DOGS OF CHINA AND JAPAN 



or of its official inhabitant, and that in certain princely 

 palaces in Peking the door-guardians are, to use the termi- 

 nology of heraldry, statant instead of sejant, the latter being 

 the customary posture of the Buddhist lion in China. It is 

 to be noted, too, that the Buddhist lions, like the Egyptian 

 gryphon, traditionally occupy the position of the " sup- 

 porters " in heraldry, an art which is of course mediaeval and 

 comparatively young in its origins. 



In most exceptional cases only was it possible for a Chinese 

 painter to see a living lion. Consequently the strolling street 

 artist, who even now continues to educate Chinese opinion 

 in matters artistic, was obliged, in his efforts to obtain an 

 accurate model, to fall back upon the word-pictures of the 

 literary, or the Buddhist statues. The literati, unfortunately, 

 were anything but efficient in powers of accurate description 

 and scientific detail. As already remarked, the Chinese 

 historians who recorded the first importation of lions described 

 them as being bearded, with whiskers and hairy ears. The 

 bushiness of their tails and manes was likened to the horse 

 or rhinoceros hair-tassel which figured on the top of the 

 old-fashioned Chinese official hat. 



Chinese painters love to portray the lion in a style restricted 

 to a common type, showing variations only in detail. These 

 variations were never so fanciful as the liberties in which 

 mediaeval heraldic designers so freely indulged at the expense 

 of the exact attributes of the Royal Beast. 



To the mediaeval knight the " gryphon " had a very real 

 existence, and the weightiest of arguments would no doubt 

 have been available to convince any who might have had the 

 temerity to doubt the existence or importance of the " griffin " 

 prototype. It must be noted that the naive temperament of 

 Eastern nations disposes them to regard even animal images 

 used decoratively as the living animals they represent. The 

 no 



