The Lion

In China, a natural home to tigers but not to lions, the lion, oddly enough, is visible nearly everywhere and in far greater numbers than the tiger. What is met with, of course, is the animal in its artistic form.

At least one pair of stone lions, for example, is a must in front of temples and tombs, and ceremonial arches may come with separate pairs in front and back, above and below. Some bridges have not only a pair at either end but also dozens along the sides, such as Marco Polo Bridge near Peking. And villages in some regions may adopt a "stone lion master" or "stone lion lord" that drives away evil spirits and serves as a local guardian deity.

Then there are ceramic "wind lion lords" on rooftops, lion-head tablets over doorways, lion ornaments on the brackets between indoor columns and crossbeams, lion pegs holding up calligraphic plaques, lion engravings on gold incense burners, embroidered lion designs on altar cloths, and lion carvings at the base of ancestral tablets, along with all the various lions found on jewelry, on furniture, on everyday objects, and in Chinese New Year's pictures, as well as the openmouthed, close-mouthed, ch'ing, Cantonese, and other types of lions used in lion dances.

Characteristically, all are nonrealistic in form, having been transformed artistically--even with the addition of elements from the Pekinese dog--into a Chinese-style lion that is clearly an imaginary animal yet immediately recognizable as a symbol of China.

The image of the lion is widely seen in art both East and West, but in East Asia, where the animal is not indigenous, the conclusion is obvious that its image must have come from West, possibly as long ago as the time of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. The creation of the artistic lion of East Asia from the real lion, that is to say, represents a kind of cultural interchange.

According to written records, the earliest era at which the lion was seen in China is the Western Han dynasty (206 B.C. to 24 A.D.), and stone statues of lions in front of tombs from the Eastern Han dynasty (25 to 220) still exist today. Following the spread of Buddhism in later centuries, the image of the lion became even more popular as a decoration on buildings, furniture, and daily objects, and even today, when everyone knows what a real lion looks like, the Chinese version is still a sentimental favorite.

The lion's symbolic function is to ward off evil and invite good luck and fortune. Perhaps because real lions were never a danger in China, their auspicious significance was emphasized exclusively; the equally fierce tiger was accorded a different treatment. Tigers are still a danger in some parts of China, so although they are often admired and envied for their superhuman strength and sometimes seen as an image of power, vitality, and the yang principle, they are also commonly viewed as a symbol of evil and tyranny, of which the less said the better.

In fact, in the Chinese mind, the lion has been taken as superior in power to the tiger. Written records maintain that lions eat tigers, that tigers cringe before them, and that a lion can even make water on a tiger's head without the tiger daring to move. Although they may not conform to facts, these beliefs do indicate how far the lion has supplanted the tiger in the popular mind as an animal capable of warding off evil.

No wonder, then, that except for the dragon, the lion occupies the most important place among Chinese animal forms.