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Lushu (鹿蜀)

Lushu is a beast which lives in *Chouyangshan (杻陽山). Its shape is like a horse. It has white head, tiger stripes and red tail. Its animal call is like a person who is now singing folk song.

In ancient times, a mystical animal known as the Lushu lived on Niuyang shan near what is now the city of Lianzhou in Guangdong Province. A horse it was, and yet it wasn’t. the head, like most of its body, was white as snow—the symbol of death in some cultures, of freedom in others—while its tail, like its hooves, was a fiery, auspicious red. But what truly distinguished the Lushu were irregular tigerlike streaks that seemed to drip down its sides from the ridge of its back. Said to have the melodic voice of a balladeer, it was hunted nearly to extinction, for wearing a piece of its pelt guaranteed a legacy of many sons and grandsons. To the ancient Chinese, who placed extreme value on family lineage, it was indeed a marvelous creature. Legend has it that during the reign of the last emperor of the Ming, a single Lushu was sighted in southern Fujian Province. None was ever seen again.

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