After the 14th century, lion statues started to lose their ferocity; sculptors gave them certain features common to Pekingese lapdogs, which resulted in a much more amiable appearance. They always come in pairs, a lion and lioness couple; the male is usually depicted with a paw on an embroidered ball, and his lioness fondly resting a front paw on a lion cub. Together they stand for peace and love.

Credited with divine powers that can scare away demons and fend off disasters, lions are carved or depicted on various parts of a building. The Lugou (Marco Polo) Bridge in the southwestern outskirts of Beijing, for instance, has hundreds of lions on its stone posts, each in a different posture. There are many images of lions embracing their cubs but the carving is so intricate that no exact count of the total number has yet been made. Built in 1189, the bridge has survived the Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties and the Republic of China, each era leaving behind lion carvings of its time. The bridge is therefore regarded as a museum of Chinese lion sculptures.

Craftsmen in ancient China loved to bring in punning references: In Chinese “lion” is a homophone for “generation,” so a lion couple with 98 cubs symbolized the wish for “one hundred generations of peace.”

The Xiezhi, a unicorn goat-like animal in Chinese folklore, can allegedly tell the treacherous from the righteous. On seeing a corrupt official, it rams him and gobbles him up. When brought to a dispute, it points its horn to the guilty party, and may gore the transgressor to death if the crime is a grim one. This is why Xiezhi statues were placed at the gate of courthouses in the past.

The Pixiu, another invented creature, is reserved for banks. Feces were an allusion to wealth in traditional Chinese culture, so the Pixiu, with a broad mouth but no anus, is regarded as raking in great fortune and never letting go of it. In a time of renewed public interest in auspicious symbols Pixiu images are growing popular in offices and homes across China.

Imperial Totem

Chinese call themselves “children of the dragon,” because in Chinese myth all the gods critical to mankind’s creation and survival were dragons – Pangu, who separated heaven from earth, Fuxi, who invented the Eight Trigrams, writing and fishing, and Nüwa, who shaped the first human beings from clay. Dragons are said to have helped the Yellow Emperor to unite China in the tribal era, and helped Yu the Great to tame the floods, both decisive events for the course of Chinese history.

Dragons in fact combine features from various animals: deer antlers, fish scales, eagle claws, tiger eyes, ox lips, lion nose, and snake body.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911) the dragon image came to represent the emperor, since the imperial rulers saw themselves as dragons in mortal form. Evidence of this belief can be found in the nine-dragon walls in the Forbidden City and Beihai Park in Beijing, and in Datong of Shanxi Province. Nine dragons snarling amid waves and clouds crowd the glazed-brick faces of these walls, whose colors remain vivid and striking despite centuries of weathering.

In Chinese folklore the dragon is the God of Water. A family of dragons governs the Four Seas and all rivers, and controls the rain. They can soar into the sky, dive to the ocean depths, and can take human guise. There are nine sons, each with a distinct appearance.

Bixi is the eldest son and often mistaken for a turtle. Bixi is sturdy and long- lived; so many bases for inscribed steles in ancient times took the form of Bixi.