It looked like a tiger at first, but it has what appears to be a single, split and curved horn. I thought maybe it could be part of a maine, but found no pictures of real or Chinese artistic tigers with this attribute. It has the classic wide and elongated, almost cartoonistic snout, but I found many chinese drawings of dragons also shared this quality. It's in the crouching defense posture of a cat or tiger, but it has dragon like ears. The body is short and there are no carvings of scales or spine fins. There are four markings indicating stripes in the tail. I'm almost convinced of it being a tiger, save for the apparent horn. Could this be raised hair, since it is in the defensive posture??? The other thing that bothers me are some spikes protruding from the ankles. Could be an accentuation of the hair standing off of them I guess... Any ideas anyone???
2006-06-05 13:14:12 · 4 answers · asked by Rockstar 6 in Social Science ➔ Anthropology
That was very close, but this one is not decorated and it has a prominent tail. This couls be a version of the Nian or the Fu Dog as it might exist in the wild were it real? Hmmm.... that was very helpful thanks.
2006-06-05 15:59:06 · update #1
Well, by "not decorated", I mean that it does not have any armor, nor does it have the lage maine that the nian and the fu dogs have, but that doesn't mean this is not a newer rendition. You're right about the tail though. This could very well be a nian.
2006-06-05 16:46:01 · update #2
another thing I noticed is that all the Nian have 3 claws, while the dragons and tigers have 4. This statue has 3 claws, like the Nian.
2006-06-05 16:49:02 · update #3
From your description it sounds very much like a nian, a monster traditionally associated with the Chinese New Year. The Nian does traditionally have a single horn, normally split front-back, rather than sideways as antlers are.
Take a look at the link below to see if it looks familiar.
Remember that there are many regional variations as well as many time periods in Chinese art so not every nian will look exactly the same. But if you've got a carving of a cat with a single split horn it is almost certainly meant to represent a nian.
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Not sure what you mean by "not decorated", i can't see any decoration on either of those nian statues.
The prominent tail would likely be the result of the material used. It is very hard to produce a prominent tail in a large stone sculpture, something that you equally see in western sculpture where the tails of horses are held flat against the haunches. If you look at those nian statues you can see that the tails are also held against the haunches. That's because protruding prominent tails snap on stone carvings. With materials such as wood or smaller jade carvings tails can be made more prominent.
This isn't an indication that they aren't the same animal, just that the sculptors are working in different materials.
2006-06-05 14:06:36 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'm thinking it's a dragon. Of course, it'd be better if I had a photo, but based on what you've said here, I think dragon is your best bet. If you look at the dragon costumes (the ones worn by several people) in Chinese parades, you'll see that they kind of look a little cat-like, and the tigers and dragons have much the same features.
2006-06-05 13:39:28 · answer #2 · answered by Qchan05 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It could be an animal called "BaiHu" (in Mandarin ) and "Pak Fu" in Cantonese. Basically this animal does not exist. It is a bad devil (according to Chinese God Story) that feed on human.
So, to avoid bad luck (to be eaten), some locals "feed" it by putting some meat into its mouth (statue) when praying.
The cantonese believe in this generally.
2006-06-06 01:54:35 · answer #3 · answered by Ho K 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The toes are not a great identifier either, the toes on a dragon symbolized rank, the more toes, the higher social class you were.
2006-06-06 04:38:48 · answer #4 · answered by Skidplate 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋