CHAPTER V 

 THE CHINESE LION 



The lion not indigenous : Popularity due to the introduction of Buddhism 

 from India : The lion in captivity in China : Origin of lion-worship : The 

 lion in Indian Buddhism : The lion in Foism : The lion in Lamaism : De- 

 scription of the Lamaist lion : The spirit-lion and the lion-dog : Buddhist 

 lion-stories : Chinese artistic idea of the lion : The lion in heraldry. 



THE history and attributes of Tibetan, Pekingese and 

 Japanese toy-dogs are so closely interwoven with 

 those of the Buddhist lion that a digression is 

 necessary in order to define their relationships. 



At the dawn of historical time the tiger held pride of place 

 in popular imagination both in China and Japan. It was 

 the king of land animals,* and though deposed in China, 

 continues to be the royal quadruped in Corea. Early repre- 

 sentations in pottery bore the character wang " king "fanci- 

 fully seen by the Chinese in the tiger's forehead stripes. 

 Absence of references in the old writings indicates that the 

 lion was altogether unknown in China up to the time of its 

 introduction from abroad. The lion was unknown to Feng 

 Shui, China's ancient natural science, and though the lion is 

 one of the twelve signs of the Chinese ecliptic, in some degree 

 analogous to the signs of the zodiac, as indicating the twelve 

 places in which the sun and moon came into conjunction, 

 the Chinese have no constellation Leo. Why then, it may 

 be asked, have they adopted a foreign importation as lord of 

 beasts, as the commonest motif in their art, and as the centre 



* Bushell, " Chinese Art," vol. 2, p. 9. 

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