DOGS OF CHINA AND JAPAN 



Buddhist approval of the setting up of " curative arrange- 

 ments for beasts " everywhere in India " as far as Ceylon " 

 and to the borders of " Antiochus the Greek King." * 



Chinese representations of the Buddhist " true " or sacred 

 lions may be classified as being of two distinct types : the 

 pure Buddhist and the Lamaist. The former is that which 

 came to China with early Indian Buddhism or Foism, possibly 

 before the division of Buddhism into the great Northern 

 and Southern sects after the Council of Jalandhara (A.D. 100), 

 and certainly before the arrival of Lamaism. 



This variety is represented without harness. Its mane is 

 not curled, and there is no orb or cub beneath the paw of 

 male or female. The influence of this Southern Buddhism 

 or Foism was strong in China up to the middle of the seventh 

 century, when Buddhism declined rapidly in Northern India, 

 finally becoming extinct, except in Ceylon, the Chinese " lion 

 country," whose armorial bearings are lions to this day. 

 What Buddhism lost in India, however, it gained in Tibet, 

 whence (dating from the seventh century A.D.) it obtained 

 both religious and political supremacy. 



Buddhism did not establish itself firmly among the Chinese 

 until the year A.D. 67, when the Emperor Ming Ti publicly 

 encouraged Buddhist missionaries from India and himself 

 embraced Buddhism. 



The practice of placing monuments before doorways in 

 China is recorded as early as the anterior T'ang Dynasty, 

 about 1766-1753 B.C., but the earliest recorded instance 

 found in Chinese literature of the use of stone lions is in the 

 case of the palace of Huo Bin, an important official who died 

 in 117 B.C., soon after Chang Chien's return from the West. 



Buddhism flourished exceedingly in China, and became 

 the State religion in the fifth and sixth centuries. Early in 



* " Asoka," Vincent A. Smith. 

 9 6 



