{"id":105,"date":"2024-04-28T09:53:51","date_gmt":"2024-04-28T01:53:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lzl-historybuff.com\/?p=105"},"modified":"2025-08-18T10:16:25","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T02:16:25","slug":"guardians-of-virtue-and-law-a-digital-archaeological-study-of-the-qilin-and-xiezhi-at-ming-xiaoling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.lzl-historybuff.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/28\/guardians-of-virtue-and-law-a-digital-archaeological-study-of-the-qilin-and-xiezhi-at-ming-xiaoling\/","title":{"rendered":"Guardians of Virtue and Law: A Digital Archaeological Study of the Qilin and Xiezhi at Ming Xiaoling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Standing silently along the Sacred Way of Ming Xiaoling, the <strong>Qilin<\/strong> and <strong>Xiezhi<\/strong> appear to be mere stone sculptures, until viewed through a digital archaeological lens. In my research project, I employed aerial photogrammetry and 3D modeling to document and analyze these two ritual beasts, uncovering their layered meanings within Ming imperial funerary culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lzl-historybuff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSCF3109-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-107\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.lzl-historybuff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSCF3109-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/www.lzl-historybuff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSCF3109-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.lzl-historybuff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSCF3109-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.lzl-historybuff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSCF3109-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/www.lzl-historybuff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSCF3109-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, http:\/\/www.lzl-historybuff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSCF3109-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A Close Study of the Xiezhi\u2019s Head<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>Qilin<\/strong>, with its composite form of dragon, deer, and ox, symbolized Confucian virtue and cosmic legitimacy. By digitally reconstructing its scales and positioning, I examined how the emperor\u2019s moral authority was carved literally into stone. Meanwhile, the <strong>Xiezhi<\/strong>, a horned beast believed to distinguish right from wrong, stood as a visual metaphor for imperial justice. My spatial analysis revealed its unique 15\u00b0 horn tilt, a calculated angle likely meant to reinforce its role as a judicial icon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lzl-historybuff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSCF4234-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-106\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.lzl-historybuff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSCF4234-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/www.lzl-historybuff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSCF4234-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.lzl-historybuff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSCF4234-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.lzl-historybuff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSCF4234-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/www.lzl-historybuff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSCF4234-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, http:\/\/www.lzl-historybuff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSCF4234-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Aerial Gaze of a Sacred Beast: The Qilin from Above<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This project deepened my understanding of how political ideology was encoded in ritual space and visual form. More importantly, it showed me how historical inquiry can be enhanced through digital tools, transforming ancient symbolism into interactive, measurable knowledge. Through stone and software, I found a new way to read the past and to preserve it for the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Standing silently along t &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-historical-exploration","category-uncategorized"],"views":204,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lzl-historybuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lzl-historybuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lzl-historybuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lzl-historybuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lzl-historybuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.lzl-historybuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":215,"href":"http:\/\/www.lzl-historybuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions\/215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lzl-historybuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lzl-historybuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lzl-historybuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}