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| Chinese Stone Lions |
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Lion is a special animal to Chinese people. A pair of stone lions,
a male and a female, can often be seen in front of the gates of
traditional buildings. The male lion is on the left with his right
paw resting on a ball, and the female on the right with her left
paw fondling a cub.
The lion was regarded as the king in the animal world so its
imagines represented power and prestige. The ball played by the
male lion symbolized the unity of the empire, and the cub with
the female thriving offspring.
The stone lions were also used to indicate the ranks of officials
by the number of lumps representing the curly hair on the head
of the lion. The houses of first grade officials had lions with
13 lumps and the number of lumps decreased by one as the rank
of the official went down each grade. Officials below the seventh
grade were not allowed to have stone lions in front of their houses.
It is interesting to note that China had no lions originally.
It is believed that when Emperor Zhang of the Eastern Han reigned
in AD 87, the King of Parthia presented a lion to him. Another
lion was given by a Central Asian country known as Yuezhi in the
next year. The earliest stone lions were sculpted at the beginning
of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25 - 220 AD) with the introduction
of Buddhism into ancient China. It is said, Sakyamuni, the founder
of Buddhism, was seen after birth "to point to Heaven with
one hand and to Earth with another, roaring like an lion."
In the Buddhist faith, the lion is considered a divine animal
of nobleness and dignity, which can protect the Truth and keep
off evils.
It was also popular to decorate bridges with sculpted-stone lions
for the same reason. The best known of this is the Lugouqiao (also
as Marco Polo Bridge), built from 1189 to 1192. The stone lions
on the posts of the bridge are most famous. It is said there are
485 lions in all, but there may be 498 or 501. A famous proverb
says "the lions on the Lugouqiao are uncountable."
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