Chinese guardian lions Chinese guardian lions Chinese guardian lions or Imperial guardian lions, often miscalled "Foo Dogs" in the West, are a common representation of the lion in imperial China. Chinese guardian lions are sometimes referred to in English as shishi, from the Chinese shí shī (), which refers specifically to lion sculptures in stone. The concept, which originated and became popular in Chinese Buddhism, subsequently spread to other parts of Asia including, Japan, Korea, Tibet, Thailand, Burma, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Cambodia, Laos and Singapore. Since the introduction of the lion symbolism during the Han dynasty (206 BC – AD 220) from
A Chinese-English Dictionary dictionary into the 1,813-page second edition (1912) with the addition of 67 more entries and numerous usage examples. Herbert Giles served as a British consular officer in late Qing dynasty China until from 1867 to 1892. After his return to England, he was appointed the second professor of Chinese at the University of Cambridge, in succession to Thomas Francis Wade. They are renowned for developing what was later called the Wade-Giles romanization system of Chinese, which Giles' "A Chinese-English Dictionary" firmly established as the standard in the Western world until the 1958 official international pinyin system (Wilkinson 2000: 93). In