A chariot driver of the Shusun clan captured a strange beast. Confucius identified it as a qilin — an auspicious beast — and wept, saying "My way has come to an end," whereupon he ceased writing the Spring and Autumn Annals. He died the following year.
Account
A chariot driver of the Shusun clan captured a strange beast on a hunt. Confucius identified it as a qilin — an auspicious beast — and wept, saying, "My way has come to an end." He ceased writing the Spring and Autumn Annals. The appearance of the qilin, only to be captured and killed, was read as a portent of the coming disorder of the realm. Confucius died the following year.
Sources
- Spring and Autumn Annals, Duke Ai 14
- Zuo Zhuan
- Records of the Grand Historian, "Confucius Family"