THE CHINESE LION 



of more symbolism and legend than any other beast in any 

 country ? The answer is found in the close association of the 

 lion with Buddhism, which was a foreign religion. Buddhism 

 reached China directly from India, and indirectly, as Lamaism, 

 through Tibet. 



Lions are still found in India in the State of Kathiawar.* 

 There is little doubt, however, that the lion has never existed 

 in the wild state in China. The few records dealing with it 

 in captivity may be dismissed before entering upon more 

 abstruse subjects such as the lion in Buddhism and Lamaism, 

 its symbolism and relation to the lion-dog. 



The Chinese Emperors of the Han Dynasty (202 B.C.) were 

 probably the first to become interested in lions. Chang 

 Ch'ien, one of their envoys, returned from his Western 

 travels in the year 126 B.C. and informed the Chinese Emperor 

 of the wonders of India and of Buddhism. 



Intercourse between China, India, Parthia and other 

 Buddhist countries became frequent from 126 B.C. onwards, 

 through the Sinkiang trade route passing north of Tibet. 



The first recorded importation of lions occurred in A. D. 87. 

 They came from An-hsi, Parthia. Their close association 

 with Buddhism accounts for the fact that from this time 

 onwards they were frequently imported as tribute or presents 

 from numerous Eastern states and also from Europe, until 

 the successive conquests of Islam, the declared enemy of all 

 unclean beasts, interrupted communications. 



Chinese artists have always been in difficulties in their 

 representations of the lion. Few of them could secure access 

 to living models of the king of beasts. Consequently they 

 had recourse either to the conventionalized figures, pure 



* " Lions were numerous in the northern parts of the United Provinces as late as 

 the time of Bishop Heber in 1824, but are now found only in Kathiawar. The last 

 specimen recorded in Northern India was killed in the Gwalior State in 1872." " The 

 Oxford History of India," p. 153. 



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