I originally wrote this on the comments section of your post. But, I thought maybe I should bring it here so we can clarify and learn something.
You know what I don't get about Chinese art?
The lions.
For one, how did a lion come to be such a significant symbol in China, was there lions there at one time?
I mean I can get why lions were important to African art, or even Native American, because we have the mountain lion. But how did China develop a nitch for them?
Are they only a symbol of power or were there literally lions in China and that is how they came to exist in Chinese art of all eras...?
And why, why, why, do they always distort them, like they are half dragon...?
I never understood the lion as related by the Chinese.
Can you expand on this point Ally?
5 comments:
I guess in the same way, say the Brits imported lions from Africa as symbolic in their art, it also makes sense the Chinese would have imported it too.
But, the distortion is what throws me.
Is it representing a different type or breed of lion, one indiginous to China, or is the distortion entirely artistic?
If it is artistic, WHY distort it into an almost unrecognizable animal?
I just don't get it.
Christy
The Chinese did have expeditions to Africa (the largest one was run by a eunuch named Ho Cheng around 1200 or so), so they definitely knew of lions.
As for lions being distorted, consider it along the same lines of Jesus being depicted as a white European. Namely, change the subject to fit the audience's aesthetics.
That's my best guess. I am no historian so I can't say more.
Ally McRepuke
"As for lions being distorted, consider it along the same lines of Jesus being depicted as a white European. Namely, change the subject to fit the audience's aesthetics"
That is a great way to describe it. I guess the normal form of a lion would be out of synch with the more... fluid, ornamental style of the Chinese.
A eunich...OWWWWWW!
It is one of those things that just always bugged me.
Christy
Asian countries have had eunuchs for thousands of years. The primary reason for castration would be to make sure they don't compete against the king/emperor for concubines.
In Confucian China, your body had to be kept whole, so eunuchs stored their testicles in a container and carried it with them at all times.
Ally McRepuke
They had to carry around... their own severed balls... at all times...?
Holy crap. I am so not sure I wanted to know that.
Wow. That is so brutal I just want to cry.
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