Qilin wall

"Kirin wall" stands on the northeast side of the West Tower of Kaiyuan Temple, which was originally placed in the city of Peking University in Town God's Temple before the relocation of Kaiyuan Temple during the cultural revolution. In the era of "smashing everything", it is lucky that this stone wall can escape a disaster. According to historical records, Qilin wall was built in 1741, which has a history of more than 270 years. The wall is 5 meters high, 19 meters wide and 0.6 meters thick. The wall is divided into three stacks: in the middle of the main body, there is a huge Unicorn inlaid with Jiaozhi pottery, which is one of the four spirits worshipped by the ancients. Dragon head, ox tail, Lin body, animal hoof, looking back step by step, mouth biting copper coin, big eyes staring at the coin like sun, with embedded brick Yuanbao, Ruyi and other mascots. On the left and right, there are two stacks of Lingzhi, peony, deer, crane, lotus, coral, feather fan, rhinoceros horn, gourd, hummingmonkey (Marquis), pine, bamboo, plum, etc. with exquisite craftsmanship and full of charm.

In fact, the animals on "Qilin wall" are not Qilin. Literature and history experts believe that it is a kind of animal called "dog greedy" (sound: Tan). According to folklore, dogs are greedy. They not only eat the flowers and trees on Mount Guangshan, but also plunder gold and silver. One day, it saw a red sun rising in the East China Sea, thought it was a big treasure, rushed to swallow the sun, and fell into the sea and drowned. As the saying goes, "a snake swallows an elephant for lack of human heart", I can't imagine that there are such ambitious and greedy guys in the animal world as "dog greedy", which is quite like the decapitated corrupt officials who swallow more than 100 million yuan.

Address: Kaiyuan Temple, West Street, Quanzhou

Longitude: 118.585005

Latitude: 24.914114