Shishi has been regarded as the patron saint of home since ancient times. We often see a pair of stone lions placed in front of ancient palaces or wealthy families, but the placement of these stone lions is actually exquisite. The stone lions placed outside the door are usually a pair, that is, a male and a female, all in pairs, and the placement position is left male and right female. In fact, it is exactly the same as the philosophy of Yin and Yang in China's traditional culture.
The left and right here are based on the direction of people coming out of the gate, so when a person comes out of the gate, the lion will be on the left and the lioness will be on the right.
Shishi is an evil spirit in the traditional culture of China. The earliest existing stone lion in China is the stone lion in front of Gaoyi tomb in the Eastern Han Dynasty. In the early days, lions were not animals of China. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the King of Rest in the Western Regions presented the first lion to China. Since then, the lion has appeared on the land of China, and people began to use it as the architectural decoration of urban houses.
After the Ming Dynasty, when people built palaces, mansions and temples, they all liked to put stone lions at the door to protect their houses. Later, people began to carve various forms of stone lions on doorpillows, lintels, cornices, railings and many other buildings, which became an indispensable decorative sculpture in ancient architecture.
At present, there are still many stone lions in Beijing during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The stone lions of this period were kind and handsome. Lions usually placed at the door can be distinguished in shape. The male lion on the left is usually carved into the shape that the right front paw steps on the hydrangea or the hydrangea is placed between the two front paws, while the female lion on the right is usually carved into the shape that the left front paw caresses the young lion or a young lion lies between the two front paws.
If you put the stone lion at the door, you usually wash it on the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar every month, that is, scrub the stone lion's eyes with water and salt. This means that lions can see villains clearly and distinguish good from evil.