Lions in China can be regarded as synonymous with wealth, until today, many people will put two majestic and thick stone lions on both sides of the gate of their houses, mainly because in some of the powerful beasts that are widely known in the folk, the dragon is the exclusive of the son of heaven, ordinary people can not be used as decoration, and the tiger is somewhat "descending tiger" meaning, so the lion has become a symbol of the powerful family.
Lion is the famous "king of the steppe", China does not produce lions, lions come to China mainly as gifts from other countries for "tribute", so for a long time, ordinary people can not actually see lions, the impression of lions mainly comes from the descriptions of some high-ranking officials, and they will inevitably add their own subjective imagination to the description.
For example, Dongfang Shuo said in the "Book of Ten Continents" that "there are masters, giant teeth to ward off evil spirits, dragon teeth of heavenly deer, and beasts with copper heads and iron foreheads", so the lion gradually became a symbol of majesty, evil repellence and dignity in people's hearts. Folk flock to lions, and even derive traditional customs such as "lion dances" that symbolize festivities, but the attitude of the imperial family to lions has gradually changed.
Since the Beginning of the Han Dynasty, almost all dynasties have other countries to offer lions to pay tribute, according to the "Book of Later Han", only in the Han Dynasty, the countries that came to offer lions were the Yueshi Kingdom, the Resting State, the Shule Kingdom, etc., and even during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, There were also Portuguese envoys to offer lions, but the Chinese emperor was gradually dissatisfied with these lions as tributes during the Tang Dynasty.
Since the Beginning of the Tang Dynasty, it has begun to "pay tribute", that is, to refuse to accept the lion as a tribute, to know that ancient transportation is not developed, people want to come to China to give a gift that also takes a long time, taking great risks, so the Chinese emperor is usually "thick to thin", to give it a very tens of times or even hundreds of times the return, and will not refuse to accept this gift, because it is too impersonal.
However, there are many times in history, refusing to accept the lion as a gift, especially in the Ming Dynasty, a small country called Samarkhan in the western region sent lions to the Ming Dynasty one after another, the emperor has clearly said no, but Samarkand still continues to send non-stop, which makes the Ming Emperor also a little confused, so he sent someone to check the reason, and the result was that he was angry after knowing the real reason.
In the seventeenth year of Chenghua (1481), Samarkhan took the Silk Road to send two lions to the Ming Dynasty, and when he arrived at Jiayuguan, the emperor decreed: "Although the lion is indeed a strange beast, it cannot be sacrificed to the ancestors, there is no use, you still bring it back!" As a result, in the twenty-second year of Chenghua, these people came to the Ming Dynasty from the southeast coast with lions, expressing their offer to "pay tribute", which was again rejected.
It turned out that Chen Xuan, the envoy of Guangdong Province, had already found out that the real reason why they kept paying tribute was because during the reign of Zhu Di, the ancestor of Ming Chengzu, because he wanted to have a prosperous scene of "coming from all over the world", he gave a huge reward to these countries that sent lions, and a lion could be exchanged for thirty large boxes of utensils including protecting precious things such as ceramics, silk, etc., and profited thousands of times.
So these small countries in the western region were happy to send lions to the Ming Dynasty, mainly "this western region Jiahu is a traitor", these lions are only some merchants in order to make money, so the Ming emperor angrily said don't treat me as a fool, and the holy decree that no matter who comes to send the lion, let them bring it back themselves.
References: "Special Domain Weekly Consultation: Samarkand", "Chinese Lion Worship and Lion Dance"