Zouyu

The zouyu (Chinese: 騶虞; pinyin: zōu yú), also called zouwu (騶吾; zōu wú) or zouya (騶牙; zōu yá), is a legendary creature mentioned in old Chinese literature. The earliest known appearance of the characters 騶虞 (zōu yú) is in the Book of Songs,^[1][2] but J.J.L. Duyvendak describes the interpretation of that little poem as referring to an animal of that name as "very doubtful".^[1]

Zouyu
Traditional Chinese	騶虞
Simplified Chinese	驺虞
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin zōuyú IPA [tsóʊ.y̌] Middle Chinese Middle Chinese *t͡ʃɨu ŋɨo Old Chinese Baxter–Sagart (2014) *[ts]ˤro [ŋ]ʷ(r)a Zhengzhang *ʔsru ŋʷa
Alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	騶吾
Simplified Chinese	驺吾
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin zōuwú Middle Chinese Middle Chinese *t͡ʃɨu ŋuo Old Chinese Baxter–Sagart (2014) *[ts]ˤro ŋˤa Zhengzhang *ʔsru ŋaː
Second alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	騶牙
Simplified Chinese	驺牙
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin zōuyá Middle Chinese Middle Chinese *t͡ʃɨu ŋˠa Old Chinese Baxter–Sagart (2014) *[ts]ˤro m-ɢˤ<r>a Zhengzhang *ʔsru ŋra:

Zouyu illustration from the Chinese encyclopedia Gujin Tushu Jicheng

The zouyu appears in a number of later works, where it is described as a "righteous" animal that, similarly to a qilin, only appears during the rule of a benevolent and sincere monarch. It is said to be as fierce-looking as a tiger, but gentle and strictly vegetarian, and described in some books (already in Shuowen Jiezi^[3]) as a white tiger with black spots.^[1]

In 1404, during the reign of the Yongle Emperor, Prince Zhu Su, his relative from Kaifeng (in modern-day Henan province) sent him a captured zouyu spotted and captured in Shenhou [zh]; an anonymous painter later painted that zouyu, which was evidently a rare white tiger.^[1][4] Another zouyu was sighted in Shandong.^[1] The zouyu sightings were mentioned by contemporaneous authors as good omens, along with the Yellow River running clear and the delivery of a qilin (i.e., an African giraffe) by a Bengal delegation that arrived to China aboard Zheng He's fleet.^[1]

Puzzled about the real zoological identity of the zouyu said to be captured during the Yongle era, Duyvendak exclaimed, "Can it possibly have been a Pandah?"^[1] Following him, some modern authors consider zouyu to refer to the giant panda.^[5]

Sinologist and linguist Wolfgang Behr includes the zouyu ~ zouwu ~ zouya among several leophoric names in ancient Chinese texts, such as 獅子 (shī zǐ) and 狻猊 (suān ní), to denote lions.^[6]

Riordan & Shi (2016) propose that zouyu ("驺瑜 [sic]")^[a] and other words for some enigmatic pantherine predators in ancient Chinese texts^[b] possibly denoted snow leopards.^[8][c]

Popular culture

The creature appears in the 2018 fantasy film Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald as an elephant-sized cat resembling a lion/tiger mix with large eyes, four upper tusks, and a ruffled tail (resembling those of Chinese guardian lions and those from Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings three years later on) and has the ability to apparate.^[14]

Notes

1. Riordan & Shi mistakenly give the pinyin transcription of 驺虞 (variants: 驺吾 ~ 騶吾^[7]) in the Classic of Mountains and Seas as Zhu Jian instead of Zou Yu.
2. For examples, the Meng Ji (孟極) in the Classic of Mountains and Seas; the Zun Er ("拵栭 [sic]"^[8] ~ "尊耳";^[9] rendered "酋耳" (Qiu Er) in Siku Quanshu version^[10]) in Lost Book of Zhou, and the Pi Xiu (貔貅) in Records of the Grand Historian.^[11]
3. Riordan & Shi also state that the snow leopards were named Ai Ye Bao (艾叶豹 ~ 艾葉豹, "common mugwort leaves leopards") in Li Shizhen's Bencao Gangmu^[12][13] as well as He Ye Bao (荷叶豹 ~ 荷葉豹).^[8]