A Giraffe Gift to the Yongle Emperor Was Read as a Qilin and Used to Flatter a Usurper’s Legitimacy｜一頭長頸鹿進宮後被說成麒麟，還順手替篡位皇帝證明『天命正當』

The Met notes that a giraffe presented to the Yongle emperor in 1414 prompted senior officials to hail it as the auspicious qilin, a creature associated with the reign of a virtuous ruler. Such comments implied that Yongle—who had seized the throne—was the rightful ruler, and the episode helped begin the visual conflation of giraffe and qilin.

來源支持1414年進貢與官員的吉祥詮釋，但這是政治文化解讀，不是長頸鹿在生物學上等同麒麟；也不應把所有後來麒麟圖像都化約成長頸鹿。