Dog in Chinese mythology an apotropaic magic act meant to drive away evil spirits. Paper dogs were also provided for protecting the dead. (Eberhard, 2003: 80) Numerous statuary of Chinese guardian lions exist, which are often called ""Fu Dogs"" ""Foo Dogs"", ""Fu Lions"", ""Fo Lions"", and ""Lion Dogs"". Modern lions are not native in the area of China, except perhaps the extreme west; however, their existence was well known, and associated symbolism and ideas about lions were familiar; however, in China, artistic representations of lions tended to be dog-like. Indeed, "[t]he 'lion' which we see depicted in Chinese paintings and in sculpture bears little
Dog in Chinese mythology be ambiguity regarding whether the reference to "dog" means "Dog" (proper name), "dogs", "a dog", "the dog", "some dogs", or "the dogs". For thousands of years, a twelve-year cycle named after various real or mythological animals has been used in Southeast Asia. This twelve-year cycle, sometimes referred to as the "Chinese zodiac," associates each year in turn with a certain creature, in a fixed order of twelve animals, after which it returns to the first in the order, the Rat. The eleventh in the cycle is the Dog. One account is that the order of the beings-of-the-year is due to