It resembles an ox or goat, with thick dark fur covering its body, bright eyes, and a single long horn on its forehead.

The xiezhi possesses the innate ability to distinguish right from wrong, and when it finds corrupt officials, it will ram them with its horn and devour them.

Gao Yao, the minister of justice for the legendary Emperor Shun employed the beast during criminal proceedings, and he would command the sheep to ram (head-butt) the accused.

[9] The xiezhi hat was part of the attire of censors (yushi [zh]) into the 8th century during the Tang period, especially for an impeachment trial.

"Rhapsody on the Imperial Park" (上林賦), Sima Xiangru mentions the xiezhi 解豸/解廌 "sagacious stag" among the prey in the year-end barricade hunt staged by the Son of Heaven.

The Censorate of the Ming and Qing eras, who were responsible for the monitoring of the civil service, wore the xiezhi as a badge of office.

[citation needed] Linguist and Sinologist Axel Schuessler reconstructs the Late Han pronunciation of this mythological animal's name (解豸 ~ 解廌) as *gɛʔ-ḍɛʔ.

Noting that in Zuo Zhuan's chapter "Duke Xuan's 17th year",[16] "豸 is supposedly a graphical loan for 解 'understand'",[d] he suspects the gloss 解; xiè - when misunderstood - "ended up as a pre-syllable in the animal name" 豸 ~ 廌 and "may be responsible for the belief that this animal could tell straight from crooked, right from wrong.

According to Korean records, the haetae has a muscular leonine body covered with sharp scales, a bell in its neck, and a horn on its forehead.