A (; ; ), is a legendary creature said to have inhabited river systems in what is now Hubei Province in China. The water tiger is described as similar (in size) to a 3 or 4-year old human child, with tiger-like attributes in the lower limb and perhaps the head, though interpretations have varied. The modern interpretation is that the tiger-like (head), claws, etc., are always submerged and hidden, but the kneecap is exposed to view, although if a human tries to tamper with he may be killed. Japanese books during the Tokugawa Period read the Chinese text rather differently. Wakan Sansai Zue, an influential encyclopedia of the early 18th-century, gave a considerably divergent reading and stated that the suiko possessed kneecaps like tiger-claws. This odd feature was replicated in its woodcut illustration, and propagated in Toriyama Sekien's drawing of the suiko in his yōkai anthology. Past Japanese writers also sometimes used "suiko (water-tiger)" as a stilted term for the kappa (aka kawatarō) in native folklore, even though Wakan Sansai Zue had distinguished these as two separate beings. General description The shuihu or shui hu (; "water tiger") is described as being "about the size of a three- or four-year old (human) child", with a head like a tiger's, and a shell like that of the pangolin. Their knees, which are also tiger-like may be visible above water, but their claws always remain submerged, despite their habit of lying on sand and basking in the sun in autumn. Alternative reading A dissident reading exists, particularly among Japanese sources. The Osaka physician in his Wakan Sansai Zue (1712) interpreted the text to read "its knee-cap resembles that of a tiger's forepaw claws". The accompanying woodcut illustration (figure top right) depicts this. The artist Toriyama Sekien who consulted Terajima's encyclopedia also drew the creature with the claws on the knees, with the caption: "..its kneecaps are sharp like tiger claws". Sources The description occurs in a quote from the Xiang miang ji (; "Records of Xiang mian", 8th century) preserved in the well-known Ming Period materia medica, the Bencao Gangmu. A similar description can be found the Shui Jing Zhu (Commentary on the Water Classic, 6th century) as quoted in the 17th century Ming Period dictionary, , where it is stated that the shuihu is also known as shuitang () or shuilu (); however, the form shuitang may only be uniquely attested