age. The dimensions of this rhino are the biggest of those described in the literature, and the proportions are typical," Andrey Shpanski, a paleontologist at Tomsk State University, said in Phys.org. These findings are described in the American Journal of Applied Science.

It’s not yet clear why a Siberian unicorn was alive so long after the rest of the species was thought to be extinct, but scientists have some theories: "Most likely, the south of Western Siberia was a refúgium, where this rhino persevered the longest in comparison with the rest of its range. There is another possibility that it could migrate and dwell for a while in the more southern areas," said Shpanski.


This is the first published restoration of Elasmotherium sibiricum. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)


Michael Graham Richard ( @Michael_GR ) Michael writes for MNN and TreeHugger about science, space and technology and more.

The unicorn/chi lin translation never quite worked for me. Just like the dragon/long translation, these mythical creatures aren't quite analogous, neither in their appearance nor their symbolism.