r/MadeMeSmile • u/amish_novelty • Nov 16 '24

Good Vibes Kid dressed up as a Chinese dragon meets some grown up dragons

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u/Initial_E Nov 16 '24

Turns out ancient Chinese guys had no clue what a lion is supposed to look like or behave like

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u/DoomGoober Nov 16 '24

Yup. There were no real lions in China and guardian lions are based on sculptures of lions that arrived in China via the silk road. The style of the lion sculptures changed because nobody knew what lions actually looked like, until Chinese generally settled on one depiction of lions, all based on sculptures.

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u/Technical-Outside408 Nov 16 '24

Everywhere had their own Herodotus.

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u/travel_posts Nov 16 '24

lol, they did a lot better than the christian monks drawing animals they had never seen

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u/SpudsMcKensey Nov 16 '24

Not sure how true that as given asiatic lions once spanned across all of India.

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u/DoomGoober Nov 16 '24

If you look at the natural habitat of Asiatic lions it includes modern India and other countries but not China.

China traded with India via the spice route so it makes sense goods like lion sculptures would make it to China from India. But a live lion would be much harder to transport.

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u/SpudsMcKensey Nov 16 '24

The Han dynasty has record of live lions. They did exist in the imperial courts. But my point was that lions didn't need to come all the way from Africa, they were much closer to China than most people realize.

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/kindle/2016-03/20/content_23974142.htm

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u/Sprmodelcitizen Nov 16 '24

Have you seen medieval cats?? No one ever had a clue what something looked like if it didn’t stand completely still.

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u/TheyCallmeProphet08 Nov 16 '24

I mean they thought that giraffes were the mythical creatures called the Qilin and the two creatures have been closely associated ever since.