On Snowybeagle's request, here is a translation of some online information about the Pixiu.

貔貅(拼音：pí xiū)又名天禄、辟邪。是中国古代神话传说中的一种神兽，龙头、马身、麟脚，形状似狮子，毛色灰白，会飞。貔貅凶猛威武，喜吸食魔怪的精血，并转化为财富，它在天上负责的巡视工作，阻止妖魔鬼怪、瘟疫疾病扰乱天庭。也有一种说法它是龙的第九个儿子。

古时候人们常也用貔貅来作为军队的称呼。传说貔貅触犯天条，玉皇大帝罚他只以四面八方之财为食，吞万物而不泻，可招财聚宝，只进不出，神通特异。现在很多中国人配戴貔貅的玉制品正因如此。
(from http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:%E4%...%8B%95%E7%89%A9 )

The Pixiu is also known as the Tianlu (Heavenly Salary) and Bixie (Wards off Evil). It is a magical beast in ancient Chinese mythology with a dragon's head, a horse's body, a qilin's feet, and the overall shape of a lion. Its fur is greyish-white, and it can fly. The Pixiu is fierce and a good fighter, and likes sucking the blood or essence of demons and converting it into wealth. It is tasked with patrolling the heavens and stopping demons and diseases from causing chaos. One version of the legend identifies the Pixiu as the 9th son of the Dragon.

In ancient times, 'the Pixiu' was also used as a synonym for an army (because of its ferocity). One legend does that the Pixiu broke one of the rules of Heaven, and was punished by the Jade Emperor by restricting its food to the wealth all around the world. It could swallow wealth without ever having to defecate. This ability to gain wealth without letting it out was auspicious enough for many Chinese to use jade carvings of the Pixiu as ornaments even today.

Typical representations of the Pixiu:





Do any of you have a Pixiu carving somewhere in your home?

Thanks Yun.

I found more pictures from the site 貔貅的图片

玉石貔貅的图片 - Jade Pixiu


铜制貔貅的图片 - Bronze Pixiu


石雕貔貅的图片 - Stone Pixiu

Perhaps I'm not as familiar with Chinese mythological creatures as I thought - I can't tell from the pictures alone that all the above are supposed to be the pixiu and not different creatures or other beasts.


貔貅的传说 at www.cartoonwin.com has a thread in Chinese for the legend of the creature.
Like Feng-Huang (凤凰) and QíLín/kirin (麒麟), the term pí 貔 refer to the male of the species and xiū 貅 refers to the female.


In ancient times, two species of this creature was thought to exist, one with a single horn, the other with two horns.
The single-horned was called tiān lù (天禄).
The double-horned was called pìxié or bìxié (辟邪).
Yun gave the meanings of both terms in the post above.

The appearance of píxiū was mentioned in the Book of Han (汉书) on the section of Accounts of the Western Regions (西域传). In the country of Wū Gē Shān Lí there exist a creature called táo bá (桃拔), lion (狮子) and Rhinoceros (I assume the word was supposed to be 犀牛, not 尿牛.)

An annotation made by by Mèng Kāng indicated táo bá to be a creature like deer with a long tail, those with one-horn called tiān lù, those with two horns called bìxié, thus equating the creature to píxiū.

The description of its appearance evolved through the dynasties until it settled on short wings, two horns, coiling tail, with manes connected to either the chest or the spine, protruding eyes and long menacing fangs.

Many depiction of the creature today gave it a single horn and a long tail.


In ancient times, the pixiu was also used as tomb guardians, and sometimes in residential homes to ward off against evil. Nowadays, it could still be found in Chinese companies, or mahjong parlours (found in HK, and I think, Taiwan).

So the Lions used in fengshui placements are also considered Pixius?

Edit: find out they are hmm should have checked wiki first

Yes i have a pair of jade ones.. the very dark majestic green kind..

The white jade pixiu that snowybeagle posted up are very very nice! Wish i own a pair of those.. Great information, Thanks!.

Strangely, some of the figurines of the pixiu did not have any horns.
How are others supposed to know they are pixius?

Ideas anyone?

Moon, are you able to post pictures of your pixius?

Ok i will try to but must give me some time because i have to ask my husband to download the pictures here (i dont know how to do it)..

i know mine are definitely pixius because the chinese characters 貔貅 in gold are engraved on the front base. i dont remember there are horns too but they have wings though.

I think there is something uniquely chinese and awesome about a mythological animal that can suck up demons to turn into wealth.


it makes me smile and feel happy. Like, hahah! How awesome!
How Chinese!

Is it in feng Shui therms cald a Pi Yao?It looks realy looks like one
http://www.fengshuibestbuy.com/piyao.html
http://www.fengshuibestbuy.com/piyao1.html

Oops! tried a few times to post the pictures up, but somehow nothing shows.

will try again later.

Ok, Moon here are the pics you sent me. I think the reason is because your pics are waaaay too large! You need to reduce the size of pics for the web bearing in mind not everyone has a large screen or high-speed internet connnection.

like i said, i am a real dummy when it comes to computers..and i was only using a very normal sony digital camera to upload the pics. Hey thanks Urof persia..!

Anyway, strange that i have never notice before, i think this animal is not pixiu.. the chinese characters say 貅貍 xiu li.. what exactly is this creature? any chance it is the same specie as pixiu.. ?

if not, then my husband must be cheated because he asked for pixiu..

According to the Chinese online dictionary, 貅 xiū is a type of creature that is like the leopard.
貔 pí is also given the same definition.

I cannot find any online reference to 貅貍 xiū lí.

One possibility is that you got the 貅 xiū half of the 貔貅 píxiū, the 貍 lí (wild cat/fox-line animal) suffix just denoting the general type of animal.

In my earlier post (#2), I mentioned that 貔 pí is the male while 貅 xiū is the female of the species, just like the fènghuáng 鳳凰 should actually be a male and female pair, but mostly depicted as a single bird nowadays.

Hello Lin Duanwen,

thanks for sharing your images with us! I do have a few questions though:

What do the characters on the first Pixiu mean?

Also, is the last one a Qilin? It seems to have a single horn, an ornamental body that could be a scaly body, an ox tail, and hooves (maybe).

Cheers,

Publius

The charactor on the top of the wing ( the thing on the middle of the back ) is the ancient word for heart/xin.

[The Pixiu is a combination of the male Pi and the female Xiu.
The Pi has one horn and the Xiu has two.
The Pi Xiu is very much like FuDogs that also come in pairs. The Pixiu are also placed as guards at the door, just like the Fudogs.

Just like the fènghuáng 鳳凰 should actually be the male and Luan/female Phoenix are a pair, but mostly depicted as a single bird nowadays.
In many of the sites that I found info on the Pixiu, they compared them to both the Fudogs and to the Qilin.
There is a similarity to the Qilin, in that they are good luck, but if you look at the characters or Pi and Xiu, you will see that it is a cat-like animal, closer to the Fudog which is not really a dog but a lion.
PiXia are also called PI XIU, PI XIE, BI XIE, PI YAO, and TIAN LU
According to the Chinese online dictionary, 貅 xiū is a type of creature that is like the leopard.
貔 pí is also given the same definition.
It is a small dragon that looks like a grayish white dragon like panther, Qilin or a FuDog with wings and horns.
It has a fat belly that is full of the evil demons it loves to eat.
It has no rectum so the demons can not escape.
The Demons turn into money.

Those characters are for decoration.

The last one is a "Tianlu" because of it's single horn. Double horn pixiu is known as "Pixie".

Hi everyone

I found a creature in 'Richard Huber Treasury of Fantastic and Mythological Creatures' ( plate 83, diagram 2 ) with the brief description of "China, dragon, terra-cotta". I drew my own version of the animal and took it with me on a recent holiday through China. Two locals, one in Huangshan City and one in the Huangshan Mountains, thought it might be a
Bi-Xie.

Click to view attachment

I have read your forum and noted the similarity of Bi Xie and Pixiu. The Pi having one horn and the Xiu having two. This 'Bi Xie' displays three horns. I would be most interested in any comments. Thank you.

My father-in-law (from mainland China) has a pixiu hanging from his belt. He loves to pet it when he plays majiang 麻將.

I heard that Macao casinos forbid people to bring their pixiu inside. Apparently, the casinos are afraid of the pixiu's reputation for what they call "zhi jin bu chu" 只進不出. Is this true?