The Chinese Art of Lion Dancing

 

By William Y.K. Lee

Written 2001 Third Revision 2009

 

The Lion in General

     Understanding the Chinese art of lion dancing is to understand Chinese culture.  Possibly no other Chinese tradition includes the many various aspects of our culture in some form or another like the Lion dance.  The Lion dance includes religion/philosophy (Taoism-Feng Shui, Buddhism, Confucianism and astrology), literature (myths, fables, legends and fact), the arts (Chinese opera, acrobatics, martial, music, and calligraphy), science (astronomy, seasons, and agriculture), language, and even food.  Chinese culture is full of symbolisms many based on homonyms of the language, pictures and objects.   Yet one might ask where did the Chinese Lion come from since it is not native to China?  This article will try to cover the various aspects of Chinese Lion dancing.

 


 

The Lion however, is often confused in the west with the Dragon, especially by the media.  At the very least, the Dragon is usually manipulated by at least 10 people (with one person wielding the pearl), while two people are required to perform the Lion.  It is interesting to note however that one of the stories about the lion is that it was said to be the ninth son of the Dragon and its name was Jioa Tu. He was said to be obedient, well behaved, but tight-lipped as a mussel and fond of closing things. Thus his image was found carved on doors or inscribed on the gate piers of palaces, gardens and residences. Meanwhile a form of the Lion dance is supposedly documented to having made its appearance during the Han dynasty (206 B.C.-24 A.D.) and flourished during the Tang dynasty (618-906 A.D.).  Although it is safe to say that it probably didn’t look like the Lions of the past two centuries.

 


 

Legends and Myths

 The Lion as a Foreign Tribute

     A foreign emissary from the west thought to be Persia or more specifically Parthia, was looking to establish friendly trade relations with China (During the Han Dynasty as the first citation is purportedly chronicled in the Han historical records at about 134 A.D., although others have placed it during the reign of Emperor Zhang in 87 A.D.) was greeted warmly with a grand banquet and entertainment. Part of the entertainment included various dancers dressed in animal costumes. The emissary noticed that the lion was not among them. In his inquiry, he found that the Chinese had never seen a lion before. He told the imperial court that in his county, the lion was considered the King of Beasts. Upon the emissaries return, the King of Parthia had a lion sent as part of a tribute to the emperor (where rare and exotic gifts were held in high regard by court officials) and thus managed to solidify a friendly trade relationship. About a year later it is documented that a country called Yuezhi also offered a lion as tribute. There are other similar stories but with different twists. One includes a diplomat from another country saying that his people will continue to yield to the Emperor and the Han and continue to pay the tributes only if they can tame the Lion that was brought as a gift in a year’s time. However, during the process, the untamable lion was killed, instead the Emperor and his court was forced to make a costume of the lion and have two people imitate the lion, supposedly the ploy worked and the country continued to be a tributary state to China.

 

The Emperor's Pet Lion

     Sometime in the past there was an emperor who had many different exotic animals, his favorite one being the lion. However, one day after many years, the lion became ill and shortly died thereafter.  With the loss of his favorite pet lion the Emperor became down trodden and grieved considerably till he himself became ill. Alarmed, the court officials became concerned as to what to do. Nothing seemed to work. Eventually, one court official took the corpse of the lion and had it fashioned it into a costume. Two young, limber, and athletic boys were then trained to mimic the lion. After several days, the lion was presented to the Emperor. Seeing his favorite pet lion, the Emperor would soon regain his health. In time this incident became publicly known and soon imitated by the common people who would also add musical instruments to this joyful dance.

 

Note: It is believed that the lion having been introduced into China as tribute would sometimes be led out for public display. Because of its rarity and the difficulty in handling, a form of dance or theatrics grew out of imitations of the lion's appearance and movements at some point in substitution of the live animal with mythic and religious beliefs being attributed soon afterwards. This is akin to tribes isolated from modern day society seeing an airplane and believing them to be gods flying above them.  Also the earliest known stone lions were sculpted at the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25 - 220 AD) with the introduction of Buddhism into ancient China as they were believed to be guardians of Buddhism and were once used as the state seal of ancient India.

 

Lion Breaking the Elephant Formation

     The Sung dynasty was at war with a country between present day Laos and Burma. A general had laid siege to one of the strongholds and when the enemy relief column arrived, they were beaten back. Moreover, they had war elephants so that breaking out through their lines was impossible. The general remembered that the lion was the king of beasts and all animals were frightened of it. He ordered his men to devise lion costumes and to charge the enemy from the forest. With the roll of battle drums, other percussion instruments and yelling, the men dressed as lions charged out of the woods. The noise and the sight of the manmade lions frightened the enemy's war elephants. In a panic, the enemy troops fled in a state of confusion. This allowed the Sung troops to cut the fleeing troops from behind and brought the General and the Sung troops a resounding victory.

 

The Emperor’s Dream

     There are several similar versions of the same story. One is to have taken place during the Tang Dynasty while the other occurred during the Qing dynasty’s Emperor Chien Lung’s reign. Yet there are many myths and folklores that have existed for thousands of years.  So how did the southern lion come to be?  One popular story dates to the Tang dynasty (618-906 AD).  It tells of an Emperor that had a strange dream in which a strange animal had saved his life.  The next morning, the Emperor told those in his court of his dream.  He wanted to know what the creature was and what it meant.  One of the ministers told the emperor that it resembled an animal from the west called the lion.  The Emperor believed that since it saved his life, it was a sign of good fortune and ordered the court to construct a lion.  However, no one had ever seen a lion, so the artisans built the lion from the Emperor’s description but also freely used elements of the dragon, phoenix and unicorn.

 

Lion Cast From Heaven

     From the religious side, it is believed that the Foo dog was the basis for the lion.  The Foo dog was a guardian for the Jade Emperor who was assigned to guard the flower of immortality. However, Lion was tempted and ate the flower.  When the Jade Emperor found out, he was enraged, because this was not the Lion’s first indiscretion. So the Jade Emperor had Lion beheaded and cast from heaven (A slight variation has the lion playing one too many tricks on the Jade Emperor as the reason for being cast out). Kwan Yin the “Goddess of Mercy,” saw what had transpired and felt sorry for Lion (though he was beheaded Lion had not died since he had eaten the flower of immortality.).  She took an enchanted ribbon and tied Lion’s head back to his body (thus one of the symbolisms of the ribbon on the Lion’s horn). Also the red ribbon is considered magical as malevolent beings are afraid of the color red. Lion was extremely grateful and remorseful and promised to do good deeds.  To further help lion, Kwan Yin placed a heavenly mirror on his forehead to protect Lion and scare away evil.

 

The Nian

Another story has farm villages in Fat San county always being terrorized by a strange beast at year’s end that would ravage their crops and because the beast also made sounds that sounded like “Nian-Nian” (year) when it opened its mouth it was dubbed Nian Shou (年獸) or Year Beast. As it never harmed any villagers or the other animals, the villager’s suspected it was a godly beast and dared not harm it. However, due its annual arrivals the crops were greatly diminished. As a result of this, the farmers thought out a plan to drive the beast away. They used bamboo strips and paper to fashion a likeness of the beast while using strips of cloth sewn together to replicate the body. Along with pot, pans and other instruments that could produce loud noises, the villagers went out into the fields with their creation to scare the beast away the next time it made its appearance. The nian shou was so startled that it was never seen again. Gradually the dance became a yearly custom which became known as “taking away the nian." This name was later abandoned because the village elders began considering the lion as an auspicious animal, so the name would be changed to the “Auspicious lion dance” (Exactly how, where or why it was changed from “year beast” to a lion has always been debated).

 

A slight variation of the tale has it that neither the Tiger nor the Ox could defeat this beast.  So they asked the lion for his help. The Lion agreed, so when the Nian Shou showed up at years end the Lion charged and attacked the Nian.  Wounded, the Nian Shou took off. But the beast returned the following year and Lion could not be summoned for he was busy protecting the Emperor’s gates.  So the village built a likeness of the Lion and used it to scare the Nian Shou away. Another plausible belief was that the nian shou may have been bandits in disguise.

 

The Villager’s Hunt the Nian and the Monk Tames the Lion

There is also 2 other similar stories to the one above.  One has the village hiring (others say volunteering) local kung-fu experts to kill what was thought to be a nian shou or lion that had been terrorizing them.  On 3 occasions, the Kung fu experts set out to catch this beast, but were unsuccessful.  So instead they taught the villagers kung-fu to protect them selves.  The next time the beast showed up, the villagers managed to kill the supposed beast.  Hence forth, the villagers celebrated by doing a dance with a lion costume every New Year to celebrate their good fortune.  In the 3rd version, villagers asked a local (again others say the protagonist offered) Buddhist monk for help, the Monk agreed.  When the monk returned, the villagers were astonished that he had tamed the lion with the use of his magical red belt (another mythical story to tie the red ribbon found on the lion’s horn and to propagate Buddhism).  Eventually the lion would become protector of the people after being taught Buddhism by the monk.

 

 

The Dai Tou Fut (Big Headed Buddha)

The Southern Lion is often accompanied by what is called the “Big Headed Buddha” (Dai Tou Fut).  It is also known as the Monk, Laughing Buddha, or Funny Man.  It accompanies the Lion as it journeys to give good tidings to all it encounters.  It basically provides comic relief as he plays, teases and guides the Lion.  However, the dai tou fut is played primarily played by a knowledgeable senior member of the group. This is to ensure that if the lion gets into a precarious situation, the dai tou fut can assist the lion to avoid any snafu. There is also a female counterpart to the Dai tou fut, but I have never seen it played without its male companion.  Originally, the Buddha and his female companion Liu Tsui was a separate popular comical myth/story and skit/play that got incorporated into the Lion dance routine by traveling Cantonese Chinese Opera troops and other performers. In Dr. William Hu’s Book-Chinese Lion Dance Explained; there is a detailed mythical story on the Dai Fut and his female companion Liu-Tsui or Jade-Green Willow.  Many mistake the story of the monk taming the Lion and turning it into the protector of the people as the basis of the Dai Tou Fut, but this story does not account for the female companion Liu Tsui.  Through its association with the Lion, other stories have emerged regarding the fan (palm leaf) that is used by the Big headed Buddha.  One of which is that the fan has magical powers and was used to subdue the Lion. This element was probably borrowed from the “Journey to the West,” novel in which Monkey (Sun Wu Kong) tries to borrow a palm leaf fan. 

 

In essence there are four types of lions: 1) Pi Kou Shih-closed mouth Lion, 2) Kai Kou Shih-Open mouth Lion, 3) Pei Fang Shih-Northern/Peking/Beijing Lion and 4) Hsing Shih-Southern Cantonese Lion.

 

Northern Lion

     However, for the most part the Lion is broken down into 2 regions and are the best known.  The first being the Northern Beijing Lion, which resembles a Pekinese dog.  Practitioners are fully covered and its movements resemble that of an animated dog with some acrobatic stunts that involve giant balls and seesaws.  Northern Lions have both a male and female version, which is differentiated primarily by the color of the ribbons tied to the head, red for male and blue/green for female.   Although there are other subtle features as well that denotes its gender.  There is even a baby Northern Lion, which is performed by a single person.  The body is made of cloth with either fine hemp, nylon , yarn or some other material sewn and layered on the cloth to represent the Lions hair which is always dyed yellow (Also known as yellow gold or imperial yellow, the color of the emperor) as it was first performed only for the Imperial and Royal court.  Eventually the populace and the rest of the world got their first glimpse of the Northern Lion through Chinese acrobatic troupes.  The head originally was a carving made of wood, and later made of bamboo, rattan and other materials, it is then layered in paper-mache fashion.  The Northern Lion is used primarily for entertainment purposes.

 

Southern Lion

   

Fat San and Hok San Golden Lions

     The second type of Lion is the more popular Southern Cantonese Lion.  Two of the more popular Southern lions are the Fat San/Fo shan (佛山-Buddha mountain) and Hok San/He shan (鹤山-Crane Mountain).  There are other types of lions from other provinces, but because most of the Chinese that emigrated from China are from Guangdong (Kwangtung) province (廣東省) these are the lions that are most seen around the world.  These Lions are performed predominantly by Kung-Fu clubs, although a Benevolent Association may hire a Lion Dance Master to tutor its youths to educate them in Chinese culture and to keep them physically fit.  However, in the beginning, the Lions were performed by actors and dancers of the local or traveling opera troupe. These lions are used for blessings as well as entertainment purposes. In fact Kung Fu practitioners at one time called the southern lion dance “God Head-dance,” due to the fact that the animal was considered as a symbol of majesty and divinity.

 

The names of the people who created the Cantonese Fat San lion version is not widely known, however most agree that the creator of the Hok San lion was a man by the name of Feng Geng Zhang who did so after studying the Fat Style of lion dance.

 

The Fat San’s head is rounder in shape and has a curved mouth while the Hok san’s face is longer and its mouth is flat and shaped like a duck’s bill (hence its nick name the duck bill lion). Traditionally, the lion head’s frame is made of rattan, wicker and bamboo while the shell is layered with gauze like paper in paper-mache fashion followed by gauze and more gauze like paper. This step is repeated several more times, upon which the head is then painted with various colors and patterns that are symbolically auspicious. Peach wood was also used for the two handle bars as it was believed that the wood served as a charm against evil. The head was then adorned with many ornaments and decorations. Moving parts allow for the movement of eyelids, ears and mouth, all to make the lion more animated and life like. The eyes are made of wood with a hole bored in the center with a piece of glass/plastic covering it. With the advent of batteries, miniature light bulbs and the L.E.D., these were placed in the eyes to give them a surreal glowing look. They served not only as a decorative purpose, but technically a symbolically functional one as well, as with many cultures Chinese believed that evil omens like to hide in darkness.

 


 

These heads tended to be heavy; a full sized Lion head may weigh any where between 30-50 pounds depending on the amount of ornaments and decorations.  The dancers were not fully covered (unlike the Northern Lion) while the body/tail was long and made of various colored cloths.  This Lion was not only used for religious purposes but for martial arts training as well.  The weight of the Lion head helped strengthen the back and upper body.  The footwork closely followed a school’s Kung Fu style. While the stepping patterns (7 star, 5 star, and 3star) closely mirrored the constellations. In essence it is like aerobics training with weights.

 

Some troupes will take the traditional heads and add a layer of fiberglass.  Many Kung fu clubs and associations do this to strengthen the heads especially if they are in an area that still allows firecrackers.  Of course this makes the heads heavier which is good if you're a martial artist in training, not so good if you are going to do acrobatics on high poles.  With this in mind, some clubs keep separate Lions depending on the situation.

 

     If it mimicked any particular animal it would be that of a cat.  In fact, there are instructors who would have their students study the movements of a cat at play before they are taught Lion dancing.  This is particularly true with practitioners using the Hok San Lion.  The selection of which type of Southern Lion a school chose was dependent upon the style of Kung Fu taught.  As an example, practitioners of Hung Gar Kung Fu-would normally use the Fat San Lion, while practitioners of Choy Li Fut and White Crane would use the Hok San.  It should be noted that this was a general association and not a rule etched in stone. In areas such as Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan the Hok-San Lion was more prevalent.  While in Hong Kong, the United States, Canada and other countries the Fat San Lion was more prevalent.

 

     Thru modern technology, aluminum, PVC, colored laser paper and other materials are now used.  Along with the removal of many ornaments and the lessening of layers of gauze and paper, the Lion head has become extremely light.  The newer Lions also sport a shorter tail. These advent or changes was partly necessitated because of the growing popularity of Lion Dance competitions on high poles known as jongs.  The players also now sport pants that match the body/tail of the Lion.  Another difference between the modern and traditional is that the modern Lions are friendlier looking while traditional Lions tended to be much fiercer looking.  These newer hybrid of Lions are known as Golden Lions because their movements are more like that of its Northern counter part the Beijing Lion (whose fur has a gold like color).  Thus people will often also use the phrase Southern Lion, Northern Dance or doggy lions. The new lightweight Lion heads and shorter tails allow for more lifelike realism and afford the dancers to execute more breathtaking acrobatic maneuvers with better ease.

 

Note: It is said, that a Sifu whose team had lost a lion competition (challenge) with a dragon, ripped the tail in half out of frustration.  After regaining his composure, he realized his mistake and repaired what was left of the tail.  From this he realized that there were many advantages to the lion sporting a shorter tail. At the next meeting his lion team used these changes to come out on top. 

 

Music

     The Chinese divided the musical instruments into eight categories that corresponded to the Ba Gua. The ones that accompany the Lion are of the metal, wood, and skin categories and consist of the gong and cymbals (metal), clappers (wood), and drum (skin). At one time troupes performed with both large and small sized cymbals and gongs along with a wooden clapper.  However, the affect of the clapper has since long been accomplished by the effect of rim tapping the side of the drum with the drumsticks as the frame of the drum and drumsticks are both made of wood. The Drum represents the Lions voice or roar and thus its mood or emotion.  The drummer sets the tone for the Lion, but with a good team, the drummer can and will follow the Lion’s lead.  However, less one thinks that the beats are random, there are set beats/patterns used at certain times in a performance and have poetic names such as 3 star, 7 star, rolling thunder, and big drum to name a few.  By playing a fast tempo the players can invoke a mood that the lion is excited, playing it fast and loud, could make the lion seem like he is angry. Playing it soft and slow with breaks, the lion is cautious and thinking. Playing it soft and slow with short beats, the lion is sad, just to name a few. The drum was a very important part of Chinese Culture in that it was used for military, civil and religious functions as well as for musical entertainment. The gong (luo) is considered to be of the bell family; in particular the small gong was sometimes called ling. The word ling was a homonym for the words of command/order and spiritual. Thus together it was believed to have powers over the spiritual world and could command them to disperse.

 

     There is some confusion that the drum’s skin is made of cowhide because of the translation of the Chinese character for the ox (ox is a large castrated adult male of the bovine species). More precisely the skin is traditionally made from a water buffalo hide and is coated with tung oil.  Brass or iron nails hold the skin to the wooden frame.  Bandings are used to keep the frames shape and tightness of the drum while the same gauze like paper used on the Lion is pasted over the wooden frame.  Along with enamel or lacquer it helps contain the sound of the drum from leaking out through the cracks.  This process will probably change as advents in technology and processing become available.  Also, to help fine-tune the drums, tuning forks are located within the drum.    

 

     The best way to dry the skin is by natural means-using the sun.  If the skin has stretched or the sound is low, you can tighten it by taking a damp cloth and placing it on the underside of the drum, leaving it to soak overnight.  The drum is then placed under the sun in the morning; this will help tighten it.  One must be careful not to make it too tight as this not only can make the pitch of the drum too high, but can also make the drum more fragile to breaking. Today some clubs may place a piece of duct tape over the spot that the sticks meet the skin to lessen the wear and tear.

 

Creating the Lion, More Than Art

     After the Taiping rebellion in the mid 1800’s, Cantonese opera was banned by the Manchurian Qing dynasty for a period of time. Although the rebellion was due to poor Chinese Christian peasants, the Qing government originally believed it was orchestrated by the Hung Mun organization (secret societies fighting against the foreign Manchurian Qing dynasty) which used Chinese opera and the red boats to do their work. What was not banned was the lion dance. However, at this time, it was performed only during Chinese New Years.  It was then suggested that the practice of Huo-Shih (basically the dispelling of different types of bad luck) be instituted.  In order to dispel evil, bad luck, malevolence and other negative energies, a stronger yang energy/force is required. Because of this, symbolic changes were made to the Lion to keep it in line with the theme of the Lion being more auspicious and holy.

 

Four Auspicious Beasts Become One

     Both the Fat-San and Hok-San Lions were created using different aspects of Chinese culture to bring it to life, particularly the Fat–San Lion. First there is the Religious aspect (Taoism/Feng-Shui). In creating the Southern Cantonese Fat-San Lion, the creators took the protruding forehead (a large forehead is symbolic of intelligence in Chinese culture) and beard from the Dragon (lung/long), the ears and tail from the Chinese Unicorn (Chi-Lin-not to be confused with the western version of the unicorn), the Tortoise’s shell-the hump on the back of the Lion head, and Phoenix-horn like protrusion shaped like a bird (most lions  now sport what is called the Bamboo shoot and plain horned top knot).  The snake which was paired with the tortoise was represented by the sausage like spine that stretched the length of the lion’s body (most of the newer versions have since omitted this feature).

 

The Black Tortoise, the Green Dragon, Vermillion Phoenix, and Golden Chi-Lin, are known as the four celestial beasts while the first three along with the white tiger are part of what is called the sz ling, guardians of the four directions (which are used in astronomy, gauging of seasons, and astrology/divination etc).

 

The belief is that this will endow the Lion with the traits of each of these auspicious beasts.  The dragon guards the east, its color is green, its season is spring, represents the male and a strong yang element while being able to ascend to the heavens.  The Phoenix guards the south and its color is red, has a strong yin element, its season is summer, while it brings benevolence, virtue and peace to the Lion’s character.  The tortoise meanwhile guards the north, has the color black (often called the Black Knight), and resides in the season of winter, while bringing the traits of longevity, prosperity and protection to the Lion.  The snake is wrapped around the tortoise and brings the qualities of rebirth, renewal and healing.  Finally, the Unicorn provides protection against poison arrows and is said to appear whenever a great sage is born or about to pass.

 

Note: There is a myth of a Giant Tortoise that surfaced and discovered by a legendary figure named Fu-Hsi, on its back was a pattern of three rows broken into three columns.  Each box a number represented by dots.  If you added any of the three numbers (diagonal, vertical or horizontal) they added to 15, this became known as the Lou Shu square and is responsible for the Ba Gua (8 trigrams). 

 

 

The Horn

 

     At the top of the lion’s head is often a horn or more appropriately a top knot. Some may wonder why a lion has a horn. There is evidence of stone lions as far back as the Tang dynasty with a horn like protuberance on the top of its head. Furthermore it is believed that horns in Chinese culture are symbolic of supernatural powers. In addition the lion is deemed as a benevolent auspicious creature and an agent of heaven; it had the power to punish and to assist those in need but because of the Buddhist concept that all life was sacred, it was thought that the Chinese lion according to one reference was non carnivorous, a vegetarian (which also ties into the act known as “Choy Cheng/Cai Qing-picking the greens,” where the greens were some sort of vegetable that the lion ate and expelled). So following nature as its guide, where carnivorous creatures had protruding teeth and plant eating animals such as a deer, ram, goat, and water buffalo had horns and used it for fighting and compounded with the belief that it symbolized supernatural power, the craftsman and its creators gave the Southern Cantonese lion a horn.

 

     Two of the most common types of angled horns seen on a southern lion are called the bamboo shoot top knot with a pointed end (named so because of its physical appearance and commonly found on Fat San style heads) and the fist horn which is similar to the bamboo shoot but with the end blunted off like a fist (commonly found but not limited to the Hok San style of heads). Bamboo is typically a symbol of longevity and courage in the midst of adversity. Through word play it is also a symbol of modesty. On the lion and through its ties to the Hung Mun, the bamboo shoot horn represented the common soldier fighting against the Qing while the fist horn represented authority.   

 

     Furthermore these traditional horns were normally painted black. The color black was regarded as the color of heaven in the Yi Jing (Book of Changes). The saying "heaven and earth of mysterious black" was rooted in the feeling of ancient people that the northern sky shows a mysterious black color for a long time. They thought that the North Star is where the Tian Di (Heavenly Emperor) resides. Therefore, black was regarded as the king of all colors in ancient China. It is also the single color that was worshipped the longest time in ancient China. In the Taiji diagram of ancient China, black and white are used to represent the unity of Yin and Yang.

 

     There are to note different types of horns on the Lion and not just the ones that people are used to seeing (bamboo shoot and fist horn). As mentioned earlier, there is the Phoenix top knot, with the others being the Eagle and the Ao yu, a mystical sea turtle. The Eagle (鷹) represents a hero (英) as they are homonyms and also represents one with high ideals and morals. The Ao yu, although it translates into “mystical sea turtle,” has the head that looks like a dragon and the body of a carp. It is representative of high literary or scholarly achievement and often used by those in fishing villages. Also, in olden days when Martial arts schools feuded, it wasn’t uncommon for a lion to have an iron horn to gash and rip apart a rival school’s Lion when they crossed paths in competitions or crossings. In Hong Kong it had gotten so bad that authorities banned clubs from parading from their practice facility to the location of the performance.

 

On each side of the Lion’s horn are two doughnut shaped protrusions. They symbolize the doughnut type hair style found on the apprentice/attendants of Taoist priests. This is to show the lion’s ties to Taoism. It also showed the lion as an apprentice of Taoism. Atop the doughnut one can also see different artistic designs, the most prevalent now being those that represent the chrysanthemum, a symbol of long life.

 


 

The Heavenly Mirror and the Golden Flower

     When looking at the lion, a person will also a golden flower (called Jin Hua) that is tied with the red flower ribbon to the horn and a polished reflective metal disk on its forehead that represents the heavenly mirror (chiao tien ching).  A mirror is used to reflect the pure illuminating light at anything inauspicious to minimize its negative influences and reveal any hidden spirits. Also, like many cultures, it is believed that upon seeing its own reflection anything malevolent is frightened away. The golden flower is a symbol of a person who was been promoted or successfully passed civil exams, in this case it is a symbol that the lion has been promoted to protecting the people. Sometimes in place of the golden flower are pomelo leaves or green onions which basically have special powers over malevolent forces.

 

The Red Ribbon

     The red flower ribbon has two stories. One, it represents several different Buddhist lore, one of which is when the lion was beheaded and cast from heaven, the red magical ribbon was used to tie his head back together and help the lion in his fight against the dark forces when it repented. The other Buddhist lore being that when a Buddhist monk used it to tame the lion and make it a protector of the people, thus it shows that the lion has been tamed.

 

     In the second version which is more factual in nature, finds its roots in Hung Mun culture. The color of red represents the color of blood while the horn is an emblem for use in fighting. Together it was a reminder of the Chinese blood spilt in the fight against the Manchurian Qing/Ching dynasty who ruled over China at the time. This aspect was not as well known, because if the Ching government found out, it would have been viewed as subversive and the lion dance would have been banned.

 

The emphasis of the color red in Chinese culture originated from the Han Chinese culture's veneration towards the color red. The color red wards off anything evil, and is auspicious. This view had already begun in pre-historic times. Furthermore the color of red and why it is magical is because it is a color that evil or negative forces are afraid of. The reason being that it is the color of blood, which is the life force that drives us and thus considered good, positive, and yang. Red was also considered the color of the sun (symbolizing power), and the color of fire (used against beasts, and symbolizing warmth/celebration) both of which are also deemed yang. It is viewed that to drive away any yin or negative energy, a strong yang energy is needed to overcome it.

 

Other Decor

Other décor such as pom-poms (called hero balls), tiny metal disks and such are the result of Cantonese opera, which are found on the various headdresses worn by the actors. On some of the older traditional lions there were also small little bells attached to the body. One of the reasons for the bell was previously mentioned under music instruments while the second will be covered later under the different types of lion characters.

 

Patterns

 

 

Patterns painted on the Lion are of various auspicious symbols and objects.  Even the color is based on the primary colors of the five elements, while any subsequent colors were to be a mix of the primary colors or a diluted form of it.   It should also be noted that much of the Southern Lion is based on the Cantonese culture and its language, but that is not to say that northern and the mandarin language hasn’t influenced the Southern Lion.

 

On the original lion heads, it was adorned with many pom poms. Now the pom poms that surround the mirror have been replaced with auspicious art motifs such as five clouds and five bats to name a couple. The word for cloud is “Yun/Wan (雲)” and sounds like the word “Yun/Wan (運)” for luck. The motif for the cloud is also similar to that of the handle on the ru yi scepter and ling zhi or the fungus/flower of immortality. When in a repeating pattern it is symbol for never ending fortune. The five bats meanwhile represent the five blessings. Because the word for bat (fu/fuk-蝠) is a homonym for the fu/fuk (福), that represents blessings/happiness/good fortune. The five blessings are long life, health, wealth, love of virtue, and natural death. Also, used on the lion are the patterns for a camellia, dragon coiling around the wall, and tiger stripes to name a few others.

 

 

To learn more about Feng Shui: http://www.geomancy.net/resources/theories/fs-5element.htm

 

The Color of Lions

     Even the color of the Lion and other painted features were done with purpose and not just randomly.  Since the Lion dance was initially done by the actors of Southern Cantonese opera troops and other performing groups, the base paints were done in the same context and meanings that are found in Chinese opera characters.  Although it may also be said that colors may have been influenced by the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” novel. Obviously, since the Lion, once tamed and awakened, is supposed to be a creature of good, colors that represent evil or bad luck were to be avoided. An example of some of the colors used in both Cantonese Chinese Operas and the Lion Head as a base:

 

Red-Loyalty, righteousness, bravery. 

Black-Simplicity, youth, straightforward, rebellious, crude, emotional, headstrong.

Yellow-craftiness, wise

 

These are just a sample of colors and a sample of their symbolisms. However, the use of colors on the lion are not always straight forward in meaning, some of these same colors also have different symbolisms when painted on other specific areas of the lion head. Example: the color green when painted on the Lion’s nose, the pronunciation for green is similar to the number 6 (lu/luk, look) and came to symbolize Lu-Chi, the six breaths of life (from which the yin and yang principles come from). At the same time the opposite can be held true, the color red is normally deemed good but it is not to be used for the nose, as this means the Lion will have a disposition for being belligerent and always fighting(*). Another example was stated earlier in regards to the horn and the color black. Nowadays, there are a variety of color combinations primarily for show that have no significant or specific meaning. 

 

The color and length of the beard on a lion traditionally denotes the lion’s age and seniority and thus the group’s standing in the lion dance community. With the white being the most senior and a short black beard being the youngest. Now however, many groups and craftsman do not always follow this tradition.

 

Also, when choosing the color of one’s Lion one should have an understanding of the colors meaning, especially if it is to be used for blessings, then again it depends on the group’s and the person requesting the Lion Dance actual beliefs.  An example is the color silver, people think because it is a valuable metal, it is precious and therefore good.  However, there are those that believe the color silver is inappropriate because it (silver/yin) is a homonym of the character that means death/dead/corpse.  Along with the character shih (lion), which also sounds like the character for guiding/ leading, when combined, it forms the phrase “leading a dead corpse.”* Obviously not an auspicious sign.

 

Although a long white beard represents wisdom, a white lion is not good.  This is the color that Chinese wear when mourning the dead. In fact there is a white funeral lion used specifically for mourning the group’s master or some other notable person. There are some that may view the color black as inauspicious because it is used in funerals, but that is more of a western connotation than Chinese. If some Chinese view it as inappropriate, it may be because the Black lion, which is associated with General Zhang Fei (who will be discussed later…) is called the “fighting lion.” The idea of fighting when celebrating a happy occasion such as the start of a new year, a marriage, birthday or new business is inauspicious to some because it means you will always be fighting in the coming year, in marriage, your life or business (with partners or to stay afloat). So anything that symbolizes that should be avoided.

 

 

The Three Kingdoms


 

     In the novel “Romance of the Three Kingdoms,” during the collapse of the Han Dynasty, three men swore an oath of brotherhood in a peach garden to restore the Han Dynasty. The eldest was Liu Bei (Lau Pei), who was a Han descendent; he eventually founded the “Kingdom of Shu and was its first emperor. The second brother was Guan Yu (Kwan Yu). Youngest of the three was Zhang Fei (Chong Fei). It was based on these three characters that the colors of the Southern Cantonese lions were based on. Perhaps it is because most Chinese have considered themselves descendents of the Han or perhaps it is the compelling story of these men.

 

 

Traditional Liu Bei Fat San Lion
     Liu Bei (劉備) is represented by the base color of yellow for his face. Symbolically, it represented several things. The first is that is the color of his skin, the second is that it represented his wisdom and the third is that yellow (or Imperial yellow as it was known in China) was reserved for and represented the color of the Emperor (just as King’s of Europe used the color purple.). It sported a long white beard for wisdom and seniority. It sometimes sported an eagle topknot in place of the bamboo shoot horn. The tail is multicolored (to represent the 5 elements and its colors which the emperor was thought to have control of and bestowed upon him by the Heavens). On the collar are three coins to denote wisdom, benevolence, and bravery (智、仁、勇-zhi, ren, and yong) and to show he is the eldest of the three brothers. A school, organization, or long established Sifu was allowed to use this Lion. A school just starting out should not as they would be ridiculed and made fun of or maybe even challenged by another school. However, an exception would be made if an established school were to bestow one upon them.  This lion was known as the auspicious lion (Rui Shih). 

 

     The second brother Guan Yu (關羽) was said to have had a reddish face (this was due to when Guan Yu slew a local bully that was trying to force himself on young maiden. His father, a corrupt official, attempted retribution by trapping him in a temple and burning him alive). The base color of red also symbolizes General Guan’s righteousness, loyalty and bravery and is also combined with the use of the color black. It sported what is known as the eyes of the vermillion phoenix. On the collar are two coins to denote wisdom and bravery as well as his standing as second brother. The beard is long and black, as General Guan was known as the Duke with the Beautiful Beard. The tail is represented by the color of red with black trim. The top knot of a phoenix is most often used other than those of the bamboo shoot horn. This lion is known as the Awakened Lion (Xing Shih).

 

Note: The Chinese people have long called the Southern Cantonese Lion the “Auspicious Lion.” During the years from 1839 to 1911 of the Manchurian Qing dynasty, consecutive defeats in the “Opium Wars,” “Tai Ping Rebellion,” “Sino-French War,” and “Sino-Japan War,” leads to unequal treaties and a major economic drainage of silver from China and being labeled the “Sick Men of Asia and a sleeping lion.”. Further more the eight allied powers sought to divide China and colonize the land. However, it wasn’t till after a series of incidents in the 1920’s during the era of the Republic of China government that the Chinese people began to really rise up The first was when diplomacy failed at the “Paris Peace Conference in 1919” and land controlled by Germany was given to the Japanese rather than back to the Chinese people. This was followed by the May 30th massacres in Shanghai, and the June 23rd Shaji massacres (sometimes called the Shamien, Shamian, or Shameen massacres) in 1925 by the British and finally the Jinan incident on May 3rd 1928 by the Japanese. Outrage and patriotism was aroused and grew with each passing conflict. Giving rise to strong anti-British and anti-Japanese sentiments. One of the political statements made was to change the name of the auspicious lion to awakened (醒-xing/sing) lion. This is because auspicious (瑞 - rui in Mandarin) is pronounced seui in Cantonese and is a homonym for the word sleeping (睡) and in essence they wanted to let the world know that the Chinese would no longer remain a sleeping lion.  

 

     The third brother was Zhang Fei (張飛), this Lion has a black face because it is said General Zhang had a dark complexion. However, black also represents youth, straightforward, and a rebellious nature all of which was traights of Zhang Fei. This lion sported a short stubby black beard, red colored glass eyes, cauliflower ears, and canine like fangs. All the more to make the lion more menacing. The tail was colored black and white with bells adorning the body that served like a warning, much like a snake and its rattler. The horn would sometimes feature an iron horn as this lion is known as the fighting lion (鬥獅 dou shi) because General Zhang loved to fight.  School’s just starting out would use this lion. However, sometimes a school looking to make a challenge or pick a fight with another school would also use this lion. Although, in today’s society, such behavior is outlawed and frowned on. The collar of course would sport only one coin to denote bravery and its standing as third brother.

 

     Later an additional three Lions were added to the group.  The Green faced lion represented Zhao Yun (趙雲) or Zhao (Chu) Zi Long (子龍). He has a green tail with black beard and fur and an iron horn. He is often called the forth brother, and is known as the “Heroic Lion” (英雄獅-Ying Xiong shi). As the story goes, after Liu Bei’s army was defeated and lost the capitol, they were forced to take flight. In the midst of the chaos Liu Bei was separated from his family. It is said, that upon hearing this Zhao Yun rode into enemy territory and managed to find and rescue Liu Bei’s infant son by riding into the middle of an enemy kingdom’s (Wei) million man army. The Yellow  (more precisely yellow with an orange hue) face (sometimes said to be white based with yellow markings) and yellow body along with white/silver beard represented Huang/Wong Zhong (黃忠), he was given this color when Liu Bei rose to become Emperor as his surname Huang also translates to the color “Yellow.” It would sport an eagle top knot. This lion is called the Righteous Lion. That is because before joining Liu Bei’s army the General while dueling with Guan Yu spared Guan Yu his life after Lord Guan had spared his life when his horse collapsed during their duel. This would lead to his master at that time to accuse him falsely of collusion for the act and ordered his execution. Despite being falsely accused he remained loyal and refused to argue to save his own life (his life was spared when another general executed the corrupt lord). Before it was very rare to see this lion as it was only given as a gift by the village/county or otherwise to a person, or group that had accomplished something righteous and virtuous. Back then, to purchase such a lion on one’s own is tantamount to tooting one’s own horn and bragging that they are righteous. This would end up in the group or person being ridiculed. This is probably because Chinese believe in the virtue of humility.

 

     The white base colored lion is known as Ma Chao (馬超); he was assigned this color because he always wore a white arm band to battle against the Emperor of Wei, Cao Cao, to signify that he was in mourning for his father and brother who had been murdered by Cao Cao. In addition he had an army of 20,000 dressed entirely in white in his initial battles against Cao Cao. Thus some will refer to this lion as the “Funeral lion”, while others will call it the “Filial Lion.” If there is a mirror it should be covered. Some will instead have the yin/yang symbol in its place. The only other color used for this lion is black. A white ribbon is used to tie around the horn to represent the white arm band and is used in place of the red ribbon. This lion is never used except for a funeral for the Sifu, some important head of the group (President), or possibly even some other important person and in such cases it is usually burned right after.  Even if it is properly stored, it is not something one would want to keep, as it is symbolically inauspicious to have around. It is sometimes though, confused with the silver lion which sometimes has a white like color. These three along with Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were known as the “Five Tiger Generals of Shu,” to symbolize this, black tiger stripe marks were drawn on the heads while each lion represented one of the five colors of the five elements.

 

Note: For the record, in creating and playing the Southern Cantonese lion, many portions are taken from the novel “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” written during the Ming dynasty by Luo Guan Zhong and not the historical “Three Kingdoms” record. Case in point, according to records, Guan Yu was actually one year older than Liu Bei and that though they treated one another like brothers; they never really swore an oath of brotherhood in a peach garden. Also some of the routines found in lion dancing never really happened historically or were dramatically altered.

 

To learn more about the novel go to: http://www.threekingdoms.com/

 

Hoi Gwong-Giving Life to the Lion

     Before a lion can be used in public for blessings it must go through a ceremony known as Hoi Gwong (開光) in Cantonese and Kai Guang in Mandarin. Hoi translates to “to open or turn on,” while gwong means “light or shine.” Collectively it basically means “opening up the lion to make it shine or holy.” Although some would say it means to open the object being consecrated so that the light (meaning spirit) may enter. Simply, it is a ceremony to consecrate the lion and give it life much the same way that is done with statues of deities used for worship. This ceremony is also sometimes referred to as Dian Jing (點睛) or dotting in the eyes. There is a saying that the eyes are the mirrors/window to the soul, it is believed that the light/spirit of the body is in the eyes, if it is good and pure then it shall be full of light, if it is evil it shall be full of darkness. 

 

    A lion that is not blessed is known to be different things to different people. Some say the lion is blind. Others say that it is untamed and wild and thus could do harm to people rather than good or that a lion that is used but not blessed can be possessed by a malevolent being and do harm or bring bad fortune to people.

 

     There is no one absolute set way to do the Hoi Gwong ceremony as there are different thoughts and beliefs due to time (era), geographical location, and religions. However, there are some similarities between the different methods which include the Civil or Secular version, the Buddhist method, and Taoist procedures.

 

         

     The most common and simplest method is the secular/civil/martial procedure. In the secular/civil version (which is also referred to as simply Dian Jing (點睛) or dotting in the eyes) an altar with offerings to heaven still needs to be setup. An auspicious day is selected according to the Chinese almanac. The body is then attached to the head just prior to the ceremony. The head will be covered by a red cloth or at the very least have the eyes covered by a red cloth and in either case has the mouth shut. The purpose is to keep any malevolent spirit from entering the lion prior to the ceremony. The altar is either placed out in the open in some public location, facing the patron saint of the school or facing the entrance of the school. On the altar will be an incense pot with a candle holder and candle on each side. The larger version incense will be lit and installed. The smaller type of incense will be placed unlit at the front of the table on the right side. In front of the candles and incense will feature a row of three plates of food [a dish of some sweet meats, another with cakes, and a bowl of fruits (apples, oranges, tangerines)]. This is followed by a row of three cups of wine then a row of three cups of tea. Finally On each side will be a vase of flowers. The three rows represent the Ba gua trigram Qian which is the most yang of the eight trigrams and represents the life generating gate and heaven. Further more, the three rows form the Chinese character for the number three (三-Cantonese-saam) which sounds close to the word for life/birth (生-saang). On the side will be a tray with the golden flowers, a strip of red cloth or a red flower ribbon, greens, pair of tangerines, hung pao with li-see, a writing brush, and a bowl containing the cinnabar mixed with water inside a divot created within the ginger root. Cinnabar is vermillion (red) in color and is used to represent:

 

1)     Blood which is a substitute symbol for life (The vermillion color from cinnabar was considered the most stable and brilliant dye for the color red for a long time, not just in China, but all around the world.).

2)     The power to prolong life, perhaps even induce it (This belief stemmed from the time of the Qin dynasty and the first Emperor of China where Taoist alchemist believed that quick silver or mercury in cinnabar had special chemical powers, although we now know that it is toxic and lethal).

 

Also by mixing it with ginger root which is believed to have yang energy, the ginger root would magnify the power of the cinnabar (foods are divided into yin and yang and further divided into 5 elements that correspond to one of the 5 major organs of the body).

 

The ceremony itself is very basic, after an initial speech by the MC, an assistant on the Sifu’s (Master/Teacher) right lights the smaller set of incense and presents it to the his Sifu who then pays his respects to heaven by bowing three times. The Sifu then presents the set of incense to another assistant to his left, who then inserts it into the incense pot in front of the larger set of incense.  The assistant on the right will then pick up each plate of food beginning with those on the left and passing them on to his teacher who will then make the symbolic gesture of offering each plate. The plates are then handed to the second assistant who places the plates back on the altar table. Next the cups of wine followed by the cups of tea are offered up in the same manor except after each cup is offered the contents will be poured onto the ground (if indoor, in some sort of catch basin). After each offering, the cups will be refilled by one of the attendants after it is placed back on the table.

 

The red cloth covering the lion is removed and the dancer’s enters the lion. The drummer taps the rim twice and softly plays the rolling thunder beat until it is time for the lion to wake up. The red flower ribbon and golden flowers (sometimes a group may use the pomelo leaf or green onions) are first attached to the horn (some groups do this part at the end). Then taking the brush and dipping it into the paint of cinnabar, the head instructor will then begin the dotting by first doing the mirror, then the eyes. To which the head player will make the lion blink to show the first signs of life. This is followed by the dotting of the inside of the ears (the head player will then make the ears flick once), the nose and the tongue (the mouth opens and closes); these are dotted to give life to each of the senses. Finally from the top of the horn down the spine of the body is dotted. Nowadays the legs are now dotted also if there are matching pants. During the ceremony, the instructor will recite their libation (a poetic verse of four lines with each line containing four characters) and recite a poetic verse regarding each of the items dotted. From there the head instructor will command the lion to awake. The head player then begins the sleeping lion awakening routine. When it is fully awakened the lion is fed the greens, tangerines and hung pao to quench its hunger from the long journey from heaven. After the performance the primary players who played the ceremony are given a li-see for their own good luck. This folk practice may possibly be traced to the following ancient myth.

 

Note: There is a fable that during the sixth century a famous painter visited An-le temple in Nanking and was inspired (others say commissioned) to paint 4 dragons on its walls. After its completion the people marveled at its magnificence and realism but noticed that the pupils to the eyes were missing. Upon further inquiry, the painter explained that if he painted in the eyes, the dragons would come to life and fly away. The priests and people were in disbelief and prodded the painter to finish the eyes. Finally caving into their requests, the painter drew in the pupil of the eyes of two of the dragons where upon the grounds shook, the skies darkened, and the roar of thunder and the flashes of lightning filled the air. Suddenly the two dragons came to life and freed themselves and disappeared into the heavens.

 

     The second method of blessing the lion that we will delve into is the Taoist method.  Like the above, the altar is setup with offerings, however there are many more items required on the altar table and the ceremony is much more varied and complex in meaning. The following is a general over view.

 

     On the chosen auspicious day, the lion(s) are laid out on a table before the altar with the eyes and mouth wired shut at the beginning.  Incense, candles, flowers, foods, wine and tea are set up like before. In addition though will be five objects related to Taoism. As well as charms, holy water containing pomelo leaves, and a rooster. The altar in some cases will face the group’s patron saint or face the entrance of the practice facility. Generally the priests will pray to the Pole Star of the Northern Dipper As it is believed to the home of the Jade Emperor Shang Di and is known as the gate of life.

 

Essentially the entire ceremony is steeped with various methods and procedures that symbolically represent the different ways to manifest yang energy to transfer to the lion as well as calling on the spirit to enter. The beginning of the ceremony is done to purify the area. This is followed by the priest calling and asking for heaven’s mandate to grant spiritual life to the lion being blessed. Next, the group will make libations and pay respects as directed by the priest. The area is then purified and blessed once more including the charms with the holy water. During the course many different hand seals known as mudra and incantations will be chanted throughout the whole ceremony until it is completed.

 

The last portion of the Hoi Gwong calls for the use of a live Rooster. Preferably a golden brown colored rooster whose comb features seven ridges or bumps (representative of the seven stars of the northern dipper). The rooster represents the tenth symbolic animal of the twelve terrestrial branches and the number ‘ten’ represents fulfillment.  Furthermore, the rooster is the chief embodiment of the positive Yang element which represents life and the generating force. This is because the animal is believed to have five virtues. One is the comb is known as a crown or guan and is a play on words for official’s hat, thus it is representative of the Literary spirit, it has martial qualities because its spurs are strong and forceful, courage because he battles his enemies from the frontal position, benevolent because he finds food and shares it with the hens, trustworthy because he always crows at dawn’s first light (which causes the malevolent forces to run and hide).  Plus the rooster can devour the wu du (five poisons). Its blood is used in much the same way and reasons that cinnabar is used for the secular/civil/martial ceremony. Although the rooster’s blood is viewed as a more potent magic than cinnabar by some, cinnabar is none the less still used by some Taoist priests instead of blood from the rooster.

 

The eyes and the mouth are opened at this point. The Charms are further purified a second time with the holy water. One of the charms is burned with its ashes being placed in a cup of wine. The rooster is then taken and the holy water sprayed on the animal to purify it. The rooster then drinks the wine that contains the ashes of the magical charm several times. This serves two purposes, the main reason is to make the magic and yang energy of the rooster’s blood stronger. The secondary purpose is its effect as an anesthesia.  The tip of the comb is then pinched to draw blood, the process of having the rooster drink the wine and the comb pinched is repeated a second time. The blood drawn is first smeared on the remaining charms. The blood is then used on the mirror with a downward stroke to form a vertical line that is followed by a circle to encompass it. The symbol drawn is representative of the Taiji symbol. After the mirror, the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, horn and body are then dotted. Instructions are recited by the priests to the lion about its duties and conduct and the mouth is ritually locked so that the lion can do no harm. Then a pair of charms is pasted on the back of the lion’s head. This is to seal in the powers given to the lion. Finally the red ribbon and a pair of golden flowers are tied to the horn. The lion is then commanded to awaken. After which paper offerings of gold and silver are burnt and firecrackers are lit to thank the deities and bid goodbye. The lion awakes and is now blessed and ready to give blessings to all it encounters.

 

Lion Etiquette

     There is a lot of etiquette when a Lion is taken out into public, but what it comes down too is respect. However unknowingly done, breach of etiquette can lead to misunderstandings, arguments, bad blood and possibly fights.  Those who chose to ignore etiquette, shows that their Lion is brash, uncivil, and ignorant.  It is best to have the leaders of the two groups meet before hand to see how they wish to go about the encounter so as to avoid any misunderstandings and fights. Here are some of the rules of etiquette when two lions meet and others:

 

1)     When one Lion meets another Lion from another group, the two should always greet one another with three bows when they first meet and 3 bows when they part.  This is a sign of respect. 

2)      If the two Lions should play with one another, they should avoid doing the following-never smell the behind of another Lion, it puts the other club’s Lion in the female position (there are no female southern Lions as the Lion represents the yang/male element) and the other in the dominant male position or in the Alpha male position meaning they are the other Lion’s master.  It also may construe that the other Lion’s rear smells. 

3)      One should also play low and avoid playing the lion head above the other lion as this also is like looking down on another club. When one lion goes low, the other should reciprocate. If one lion goes even lower, the other follows suit. This of course can go on till both Lion’s are on the ground.  By doing this the groups are showing humility.

4)      Another no-no includes stretching ones leg out above the waist as this is a form of challenge. Just as when any four legged animal in nature stands on its hind legs or when the animal lifts one of its forward legs to swipe at its opponent during confrontations.

5)      For the same reason, lion’s should not do what is commonly referred to as stacking, where the head player sits on the shoulder or head of the tail player or stands on one or both the tail player’s leg(s).

6)      Rapidly batting the Lion’s eye at another club’s lion is like flirting with the opposite sex; again the Southern Cantonese lion is a yang/male and so by blinking the eyes a club is construing the other lion is the effeminate, thus signaling that they are challenging the other Lion. 

7)      If another Lion is busy playing a store and another club needs to pass they are suppose to go around and never cut between the Lion and its drum, as this is akin to silencing the other Lion’s roar or cutting the Lion’s lifeline so to speak and is an insult. 

8)      When a lion initially leaves the sight they will avoid leaving with their rear facing the other Lion until they have backed away considerably. Again this is about manners and respect. Similar to when a subject leaves the Emperor or anyone of rank.

9)      Once turned around they will not look back as this means you do not respect them enough to trust them, as if they may attack from behind.

10)  In traditional times civil lions would defer to martial lions.

11)  If two groups are playing at a temple, the younger group would defer to the senior group and wait its turn unless the younger group is a martial lion and the senior is a civil lion.

12)  It never enters or leaves the venue entrance with its rear facing the audience.

13)  It enters and leaves from the same entrance. The exception being temples with three doorways for the front entrance. Some groups will enter the left side as this symbolizes entering with authority, and exit the right as this symbolizes leaving with humility. Another view of this is that the Green Dragon is on the left which is auspicious while on the right side is the White Tiger which is inauspicious. Entering on the left is to bring into the building auspiciousness while exiting on the right is to remove inauspiciousness. Also, the center is reserved for deities of whom the lion is not. It is similar to the Imperial Palace where only the emperor ascended the center of the stairs and entrances.

14)  The same came can be said about stepping into a temple, business or home. Some traditional groups will step in with their left foot first and when backing out, step out with the right foot first.

15)  A lion should never be picked up by its horn as this is simply regarded as disrespectful because of the many symbolic references associated with the horn.

 

 

Playing The Lion

The dancers playing the head and tail along with the instrument players should be able to mimic/mirror the emotions of man.  When people watch the lion, they should be able to see and know what the Lion is feeling or thinking.  An audience should be able to tell the emotion of the Lion by watching its behavior and listening to the drum. Originally there were eight emotions that were later expanded to include more. What the originally eight were, may vary between groups.

 

Baht Ying: Eight Emotions

 

xi-Happy/like/love/enjoy/joyful thing

Lo-Angry

Ging-Scared

Lok-Happy/Content

Yi-Suspicious/doubt/question/cautious

Zui-Drunk

Shui-Sleep

Xing-Alert/Wake Up/Startled

 

Added

Lui-Thinking

Tam-Want/Desire

Ai-Sad

 

Some of the emotions and ways an audience may see a lion display its feelings:

 

Sleepiness-drum rolling, the player eventually goes into a sitting like position while the head wavers from side to side and the eyelids are slowly closed and open repeatedly as if it is becoming droopy until they are completely shut.

 

Surprise/startled-a Lion looking to get a drink of water and sees his reflection or sees something that catches him off guard, blinks his eyes and jumps back and blinks his eye again.

 

Suspicious/Cautious/Thinking-the lion looks at an object or situation from top to bottom and from left to right with its movement slow and cautious, while the music plays soft, low, slow and repetitive.

 

Scared/fear-the lion trembles/shaking. Some groups tend to do the shake a bit too much and instead of looking like it's scared, the lion looks like a dog that is panting.

 

Drunk-Just as a human being has wobbly legs and stumbles and falls when drunk so does a lion. Just as man will try to get up, but falls right back down. The eyelids will move from half way closed to open, looking sheepish. The mouth will also move accordingly like the eyes.

 

Anger-Mouth closed, head raised high, using quick powerful steps, head from high to low and back with fast powerful movements, just as one does when agitated.

 

Happy-mouth open, steps and moves as if excited like a kid who has gotten what they want for their birthday. Tail wagging like a dog excited to see its master.

 

Some of the movements even come from the Chinese opera. When a lion wipes his beard, the head player will brush the beard with his foot going from the outside to inside in a roundhouse fashion. This can be used when a lion is taken a back or stumped by a situation to show he is miffed or in thought, much the way we brush our hair back in reaction to a situation. If the lion brushes the beard from the inside out, this is known as cleaning the beard. This is done after the Lion is done eating, or when he first wakes up. 

 

Whatever venue a Lion plays at, it bows at both the beginning and the end of the performance.  The Lion, in doing its regular bows, does it three times, center, left, then right.  In doing so, the Lion is paying respect to Heaven Earth and Man. However, to differentiate when bowing to Deities, the lion will bow center, right, and left and is done from the kneeling position. This follows tradition where in both a temple and the imperial court, the center is reserved for the most important, while the second ranked deity or ministers are on your right (other wise known as stage left in theatre) and the third deity or generals were on the left or stage right. Being a cautious animal, the Lion checks behind him every so often to make sure nothing is sneaking up from behind.  If there are signs on the doorway, the Lion will read it.  The lion will peek inside the doorway on both the left and right sides to see if it is safe. This is to guard against bad luck/traps.  It will then sniff (sweep and clean) the floor as it backs up. Before entering, the lion cleans (of any bad luck-also known as turning the door) the entrance/doorway from the left side to the right side, going in a clockwise rotation (the symbolization is that the Lion is going in the natural order of sunrise to sunset-east to west. Some may ask, but isn’t east usually on the right side of a map? Yes, however the east or right side is based on the inside looking out the door or the perspective client’s right/east, which is actually the lion’s left. To do otherwise (counter-clockwise) is to invite chaos as it is symbolically similar to time going backward.  After entering it then bows to the guest(s) of honor before and after taking the cheng and li-see (greens and lucky money). 

 

Taking the Cheng

“Choy Cheng/Cai Qing” (採青) or “Picking the Green,” is a term often heard during Chinese New Years. Many mistake the word choy for vegetable because of vegetable dishes such as Sin Choy, Choy Sum. However, in this case it means to pick, catch or grab, while cheng means greens (to represent the vegetable). But, in the Chinese language and its culture there are many dualities, the Chinese love to use one word, picture or object to represent another word, usually their hopes, wishes, desires and thoughts. It is no different with the Lion Dance. The cheng was the offering given to the Lion in return for its blessing.

 

During the Ching/Qing (清) dynasty (when China was under Manchurian rule), revolutionaries and their associations would say “Choy Ching” or “Get the Ching (the term Choy Ching was also interpreted as stomp or step (Choy) on the Ching)” to show they were anti-Ching, but it would be too easy for the government and their spies to understand and pick up.  Since Ching sounded close to cheng-the word cheng was used instead.  This way they could let other rebels know they were anti-Ching and make contact and exchange messages by placing information within the li-see (lucky money) and Hung Pao (red-hung envelope-pao). Taking the greens and expelling it back out, represented grabbing the Qing/Ching and expelling them from China. These events would serve several purposes, one was to meet other rebels and raise money, give blessings, demonstrate their martial arts skill through lion dancing and finally entertainment. It should be mentioned that not all Lion dance groups were rebels. Many did not want to seem like they were just taking money, so they would show their skills (both mental and physical) by doing elaborate chengs/greens that would test their physical and mental acumen. These Cheng jans (青陣) or green formations have become known today as puzzles. These puzzles were basically an obstacle that the lion must first overcome before it can take the greens and li-shi. It is believed that the harder the puzzles, the better the blessing for the person setting up the cheng, providing the lion properly solves or accomplishes the goal. Of course like everything else, the person would pay more for the more elaborate performance. Messages were also created out of these different types of cheng formations. Some would tell of meeting times and places, others would tell of who, when, and where to assassinate an individual and so forth. Now it is used for blessings and entertainment purposes only.

 

The word Choy also has another meaning when viewed from the fung seui perspective. Choy also sounds like the words for Vegetable (菜) and Wealth (財).  In this case the Vegetable represents wealth.  So when the lion takes the greens, and spits it back out it is doing two things, it is sharing with the person requesting the lion dance the lion’s good fortune and wishing the person Wealth and Happiness Placed Before the Household/business/person(s) or if the lion tosses the greens thru the doors, it represents the meaning, “Wealth Comes Thru the Door.”

 

There are many rules that a lion must follow when performing a Cheng, however, it all depends on what aspect the requesting party adheres to first, followed by what the lion dance group follows if the other party does not. In any event, the one rule no matter what perspective is followed is that the Cheng must have a theme!  If not, the Cheng may be played anyway the Lion wishes, but even then there are still rules that are to be adhered to. Plus, the more skilled Lion will display a certain panache when doing the cheng.

 

To gain a better understanding of the Chengs and routines, it would benefit the observer to know what some of the props represent. A Chinese chair (called incorrectly a carpenter’s wooden bench by some), can be used when stacked, to represent a mountain. Set up with a plank, it becomes a bridge. The same can be said with tables. A pan or wooden bucket of water represents a lake, river, sea or ocean.  A head of lettuce is sometimes used to represent the moon or the head of an animal. An orange or tangerine is sometimes used to represent the stars, like the seven stars of the big dipper and the three stars of Orion’s belt or may be part of an animal’s body or eyes. A Pomelo is often used to represent the pearl that the dragon chases. Two spears apart from each other, represents the entrance to a cave. These are just some of the things an observer may see in lion dancing.

 

The Chinese written language is mostly ideograms (pictures or symbols that represent an object or thing it is supposed to suggest).  Many of the traditions and beliefs are a play on words (homonyms-two words that sound similar, but are written differently and have different meanings) and built on symbolism (and inter-substitution of such symbols).  This is known as word play. For example, the use of fish in Lion dancing, fish (魚) is “yu” in the Cantonese Language.  However, a homonym of fish is the word abundance/surplus (餘). Thus the object (fish) represents the person’s (that is requesting the Lion dance) desire for surplus or abundance.  The use of goldfish therefore means and abundance/surplus of gold or wealth/prosperity.

 

Another common theme is the use of oranges.  When a person receives oranges from someone, the giver is wishing the receiver “prosperity” or “good fortune, blessings and happiness.”  So when the Lion gives the orange to the guest of honor or spits the orange back out, it is wishing that person “prosperity” or “good fortune, blessings and happiness.” However, many people make the mistake as to why the orange is a symbol of prosperity.  The word for gold in Cantonese is Guhm (金).  The word for the Tangerine/Mandarin orange is also pronounced Guhm (柑). The guhm for the Tangerine/Mandarin orange is the cultured/educated way to pronounce it, but the common word used is guht (橘).  It just so happens that the cultured/educated way to pronounce a regular orange is guht (also called dai guht or big/great orange).  While the common way is cheng (橙).  Because of the commonality of the use of guht for both the mandarin orange and the regular orange, the regular orange has also come to symbolize prosperity.  However, in the mandarin culture, orange is also called qian, which sounds like the word for money/currency/coins. Meaning money=prosperity. The orange is also called zhi, which sounds like the word for happiness, blessings and good luck. Other items that have auspicious meanings used in lion dancing include kumquats (gold), pomelo (to have), pineapple (prosperity arrives), apples (peace), crabs (prosperity-thru status), spiders (happiness, blessings, good luck), and bats (happiness, good fortune, blessing) to name a few.

 

Generally speaking, the cheng can be placed into one of 6 categories: Story puzzles (based on myths, legends, and history), word puzzles, religious puzzles, skill puzzles, water puzzles and animal puzzles. However, puzzles may also be a combination of several of the above.

 

In areas that still allow, a person will also see firecrackers with the Lion.  The noise chases away any bad luck so to speak while the scattering of the red paper from the fireworks represents the spreading of good luck, the wider the dispersement the better or greater the luck, after the mess one should never sweep up until the second day as this would be akin to sweeping your luck away or aside. The color red chases away negative luck or bad luck as it is viewed as yang energy which is needed to overcome yin energy. To learn about various Chengs read “The Act of Picking the Greens” featured on this webpage.

 

Summary

In summary, the lion is a mythical creature that has been ingrained into the Chinese culture and has been influenced by time, towns, villages, provinces, regions, taoists, buddhists, secret societies, martial artists, language dialects, and even different countries beliefs. That is to say that what may be true for some may not be be true for others, what is contemporary today may become traditional in the future. Still, there are some commonalities among them all, but in the end it is a still a mythical creature and folk lore. Who is to say what is right or wrong? Including what you are reading here, it is merely one person’s experience in exploring the Chinese culture thru lion dancing.

 

© Copyright 2001-2009 William Y.K. Lee

 

*References  from: Chinese Lion Dance Explained by Dr. William Hu

                                    Shou Shi (Lion Speak) by Master Guo Wei Kang

                                    Martial Club- Master Lau Kar Leung

                                    Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guan Zhong

                                    Hidden Meanings In Chinese Art by Terese Tse Batholomew

                                    Five-Fold Happiness by Vivian Sung

                                    Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs by C.A.S. Williams

                                    Read And Write Chinese by Rita Mei Wah Choy

                                    Original I Ching Oracle from Eranos Foundation Translated by Rudolf Ritsema and Shantena Augusto Sabbadini

                                    Taoist Magical Incantations, Hand Seals and Star Stepping by Rev./Dr. Jerry Johnson PH.D., DTCM

                                    The Nen Beast, the Lion, and the Greens by Martin/Real Kung Fu Magazine Vol. 6 Feb 1976

                                    A Meeting of Lions By T’e  Mo Secrets of Kung Fu Vol. 3 #6 1979

                                    History of Lion Dancing-Kung Fu’s Cultural Kings of Beasts by Jane Hollander as told by Master Doc Fai Wong Black Belt Magazine

 

Thanks to all who have influenced and enriched me over the years in trying to understanding The Chinese Art of Lion Dancing, from my Sifu’s, my seniors, to other lion dance masters who were willing to share and finally friends both local and abroad.

 

Liu Bei, Kwan Kung, Zhang Fei art courtesy of Koei RTK website.

 

Picture of Lion Bamboo Frame without and with Paper- mache courtesy of  http://www.ofcourselionsource.com  

 

Feng Shui Pictures courtesy of  www.Geomancy.net

                    

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