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INTRODUCTION
MYTHS AND ORIGINS
的来源
There are many myths and variants that explain the origins of the Lion Dance.
MYTHICAL CREATURE
This is perhaps one of the most well-known legends of the Lion Dance. During the annual spring festival, or on the eve of Chinese New Year, an unknown creature called Nian, which means "Year" in Chinese would come to the village in China and destroy the fields, crops, food, and animals that belong to the farmers, and forcing the villagers to flee to the mountains to avoid it. Unable to deal with the creature, the villagers called upon the aid of the divine lion, an embodiment of greatness, courage, and longevity in Chinese culture, who proceeded to chase away the creature.
Unfortunately, the following year, the divine lion was busy with his celestial guardian duties and was unable to help the villagers. Henceforth, to put a stop to the ravaging, the villagers created a costume modeled after the shape of the lion with fur, cloth, paper, bamboo, and paints. Accompanied by drums, gongs, and cymbals to imitate the sound of the lion's roar, two-man wore the costume and chased the creature away. In other variants, the legend includes the use of firecrackers to chase the creature away. These loud sounds are essential in lion dancing so that they can chase away evil spirits. This eventually evolved into the contemporary lion dance we are familiar with, and it is performed annually during Chinese New Year.
GODDESS OF MERCY
The lion was a creature that lived in the heavens; however, it was playful and mischievous. One day, it played a practical joke on the Jade Emperor, the ruler of heavens, and as punishment, he promptly chopped off the lion's head and cast its remains on earth. However, the Goddess of Mercy, Kwan Yin (观音) took pity of the lion and revived it with a colorful silk ribbon. As gratitude, the lion became a disciple of Buddhism and promised to spend its time helping others. Impressed by the lion's determination, the Goddess gifted it a horn and mirror to fight evil and bring good fortune. Thus, with such physical appearance, the lion is often depicted as the Chinese mythical creature Qilin (麒麟).
BIG HEADED BUDDHA
The Big-Headed Buddha is a common accompaniment to traditional Lion Dance, and it acts as a comical diversion that sometimes teases the lion and leads the lion with a palm-leaf fan. According to legend, it is believed that the lion was a mischievous creature, and the Buddhist monk was enticed by the powerful yet graceful display of it jumping around as if it was playing. The monk eventually tamed the lion and brought it back to the temple.
Based on our recent interviews, we learned that the Big-Headed Buddha is functional as well, offering assistance to the lion dancers during a performance on things which a lion cannot do.
Lion dancing, Chinese martial arts and Buddhism are closely associated with one another. Particularly in lion dancing, the Horse Stance (马步) which is the basics of martial arts and lion dancing as well. Further, through the myths, we can see the perceived correlation between lion dance and Buddhism. In 1644, when the Manchiruan arm invaded China, they first burned down the Shaolin temples where monks fled, hence bringing with them their martial arts skills and spreading it across China. This traumatic event probably instilled the sense of justice and revolution in Martial arts when the monks started to spread their skills across China.
THE EMPEROR'S DREAM
Several variations connect the origins of the Lion Dance with a dream meeting between the Emperor of China and a lion. This occurred in Han, Tang and the Qing Dynasty. Before the Eastern Han Dynasty, only a few lions had reached the central plains of China from the West due to the Silk Road trade. In traditional Chinese Culture, lions were not indigenous to China, and they were considered mythical creatures to the likes of the Chinese Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin.
In the three variations of the Emperor’s dream, the Emperor encounters a mysterious creature
in their dreams. When he woke up, they described the creature to his ministers and was told that it was a lion, an animal native to the West. Afterward, models of the lion were created and were brought out at every festival to dance in hopes of peace, prosperity, and fortune. These legends position the lion as benevolent, and of exotic in origin.
Lions, as mentioned in the myths above, is native to the West and considered mythical creatures like the Dragon and Qilin. With the tales of the Emperor's dreaming of the mythical creature, the lion was depicted to be an auspicious figure that brings peace and prosperity. Since then, lions were often seen as guardian figures with stone status found guarding palaces and temples; and associated with moments of religious or military. Moreover, it also saw an increasing role in arts – such as the Lion Dance.
In a poem “Western Liang Arts (西凉伎)” by a Tang poet, Bai Ju Yi (白居易), he illustrates the evidence of the presence of the art of Lion Dance in the Tang Dynasty. In his poem, he wrote his description of skilled dancers who wore lion masks carved from wood, tails woven with thread, eyes that flecked with gold and teeth capped with silver, a fur costume, and ears that move. This poem describes the lion dance that is familiar contemporarily, indicating that during the Tang Dynasty there was already lion dancing.
ELEPHANT VS LION
According to this story, during the Northern and Southern dynasties (420 - 589), the Emperor from the Song province ordered the governor of Jian Zhou to invade the territory of Lin Yi. This appears to be challenging to achieve as the opposing army is armed with elephants. However, the governor came up with the idea to dress his men with cloth and rope to appear as monstrous lions to frighten the elephants. The plan worked and gave victory to the Emperor, and since then, the lion dance was performed in the military with soldiers dancing while wearing lion costumes. Gradually, this spread and became part of the civilians' life.
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