DOGS OF CHINA AND JAPAN 



foreigners. Jesuit priests were resident at the Court in Peking, 

 and Kircher, writing in the first days of the Dynasty, remarks 

 that the noble ladies " to pass away their time sport with little 

 dogs, birds, and such delights." 



The Manchus, being of Mongolian origin, naturally en- 

 couraged the Lamaist form of Buddhism. Thibet had been 

 conquered in 1645, and in 1653 the Dalai Lama paid a visit 

 to the Emperor in Peking. The popularity of small lion- 

 like dogs at their court appears to have been stimulated by 

 reasons of state in addition to that affection for animal 

 curiosities which has been common to the courts of both 

 East and West from the earliest times. The Manchu Em- 

 perors, surrounded by a horde of sycophants and flatterers, 

 and known as the personifications of the Sun and Sons of 

 Heaven, were the last to diminish the importance of any 

 practice which would bring them into association with the 

 Buddhist deities. 



The Tibetan grand lamas encouraged this similitude. 

 According to Chinese authorities they originated the Manchu 

 dynastic name, basing it upon the name of Manjusri Buddha, 

 the Chinese Wen Shu, who is always represented in Chinese 

 sacred literature as riding upon a lion. " According to report 

 handed down by the ancients, the Manchu power was 

 strengthened from the time that in sending state dispatches 

 the Tibetans honoured the Manchu Emperors by calling 

 them the Man Chu Hsi Li (Manjusri) Emperors, which name 

 in the Buddhist Gospels denotes Wen Shu Buddha."* A 

 Chinese scholar suggests that the sending of lion-dogs to 

 Chinese Emperors by the Tibetans symbolized presentation 

 of lions to Wen Shu Buddha. 



The early Manchu Emperors were extremely fond of sport, 

 and spent much of their time in hunting and shooting. They 



* " Complete Chinese Geography " (" Ch'ung Hua Tihi Ch'uan Chih "). 

 148 



