Reflections | HSBC’s guardian lions are a Chinese cultural tradition, but the animals were not native to East Asia, so where did they come from?
The Chinese probably made first contact with the big cats during the Han period, when the empire expanded into Central Asia
Perhaps the European managers of The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank took a leaf from Chinese architectural tradition when they commissioned the guardian lions in the early 20th century. Many Chinese-owned buildings, modern and classical, feature stylised lions, one male and one female, at their main entrances. But how did the ancient Chinese know about lions?
Historically, the natural habitat of lions spanned Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. The Chinese probably first learned of the animals in the Han period (206BC – AD220) when the empire expanded westwards into Central Asia, or maybe Chinese merchants came across them on their travels.
Records show that Central Asian states transported lions to the Han capital, where they were presented to the Chinese emperor as tributary gifts. Dongguan Hall’s Records of the Han, revised several times during the Eastern Han dynasty (AD25–220), contains the first unambiguous description of a lion in Chinese: “The shizi (lion) resembles a tiger and is yellow in colour. It has a mane and the tuft at the end of its tail is as big as a dou (a measuring scoop)”.
Lions entered popular Chinese imagination with the spread of Buddhism. The lion figured prominently in the religion, which originated in the Indian subcontinent. Its founder, Gautama Buddha, is known as the “lion of the Shakyas (Gautama’s royal clan)” and the “sage lion”. The Lotus Sutra depicts the Buddha and his disciples with the power of a “lion’s ferocity” and strolling about “fearlessly like the lion king”. Buddhist sermons are metaphorically referred to as “the lion’s roar”. The lion became seen as a protector of the dharma, or Buddhist law, and a talisman to ward off evil.