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Pixiu an auspicious beast
June 14, 2009, Sunday
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PIXIU is a mythical animal with the head of a dragon, the neck of a horse, the body of a lion and wings. According to Chinese folklore, this menacing monster was the ninth son of a dragon and was born with far greater power than his father.
Pixiu, also known as bixie, patrolled the universe and protected mankind from evil and pandemics. It is said that pixiu helped Huangdi (Yellow Emperor), a tribal leader who was later revered as the ancestor of the Chinese nation, defeat enemy tribes in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River - the cradle of ancient Chinese civilization.
But this wayward monster is said to have been punished by the God of Heaven for misconduct and was condemned to eating nothing but treasures and suffering from a blocked anus. When people found out that this animal could suck in anything valuable and store it within the body, they regarded it as a fortune god. They soon copied pixiu in paintings, sculptures and jade amulets in the hope it would bring them wealth.
The practice of using pixiu as a charm and house protector can be traced to the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC) and became a custom in the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD24) when the founding emperor Liu Bang placed many pixiu statues in his palace as the royal guardian and forbade his subjects to use the sacred beast for feng shui purposes.
Despite this imperial decree, the popularity of pixiu prevailed across the country. Commoners also adorned their houses with images of pixiu. The fad reached its peak during the Southern Dynasties (AD420-589) when people worshipped pixiu to seek protection against a deadly epidemic that claimed thousands of lives in southern China.
Shanghai Museum has a clay statue of pixiu from the Western Han Dynasty. It is one of three such burial objects found from that period. One of the others is at T. T. Tsui Gallery of Chinese Art in Hong Kong and the final one belongs to a private collector in Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province. The collector brought it in 1996 for several thousand yuan and now the clay statue is worth millions of yuan.
Pixiu, also known as bixie, patrolled the universe and protected mankind from evil and pandemics. It is said that pixiu helped Huangdi (Yellow Emperor), a tribal leader who was later revered as the ancestor of the Chinese nation, defeat enemy tribes in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River - the cradle of ancient Chinese civilization.
But this wayward monster is said to have been punished by the God of Heaven for misconduct and was condemned to eating nothing but treasures and suffering from a blocked anus. When people found out that this animal could suck in anything valuable and store it within the body, they regarded it as a fortune god. They soon copied pixiu in paintings, sculptures and jade amulets in the hope it would bring them wealth.
The practice of using pixiu as a charm and house protector can be traced to the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC) and became a custom in the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD24) when the founding emperor Liu Bang placed many pixiu statues in his palace as the royal guardian and forbade his subjects to use the sacred beast for feng shui purposes.
Despite this imperial decree, the popularity of pixiu prevailed across the country. Commoners also adorned their houses with images of pixiu. The fad reached its peak during the Southern Dynasties (AD420-589) when people worshipped pixiu to seek protection against a deadly epidemic that claimed thousands of lives in southern China.
Shanghai Museum has a clay statue of pixiu from the Western Han Dynasty. It is one of three such burial objects found from that period. One of the others is at T. T. Tsui Gallery of Chinese Art in Hong Kong and the final one belongs to a private collector in Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province. The collector brought it in 1996 for several thousand yuan and now the clay statue is worth millions of yuan.
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