Xiezhi- Chinese CreatureCreature · Beast"Judge of Right and Wrong"
Also known as: Xièzhì, 獾豸, and 解廄
Description
A single-horned beast with the power to tell truth from lies. When the legendary judge Gao Yao could not determine guilt by human reasoning, he summoned the xiezhi — and it gored the dishonest party, leaving the truthful unharmed. Its image adorned judicial robes, courtroom entrances, and censors' caps for two thousand years.
Mythology & Lore
Gao Yao's Beast
The Lunheng records that the legendary judge Gao Yao, minister of law under the sage-emperor Shun, kept a xiezhi at his court. When human reasoning could not untangle a dispute, when both parties swore their innocence and evidence pointed nowhere, Gao Yao brought the beast before them. It resembled a large ox or wild sheep, dark-furred, bearing a single horn. The xiezhi would study the two litigants and then gore the one who lied. It never erred. The truthful party walked away unharmed.
The Shanhaijing and other early texts offer varying descriptions of its appearance, but all agree on the essential nature: the xiezhi possesses an innate ability to distinguish right from wrong. It could no more spare a liar than a lodestone could ignore iron.
The Censor's Cap
The xiezhi's reputation for incorruptible judgment made it irresistible to China's legal bureaucracy. During the Han dynasty, the censorate adopted the xiezhi as their emblem. Censors wore the xiezhi guān, a cap shaped to evoke the beast, as a mark of their office and a warning to those they investigated. Stone xiezhi flanked courtroom entrances, and the creature's image appeared on judicial robes.
The tradition endured across dynasties. Stone xiezhi still guard the Spirit Way of the Ming Tombs near Beijing, their horns pointing forward along the avenue of power.
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