Wen Duan Honggang
From the perspective of the entire history of human development, in the primitive social period, almost every tribe in the world has produced totem worship at different times, totem worship is a spiritual belief, and all members of the tribe will regard an animal or plant, or a natural phenomenon, as having some kind of kinship with themselves, and identify them as their ancestors.
Usually, the more ferocious and powerful things are, the more they can be worshipped by primitive people, for example, Indians often worship giant snakes, golden eagles, mountains, and thunder and lightning as totems. Primitive African tribes usually worship lions, crocodiles, and rhinos. The ancient Romans often worshipped wolves and eagles as totems. Chinese ancestors usually worshipped dragons, tigers, and unicorns. Ancient Indians often worshipped elephants and lions.
Written in the Classic Taoist work "Liezi" written in the Warring States period, there is an article "Liezi Yellow Emperor", which contains such a sentence: The Yellow Emperor and the Yan Emperor fought in the wilderness of Hanquan, with handsome bears, horses, wolves, leopards, and cats, tigers as the precursors, and eagles, eagles, eagles, and kites as banners.
Stone Lion
This passage shows that as early as ancient times, totem worship has formed a climate in the land of China, so that in major wars, in order to increase their belief in victory, the two sides will use the power of the beast to increase the weight of their victory.
There are three factors that give rise to totem worship, one is that they are believed to be the protectors of the tribe and can bring good luck and superpowers to the entire tribe.
Second, because these animals, plants, and natural phenomena are themselves strong, it is very difficult to overcome them with the ability of primitive people, and they are worshipped because they are afraid of them.
The third is that when worshipping them, various grand ceremonies are held, in which everyone can participate, which helps to strengthen the cohesion of the entire tribe.
Among the objects of worship of the Chinese ancestors, in addition to the common dragons, tigers, unicorns, bears, leopards and other beasts, there is another beast that has to be said, that is, the lion.
Speaking of lions, lion fans will dance with their eyebrows and tell many stories about lions. The lion originates from the African continent, and is also found in a small amount in West and South Asia near the African continent, and is a hermaphrodite large cat with the reputation of "the king of all beasts". The male lion has a ring of mane on its neck, which adds to the mighty, beautiful and domineering temperament.
lion
From the geographical distribution point of view, China did not produce lions in ancient times, most people have not even seen lions in person, but lions are very common in the lives of ancients, even in the lives of modern people, it is often incarnated as a door god, squatting on both sides of the gate with a mighty and domineering posture, loyally guarding the master's home.
Why can lions enter the life of the Chinese nation? This should also start from the two aspects of China's ancient comprehensive national strength and cultural concepts.
As we all know, the Qin Dynasty was the first great unified dynasty in China's history, and after the unified implementation of the weights and measures system throughout the country, it was very conducive to cultural, economic, trade and other exchanges between various localities, resulting in China's comprehensive national strength rising to a new level during the Qin Dynasty, and no previous dynasty could match the Qin Dynasty.
In the Western Han Dynasty, the imperial court once again strengthened the centralized system, and the comprehensive national strength further increased, especially in the era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (156 BC - 87 BC), the wise Han Wu Emperor raised the comprehensive national strength of the Western Han Dynasty to an unprecedented height through a series of measures such as confucianism, currency reform, expanding the territory, opening up the Silk Road, and sending Zhang Qian to the western region.
In the vast western region land bordered by the Western Han Dynasty, there are 36 countries of all sizes, such as Wusun, Guizi, Loulan, Xiaowan, Dawan, Anthony, and Dayue, who have been playing a game of tug-of-war with the Central Plains Dynasty, and if the Central Plains are weakening, they will rush to sweep the Central Plains, and if the Central Plains are strong, they will obediently stay in the Western Regions, sometimes worrying about zhongyuan debt collection, and even using camel caravans to transport many Western region specialties and pay tribute to the Central Plains to show friendship.
Zhang Qian went on a mission to the Western Regions
During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, the Central Plains Dynasty was once again proud and proud, and the country's prestige was unprecedented, so there was the story of "Zhang Qian's envoy to the Western Regions".
In 139 BC and 119 BC, Zhang Qian twice sent envoys to the Western Regions and stayed in the countries of the Western Regions for several years, on the one hand, he opened up the trade channels between the Western Han Dynasty and West Asia and Europe, so that the Han Dynasty established friendly relations with foreign countries, on the other hand, it was also the most important, that is, through the trip to the Western Regions, he publicized the national prestige of the Western Han Dynasty and let the world know that there was a big country in the East that was strong and rich.
It is no exaggeration to say that the Western Han Dynasty was the center of the world at that time, and the technology in all fields of society was at the forefront of the world, and there was enough capital to make the neighboring countries satisfied with it, so that it was regarded as an object of learning and worship.
Human beings, like animals, it is their nature to eat the weak, and the strong always have the capital to show off their might in front of the weak.
After the comprehensive national strength of the Western Han Dynasty was strong, the country was strong and the people were rich, and the economy was prosperous, so that merchants and adventurers in the western region flocked to it one after another and stepped into the Central Plains to seek the dream of getting rich.
It was also at this time that the lion, a specialty of the Western Regions, was taken as a gift to the Central Plains, and the Central Plains people also saw this kind of powerful and domineering, beautiful and generous big cat for the first time.
Fan Ye (398-445), a famous writer and historian of the Southern Dynasty and Song Dynasty, wrote in his book "Later Han Shu Xiyu Biography", which is the earliest record of lions in the Central Plains, namely: Zhang Dizhang and the first year (87 BC), the rest of the country sent envoys to dedicate the master (lion) and Fu Ba.
Such a mighty and domineering animal, not only is it huge and strong, but it also roars like muffled thunder, and its penetration is extremely strong, which makes people shudder without trembling. The People of the Western Han Dynasty had never seen such a beast, and naturally had a little more reverence and fear for it in their hearts.
As the understanding of the lion continues to deepen, people soon find that compared with the same type of beast tiger with cautious fox suspicion as the main personality characteristic, the lion's personality is so brave and straight, and the tenacious and indomitable quality has always been surging in its blood, even if the difficulties in front of it are great, the lion will be brave to move forward and never give up its goal easily. The tiger, on the other hand, lacks the spirit of adventure that it deserves, although fierce, it is afraid to do things, and it lacks the inevitable courage of the lion.
Of course, compared to the suspicious and stubborn tiger, the lion is relatively easy to domesticate, can become a good helper in people's lives, and bring people a lot of fun.
Bridgehead Lion
In people's traditional cultural concepts, the character of the lion is like a bright and honest gentleman, better than the tiger, therefore, when the lion first arrived in the Central Plains, its status was soon raised to an unprecedented height, compared with the tiger that has long been known as a sacred beast in people's minds, not much worse.
After the opening of the "Silk Road", on the one hand, it promoted economic and trade exchanges, and on the other hand, it promoted exchanges in the field of culture.
Buddhism traveled from ancient India along the Silk Road through the western region, spread to Chang'an City, and soon took root in the Central Plains.
In Buddhism, the lion has a symbol of honor, majesty, and strength, and there is a saying in the Jizo Sutra that the lion is fast and has all kinds of deeds.
This sentence is to convey the determination of the Buddha to cultivate the Buddha, representing that the Buddha's cultivation should be brave and diligent, just like the lion, usually staying peacefully, not for some small things (temptation) and moving, but when the lion really wants to act, it must be brave and fearless.
This situation is like meditation, when the mind is like stopping water, the concentration is strong enough to dissolve external interference one by one.
Buddhism usually calls the teachings "lion roar" because Buddhism believes that the lion's roar is very penetrating, can vibrate the deaf, and can make those evil thoughts in the heart disappear in an instant, leaving only a clear and clear realm.
Manjushri Bodhisattva
Manjushri Bodhisattva's mount is a mighty and domineering green lion, and usually, the green lion is quiet, lying quietly at the door of Manjushri Bodhisattva's dharma field, guarding the tranquility here. When Manjushri was about to go out, the green lion would meekly come over and crawl to the ground, waiting for the bodhisattva to sit on it.
As people's understanding of lions became more and more profound, they suddenly found that lions are not just beasts of good fortune that maintain order and can bring security to sentient beings? Therefore, after all aspects of publicity, the lion has the reputation of "beast".
Because of the aura of the beast, it is time for the lion to enjoy people's respect and worship. However, after all, the Central Plains do not produce lions, lions are rare animals, it is usually difficult to see it, people can only fear lions through other ways.
Due to the influence of Buddhist culture, the earliest temples in ancient China to treat lions as holy relics and beasts were temples.
In the middle and late Western Han Dynasty, Buddhism has taken root in major cities in China, and some large-scale monasteries have been built one after another, and a pair of majestic stone carved lions are often placed at the gate of the temple, on the one hand, to fear the lion, on the other hand, to show the determination of the monks to cultivate Buddhism.
This practice of Buddhist disciples in monasteries directly affected the aesthetics of ordinary people, and eventually promoted lions to the lives of ordinary people. At first, some official governments and large households began to follow the practice of the temple and moved the stone lion to their own gate, because these people felt that the mighty and domineering lion squatting at the gate was a very competent gatekeeper god, with a good role as a town house, and also had a prominent decorative role, so that the door had a beautiful scenery.
By the Tang Dynasty, China's stone carving art and Buddhist culture have been unprecedented development, with lions as the theme of stone carving art, in addition to the common town house lion, there are Kangtou lion, coin lion, door pier lion, horse pile lion, bridge lion, and other kinds of colorful, high artistic value of lion stone carving, so that people can see the traces of "lion" everywhere in life.
After hundreds of years of Buddhist culture and stone carving art to promote the spirit of the lion in the Tang Dynasty, from the end of the Tang Dynasty, the lion was truly deified in the minds of the Chinese people, and established the status of Rui Beast and Divine Beast, which has continued until now.