top of page
Writer's pictureRachelle

How to identify a true lion in the 13th-century China

近有貢獅子者,首類虎,身如狗,青黑色,官中以為不類所畫者,疑非真。其入貢之使遂牽至虎牢之側,虎見之,皆俯首帖耳不敢動。獅子遂溺於虎之首,虎亦莫敢動也。以此知為真獅子焉。唐閻立本畫文殊所騎者,及世俗所裝戲者為何物?豈所貢者乃獅子之常,而佛所騎者為獅子之異品邪?又云,獅子極多力,十餘人挽之始能動。

In recent times someone presented a lion as tribute. Its head resembled that of a tiger, and its body that of a dog, dark blue in colour. Courtiers thought it did not look like [the lions] in any painting and suspected it was not [a lion]. The envoy who had brought it over then took it to the tiger enclosure. At the sight of it, the tigers all froze with terror, with their heads down and ears back. The “lion” then urinated on their heads; still, none of them dared to move a jot, thereby proving [the tribute] to be a veritable lion. What then are Manjushri’s mount,[1] as depicted by Yan Liben of the Tang Dynasty,[2] and the beasts in popular circuses? Could the tribute be a common lion, and the bodhisattva’s mount one of a kind? It is also said that a lion is extremely powerful and can only be pulled by a dozen men.


* From Zhou Mi 周密 (1232-1298), Guixin zazhi 癸辛雜識 (Wenyuange yingyin Siku quanshu 文淵閣景印四庫全書 vol. 1040, Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1987), “Xuji xia” 續集下, 12b-13a.

[1] Wenshu 文殊 is a Chinese transcription of the Sanskrit term Mañjuśrī, a bodhisattva associated with wisdom in Buddhism and often depicted as sitting on a lion. [2] Yan Liben 閻立本 (ca. 601-673) was an eminent artist of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and, despite the scarcity of surviving works, one of the most celebrated painters throughout Chinese history. The painting cited by Zhou Mi in this passage is not found in the surviving paintings attributed to the artist.



Portrait of Manjushri by Ding Guanpeng 丁觀鵬 (fl. 18th century)

Image credit: National Palace Museum, Taipei



Portrait of Manjushri by Yao Wenhan 姚文瀚 (fl. 18th century)

Image credit: National Palace Museum, Taipei


 

Copyright Declaration*:


The texts and images used on the website of Rachelle's Lab are either from the public domain (e.g. Wikipedia), databases with open data licenses (e.g. Shuhua diancang ziliao jiansuo xitong 書畫典藏資料檢索系統, National Palace Museum, Taipei), online libraries that permit reasonable use (e.g. ctext.org), or original work created for this website.


Although fair use of the website for private non-profit purposes is permitted, please note that the website of Rachelle's Lab and its content (including but not limited to translations, blog posts, images, videos, etc.) are protected under international copyright law. If you want to republish, distribute, or make derivative work based on the website content, please contact me, the copyright owner, to get written permission first and make sure to link to the corresponding page when you use it.


版權聲明:


本站所使用的圖片,皆出自公有領域(如維基)、開放數據庫(如臺北故宮博物院書畫典藏資料檢索系統)、允許合理引用的在線圖書館(如中國哲學電子化計劃)及本人創作。本站允許對網站內容進行個人的、非營利性質的合理使用。但請注意,本站及其內容(包括但不限於翻譯、博文、圖像、視頻等)受國際版權法保護。如需基於博客內容進行出版、傳播、製作衍生作品等,請務必先徵求作者(本人)書面許可,并在使用時附上本站鏈接,註明出處。


*Read more about copyright and permission here.



0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page