When we travel around the world, we will see tall and mighty stone lions at the doors of many ancient buildings. This has become a feature of ancient architecture, and many places people will also have stone lions in their homes, which shows that stone lions are placed at the door of the houses with special meanings. But did you know? In ancient China, there was no such animal as a lion, and lions belonged to foreign animals. Speaking of the origin of lions, but also to the Silk Road of the Han Dynasty, because many Chinese merchants sold local goods to other countries through this road, which led to various cultures in other countries, and also came to China through this road.
Therefore, the lions of the western countries spread to the mainland. In the concept of the ancients, the lion is a beast that resembles both a tiger and a leopard, because the lion looks powerful and majestic, so the ancient royal family attached great importance to the lion and often spent a lot of money to buy lions in the western region. Some countries in the western region even paid tribute to the mainland, so that the culture of lions spread on the mainland. Because of the tall and mighty image of the lion, the ancient royal family used the lion as a symbol of supreme power, so we can see two huge and mighty stone lions at the entrance of the ancient palace building.
In the folk, the image of the lion becomes a beast that cares for the family. Therefore, many rich families in ancient times would also put two stone lions at the door. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, there was even a very popular lion dance, and we can still see lion dances at large events today. Moreover, in the Tang Dynasty, people were more interested in this beast, and even its image appeared on many Tang Dynasty objects, which also represented people's recognition of its image. Although the number of lions attracted by the ancient continent was not large, lions became an inseparable part of the traditional culture of the continent. However, it can also be seen that the reason for the popularity of the lion in the mainland is inseparable from its mighty appearance. First it was loved by the royal family, and then it spread to the people.