Cultural Confluences of Lion Imagery in Chinese Art
Lion art is a staple of Chinese New Year celebrations, yet lions themselves were never endemic to China. So how did lion imagery in general come to the region and evolve into such fantastic forms? At some time during its evolution and continental wanderings, the lion’s image took on a life of its own and morphed through different cultures and eras.
I researched this topic and now have a vision that begins with a small prehistoric creature and ends with lions shown on a Tang Dynasty mirror exhibited in the British Museum. Beyond being a beautiful object, the mirror serves as a talking point for a broader narrative of cultural confluences that shape art. It is the melding of influences that show how the modern national borders that sometimes compartmentalise human accomplishment quickly become smeared and irrelevant in favour of a messier, murkier and more compelling story.
I’m not any kind of professional art historian. My interest in cultural confluences in art has nothing to do with my profession. I’ve crafted this piece to fire the imagination, to share wonder and to promote knowledge that may be better addressed by more authoritative sources. This is a scholarly piece that is heavily referenced with publicly available sources so that you can read, argue or muse on their findings.
The Imagination
The Artefact
From Tree Climber to Grassland Prowler
Between 25 and 20 million years ago, a two foot long tree climber resembling a mongoose was prowling the Eurasian land mass [1,2]. Proailurus is regarded as the common ancestor to all species of modern cat, alive or extinct. The fossil record becomes scarce between 23 and 17 million years ago in what has been called the ‘cat gap’. It’s not clear why there are so few traces of it. One explanation is that they could have been in competition with other mammals that would later give rise to bears and hyenas [1].
The trail picks up again between 20 and 8 million years ago with Pseudaelurus. It had a proportionately longer spine than a modern cat, walked on its toes and had teeth which would later be lost through evolution as its descendants began to sheer flesh with their cheek teeth instead [2].
Pseudaelurus then splits into a wide variety of cats, many which would become more familiar to us. The burst of diversity might owe to its descendants adapting to climactic changes in the early Miocene period (23 to 2.6 million years ago).
Climate changes in this period are complex, but include some interesting factors. Shifts in tectonic plates pushed up mountain chains, which helped shield many inland continental areas from moisture-laden sea air. The Tethys Sea connection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean disappeared as the African plate pushed more into the Asian plate. Both of these effects helped make continental land masses drier [3, 4].
When Antarctica broke away from South America, the new Drake Strait helped change global ocean currents and contributed to making the world cooler. In the drier cooler climate, tropical forests contracted, grasslands expanded and polar ice caps thickened to reveal lower level land passages such as the Bering Strait. As Pseudaelurus adapted and multiplied, it crossed into North America [5, 6]. But the diversity of species left in its wake would challenge taxonomists for centuries.
Impurrfect Classifications
In the evolutionary story of the cat, we need to get from Pseudaelurus to the Asiatic Lions that would inspire the images on the Tang Dynasty mirror. Pseudaelurus evolved into two main groups: the conical-toothed Felidae that comprises modern cats; and the sabre-toothed Machairodontinae, an extinct sub-family of Felidae that lived between 16 million and 11,000 years ago [7].
For most of the last two hundred years, the story of how Felidae gave rise to tigers, leopards and lions remained unclear because of a sparse selection of ancient fossils that didn’t exhibit much variation [8].
The physical characteristics used to classify cats weren’t always accurate either. Early efforts to sort animals into Panthera and Felinae sub-families were partly based on the sounds they could make. If it could roar, it was put in Pathera and if it could purr it was put in Felinae. Yet not all big cats can roar. Cheetahs ended up in their own sub-family because they lacked cutaneous sheaths to protect their retractable claws [9]. The awkward criteria for classification made it difficult to reveal the nuance of how different species of lions evolved. Some clarity would come with the arrival of genomic technologies.
Genetic Insights of Lion
In the late twentieth century, two innovations would change the way scientists viewed the classification of cats. First, the advent of DNA analyses would show differences in genes between tissue samples. Second, support for complex modelling software would make it possible to create graphs that could cluster data based on molecular-level and specimen-level characteristics of animals [9].
Early genetic studies focused on mitochondrial DNA, which is a small amount of genetic material that is carried in a part of cells that is outside the nucleus and is passed from mother to offspring [10]. Later studies made use of all the genetic material in a cell through whole genome analysis [11]. Both kinds of studies helped show when species split from common ancestors.
Three species of lions evolved within Panthera: Panthera leo leo (modern lion), Panthera leo atrox (American lion), and Panthera leo spelaea (cave lion). The latter two species are extinct and were closely related to one another [12].
de Manuel’s genetic study supports the idea that lions radiated out of Africa in multiple waves [11, 13]. Cave lions left first about 500,000 years ago and moved into Europe and Asia. Asiatic lions split off from African lions about 70,000 years ago, the former living in areas that ranged from Saudi Arabia to India.
The Asiatic Lion International Society for Endangered Cats reports that this species once occupied the coastal forests of northern Africa, and from Greece to Southwest Asia. With the advent of fire arms, it began to disappear. By the late 19th century, they had been eradicated from Turkey, and the last sighting of them in Iran was in 1941. Today the Asian Lion is confined to the Indian province of Gujarat, in a nature reserve once used by Nawab of Junagadh as a private hunting ground [14].
Along the way of its journey from Africa to Asia, the image of the lion would take hold in cultures that would eventually influence Chinese art.
An Evolution of Art and Biology
Much like we could imagine a time-lapse film of a lion evolving through biology, we can also imagine one where it is evolving through art. Ideas from different cultures have made lion images reproduce, evolve and combine through the ages.
In genetics, a phenotype is a set of observable characteristics of an individual resulting from the interaction of its genotype with the environment. Whereas a characteristic of a real lion might be about the shape of its mane, the colour of its fur or its hunting behaviour, a characteristic of an imagined lion might be whether it appears real or ideal, passive or aggressive, animated or static, majestic or monstrous.
Environmental factors can pressure how it mutates and evolves. Whereas the features of a lion might change in response to factors such as climate and available prey, the features of an imagined lion can change in response to factors such as trade, war, religion, and the cadence of rising and falling civilisations.
Animated Portraits of Cave Lions
The appearance of lions in art dates back to some of the earliest examples of sculpture. The 40,000 year old example of the Lion Man[14b], featuring the head of a cave lion and the body of a man, is the oldest representation of a being with supernatural qualities. Cave lions feature in cave painting sites such as Chauvet (30–32000 years old) and Lascaux (20000 years old) [15, 16].
Ancient lion imagery also appears in various outdoor petroglyph sites that may have marked the Asiatic lion’s spread out of Africa. Sites are often difficult to date exactly, but examples include: Saudi Arabia (12000 BCE); Azerbaijan (40000 BCE); and Uzbekistan (15000 BCE) [17, 18, 19, 20].
Many images of cave lions show great naturalism. In the Chauvet cave the multiple overlapping images express movement. From cave art and other artefacts, it seems clear the cave lion had rounded protruding ears, a tufted tail, faint stripes, and some had manes. It also likely had an upper body darker than its lower body [21].
It is sometimes difficult to determine what type of cat is shown in abstract pictographs. Eurasian cave lions went extinct about 10000 years ago, but it seems more likely they would represent the more common and still present Asiatic lion.
Regal, Graceful, Ferocious
Lions appear in the art of early Mediterranean and Mesopotamian cultures. They appeared in the world’s earliest tomb paintings, found in Egypt and dating to 3500 BCE [22, 23]. In Ancient Egypt, it was most visible in the lion body of the Great Sphinx, which dates to 2575–2465 BCE [24].
In Greece, some of the more famous examples of lions in art include the Lion Gate of Mycenae dated to 1250 BCE [25]; and the Lion of Lidos dated to the second century BCE [26].
In Mesopotamia, a land area located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the animals appeared in scenes of lion hunts dating back to before 3000BCE [27]. The lion hunt theme reached a zenith of expression in the Lion Hunt reliefs, which decorated a palace of King Ashurbanipal, who ruled the Assyrian Empire from 668–631 BCE [28]. Assyrian palaces from that era also had huge statues of lamassus, guardian figures featuring the body of a winged bull or lion and the head of a man [29].
Now we will go back and connect these influences. In early Egyptian art, lions are shown as serene and embodying great majesty. Egyptian art influenced Greek art, and that culture also tended to emphasise a graceful regal creature. There are exceptions, such as scenes showing Hercules battling a ferocious Nemean lion.
Cultures that evolved in Mesopotamia, especially the Assyrians, showed kings battling a more aggressive animal than shown in the placid Egyptian and early Greek statuary. Lion hunts did not just provide an opportunity to show the strength of a King. They also showed the king’s role in overcoming general threats to his people. The winged nature of lions in Mesopotamia may have been inspired by the flying mane of a charging male cat.
When the armies of Alexander the Great pushed through Asia, they brought Greek art forms which changed and were changed by the cultures they encountered. His conquests went along a path that reached through areas of Egypt, modern day Iran, Northwest India and Afghanistan. We will end this part of the story of Chinese lions with winged lions flying around the Iranian Plateau.
The Lions of Buddha and Ashoka
In many cultures, the lion’s status as an apex predator and a ‘king of animals’ made it an appealing symbol for royalty. It featured on the family crest of the Sakya clan [30], whose descendants included a prince would one day cast aside his aristocratic lifestyle and become the historical Buddha. Yet in the belief system he would found, these lion qualities would go from royal to regal, and reflect the noble qualities anyone could attain through Buddhist practice [31].
Less than two centuries after the Buddha died [32], the Indian Emperor Ashoka would rule over India and make Buddhism the state religion. In about 260 BCE, Ashoka went to war with the coastal kingdom of Kalinga [33], resulting in between 100,000 and 300,000 deaths. In the common interpretation of what happened afterwards, Ashoka’s remorse for the carnage led him to renounce violence and become Buddhist. Other interpretations suggest he may have already converted before the war ended and that the decision may have been influenced by other political factors in the region [34, 35].
Whatever motivated him to convert, he would make Buddhism the state religion and push it beyond India’s borders. As he promoted Buddhism, he promoted the lion imagery that went with it. Perhaps the most famous example of this is the Ashokan Pillar at Sarnath [36]. It features a pillar with four lions pointing in each of four directions, one for each Noble Truth. This image now forms part of India’s national emblem.
Silk Roads and Fantastical Beasts
Under Ashoka, the Mauryan Empire reached its peak. Through it he promoted the religion and its art forms to places in and beyond India. One of those regions was Gandhara, an area that straddles modern-day Pakistan and Afghanistan. Its history as a meeting spot for cultures is reflected in its history of occupation by: the Persian Achaemenid Empire, Greeks from Alexander’s forces, the Mauryan Empire, Indo Greeks from Bactria, the Scythians of Eastern Europe, and the Parthian Empire [37]. Between 176 BCE and 160 BCE, its next occupiers would themselves be fleeing another group [38]. The Yuezhi, a confederation of tribal groups living in Northwest China, fled westwards through Central Asia and settled in Gandhara.
There they founded the Kushan Empire, which sat strategically along the Silk Road, a term used to describe a network of Eurasian trading routes [39]. The Kushan Empire was a multicultural society that played a key role in disseminating Buddhist lion imagery along the Silk Road to the flourishing Han Dynasty in China [40].
But the Kushans didn’t simply propagate art styles in Gandhara. The roots of the Yeuzhi trace back to the Ordos Plateau, which is an area found in the modern Chinese autonomous area of Inner Mongolia. Steppe cultures from there had long been influenced by the Ordos or “Animal Style” of art. It expressed a collection of religious, mythological and aesthetic ideas, exclusively through zoomorphic and animal-form imagery. Developed around 900 BCE, its main motifs included a feline predator, a bird of prey and animals with hooves and antlers [41]. As the Buddhist lion images moved along the Silk Road, the fluid form of the Animal Style cat was added to the mix. By the time lion art entered Han Dynasty China, the threads of Greek, Persian, Kushan and Indian art were giving rise to new progeny.
Von Krenner explains in detail how lion images evolved in China [30]. They generally fall under the category of “foo dog”, which describe guardian lions. The variants of foo dogs are collectively called shih-tse. They were often shown as a pair and are reminiscent of a story taken from Lamaistic Buddhism. In it, Buddha is about to enter a temple and tells the two lions accompanying him to sit and wait for his return. Often one lion is shown exhaling while the other one is shown inhaling, representing yin and yang energies. The lions are often shown with a jewel of wisdom in their mouth or under one paw.
Of the lions, there is the fei-shih, a winged lion with the flying mane of a charging lion. Bixie combined lion features with those of unicorns, whereas some qilin images combined them with those of dragons. During the Northern Wei (386–534CE) and Eastern Wei (534–550 CE) Dynasties, lions appeared elongated and linear. During the Northern Qi dynasty (550–577) they became more rounded and naturalistic [42]. As lion images moved into Southern China, they appeared larger and less realistic [40]. Although there are records of actual lions being brought to Imperial parks, few artists would have been able to see them.
The Tang Dynasty Mirror
The mirror that marks an end of our art appreciation journey was made during the Tang dynasty, when a strong central government secured trading routes and communications across China. During the dynasty, trade in foreign luxury goods flourished on routes leading from the Capital in Xian to areas such as Iran, India, Afghanistan and Central Asia. Merchants, embassies and pilgrims shared the same transport infrastructure. So along with goods came ideas as well [43].
Mirrors were often included in burials to help protect the deceased during the afterlife. They would be fashioned into a variety of shapes such as circular, square or flower-shaped and they would feature a knob on the back that could be threaded with silk.
The design is an example of the ‘lion and grapevine’ style that was originally ascribed to the Han dynasty but was later attributed to the Tang Dynasty [44]. Earlier mirrors featured various creatures of fantasy, including the Creatures of the Four Quarters: the Azure Dragon of the East, the White Tiger of the West, the Black Tortoise of the North and the Vermillion Bird of the South [45]. The animals would be assigned quadrants which could be used to divide up the sky. Later on lion-like creatures appeared instead of them.
Now that we’ve tracked the journey of lion imagery to Chinese art, it is worth asking one obvious question about another cat: Why is it that lions became so popular in China when the region already had tigers? Was the lure of the imagined more compelling than the lure of the real?
I hope I can leave you all with questions as well as answers. Every piece of art has a story…
References
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[27] Brereton, G. Blog. Lion hunting: the sport of kings, The British Museum, January 4, 2019. https://blog.britishmuseum.org/lion-hunting-the-sport-of-kings-2/
[28] Assyria: Lion hunts, Siege of Lachish and Khorsabad. The British Museum, June 15, 2020, https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/galleries/assyria-lion-hunts
[29] Human-headed lion (lamassu). The Metropolitan Museum, June 15, 2020, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/322609
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[32] Violatti, C, The Dates of the Buddha, Ancient History Encyclopedia, May 2, 2013, https://www.ancient.eu/article/493/the-dates-of-the-buddha/
[33] Ashoka. Wikipedia, June 15, 2020, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashoka
[34] Krebsbach, J. Lambrecht, E. Why did Ashoka Convert to Buddhism? Dailyhistory.org, May 24, 2019, https://dailyhistory.org/Why_Did_Ashoka_Convert_to_Buddhism%3F
[35] Dixit, R. Paradoxical peace maker. Dec 22, 2018, https://www.theweek.in/theweek/cover/2018/12/20/paradoxical-peacemaker.html
[36] Shelby, K. Lion Capital, Ashokan Pillar at Sarnath. Khan Academy, June 15, 2020, https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-asia/south-asia/x97ec695a:art-magadha/a/lion-capital-ashokan-pillar-at-sarnath
[37] Bin Naveed, M. Gandhara Civilization, Ancient History Encyclopedia, July 7, 2015, https://www.ancient.eu/Gandhara_Civilization/
[38] Department of Asian Art. “Kushan Empire (ca. Second Century B.C.–Third Century A.D.).” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/kush/hd_kush.htm (October 2000
[39] Mark, J. Silk Road, Ancient History Encyclopedia, May 2018, https://www.ancient.eu/Silk_Road/
[40] Weill, K. Kushan Empire. New World Encyclopedia, June 15, 2020, https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Kushan_Empire
[41] Simpson, St John, and Svetlana Pankova, eds. The BP Exhibition: Scythians: Warriors of Ancient Siberia. Thames & Hudson, 2017. p20.
[42] Guardian Lion, mid-6th century. Metropolitan Museum of Art, June 15, 2020, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/49380
[43] Harrison-Hall, Jessica. China: A History in Objects. , 2018. Print.
[44] Thompson, Nancy. “The Evolution of the T’ang Lion and Grapevine Mirror.” Artibus Asiae 29.1 (1967): 25–54.
[45] Four Mythological Creatures in China. CITS, June 15, 2020, http://www.cits.net/china-travel-guide/four-mythological-creatures-in-china.html
Further Reading
Von Krenner, Walther G., and Ken Jeremiah. Creatures Real and Imaginary in Chinese and Japanese Art: An Identification Guide. McFarland, 2016.
Image Credits
Main artefact picture: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1936-1118-104
Images for the sketch were borrowed from various sources but many of the artefact examples were inspired from the selection of artefacts in Von Krenner’s book.
