[DannyJo]

Hey All,

I'm in Beijing with my sister at the moment and we toured the Forbidden city, she was intrigued by the small chicken with a man on it followed by two mythical beasts which appears on the corners of the rooftop. I remember it was something to do with deflecting lightening, but I can't really remember.

Can anyone fill me in?

Cheers

DannyJo

[Liang Jieming]

Hehehehe,

People put monsters and stuff on the roof eaves to scare away evil spirits.

That's a Prince on a Chicken that you see and he is very common on temple roofs and old, old chinese buildings too.

I've forgotten which Prince he was (Prince of some state), but he was an evil person, so EVIL that people later decided to add him onto the procession of monsters to put on their roofs.

So the next question is why a chicken? That's easy. Chickens can't fly away, so this way, the EVIL prince has to stay on the roof and can't escape.

True story I swear.

This post has been edited by Liang Jieming: 07 March 2006 - 12:17 PM

[Liang Jieming]

gargoyles.

[DannyJo]

Liang Jieming, on Mar 7 2006, 05:16 PM, said:

That's a Prince on a Chicken that you see and he is very common on temple roofs and old, old chinese buildings too.

I've forgotten which Prince he was (Prince of some state), but he was an evil person, so EVIL that people later decided to add him onto the procession of monsters to put on their roofs.

So the next question is why a chicken? That's easy. Chickens can't fly away, so this way, the EVIL prince has to stay on the roof and can't escape.

I believe you LJ

My question now to all is who was this prince, there are enough Forbidden City experts on the forum to answer this?

And is it any old temple or building or is it only those associated with the Imperial family?

Your chicken answer makes a lot of sense aswell as it didn't really fit in with the mythical beasts behind it.

Thanks to all.

[Liang Jieming]

Hehe. Frankly I'm amazed you could make out that it is a chicken. Most people would have guessed some other 4 legged animals.

Anyway, it's a prince of the Warring States or the Spring and Autumn Period actually (if I remember correctly) and it's not limited to Imperial buildings but any building that wants to ward off evil.


From the Sanbao (Zhenghe) temple roof in Melaka (Malacca). Our dear "Chicken Prince" is the little guy smack in the centre of the picture.

This post has been edited by Liang Jieming: 08 March 2006 - 01:46 AM

[snowybeagle]

Is that what you're referring to?

The building itself is the Hall of Supreme Harmony (太和殿), otherwise known as Imperial Golden Hall (金銮殿) or Imperial Throne Chamber.

The figures on the roofs are known as zŏu shòu (走兽), or as a wiki entry puts it : yán shòu (檐兽) [see wikipedia's entry on Imperial roof decoration)

The following is taken from http://www.dpm.org.cn which is an official website of the Forbidden Palace museum.
It can be found in the link for Hall of Supreme Harmony (太和殿).

Quote

走兽
又称小兽，屋顶檐角所用装饰物。根据建筑物的体量大小定其使用数量，一般采用单数，太和殿用10个，属于特例。其排列顺序为龙、凤、狮子、天马、海马、押鱼、狻猊、獬豸、斗牛、行什，多为有象征意义的传说中的异兽。走兽所处的位置，在垂脊、戗脊的下端，正是几坡瓦陇上端的汇合点，为封护盖住交会线的连砖的上口，必须在连砖上覆盖脊瓦；因其斜下，若无措施不免有下滑之虞，故在交梁上需用多数铁钉加固，为掩饰铁钉的痕迹，于是在钉帽上加饰了一系列的小兽形象，起到美化建筑的作用。后来建筑技术不断发展，屋檐部位不需要加铁钉，而走兽的形象却保留下来，成为建筑等级的标志和建筑装饰构件。

According to this website 故宫太和殿上的小兽,
the first animal figure was supposed to be a phoenix (凤), the entire figurine is called 骑凤仙人 or 仙人骑凤.
Its resemblance to a chicken was not missed, and some called it 仙人骑鸡.

There were various lores associated with that figure.

In one of them, it was the lord of the State of Qi (齐) escaping his enemies after being defeated. Just when he came to a river and had nowhere to run, a big bird flew and carried him to safety. The reasoning for putting the figure at the very edge of the spine of the roof structure was to imply being saved from danger (逢凶化吉).

Other lores had it it represented a wicked man ; either a nephew of Jiang Ziya (姜子牙) or King Min of Qi (齐泯王), and their presence on the edge represented them being at the edge of danger.

http://gb.chinabroad.../109@392355.htm



I'm afraid I can't find anything about protection from lightning.

According to the passage I quoted above, they were aesthetic coverings for the reinforcing nails that were necessary where sections of the roofs meet, though each animal had a mythical connotation.

This post has been edited by snowybeagle: 08 March 2006 - 02:36 AM

[Kymvir Raemiz]

Here's a place where the Lightning story is mentioned.

http://www.virtualto...tions-BR-1.html

I have no idea if its true or not, but that's a site where anyone can enter information, and it incorrectly identifies the creature as a hen, not a phoenix.

[Genghis_Khan]

Kymvir Raemiz, on Mar 8 2006, 11:57 PM, said:

Here's a place where the Lightning story is mentioned.

http://www.virtualto...tions-BR-1.html

I have no idea if its true or not, but that's a site where anyone can enter information, and it incorrectly identifies the creature as a hen, not a phoenix.

Wow.. this is a great link. It explain most of the superstitious things for the oriental..

[yehzhaofeng]

Can't really see it, but you can tell it is on every roof.

http://www.ccdemo.in...ImpRoofDeco.jpg
Look at this picture. They said that different buildings have different beasts on them as long as it adds up to an odd number. The different beasts indicates what the building is used for.

[rooster]

I had always wondered about the “gargoyle” figures on roofs of Chinese houses and buildings – there’s a guy riding on some bird with several other creatures behind him. The total number of figures seem not to be fixed, but anything from 3 to 12. I took many photos of them during my trips to China.

I’m not sure I found the right-right answer, but here’s what C.A.S. Williams say in his book Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs. I haven’t finished reading this book but I found it to be a quite a treasure. I believe the contents are more true than mere postulations. I recommend this book to anyone who has a lot of questions about Chinese symbols and mortifs.

… In the year 283 BC, the tyrant Prince Min of the state of Qi, after being defeated by a combination of other states, was strung up to the end of a roof ridge and left hanging there without food and water, exposed to the sun until he died. To stigmatize his evils deeds, the people placed a effigy riding a hen, on the roofs of their houses. With the weight of the prince, the hen cannot fly down. To prevent the hen from escaping over the roof, a qiwen was placed at the other end of the ridge. It was not until the time of Ming Emperor Yongle that other figures were added. A correct set would be in this order – hen, dragon, phoenix, lion, unicorn, celestial horse, qiwen. If more is required, any one can be repeated except the hen and the qiwen, but always so as to form an odd number up to eleven - odd number comes under influence of Yang. Over time, the arrangement and number of figures departed from the original….

Below are photos of two roofs - Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven. They have Prince Min riding the hen. But I notice that in pagodas and Taoist temples, it is very different. Hope others can share what they know.

[Publius]

I also find that book to be a treasure

I'm not sure of the roof-figures origins, but forummers have discussed Dragons on roofs on this thread and the Man on the Chicken on this thread.

Here's what Snowy wrote on that second thread:

Quote

The figures on the roofs are known as zŏu shòu (走兽), or as a wiki entry puts it : yán shòu (檐兽) [see wikipedia's entry on Imperial roof decoration)

The following is taken from http://www.dpm.org.cn which is an official website of the Forbidden Palace museum.
It can be found in the link for Hall of Supreme Harmony (太和殿).

QUOTE
走兽
又称小兽，屋顶檐角所用装饰物。根据建筑物的体量大小定其使用数量，一般采用单数，太和殿用10个，属于特例。其排列顺序为龙、凤、狮子、天马、海马、押鱼、狻猊、獬豸、斗牛、行什，多为有象征意义的传说中的异兽。走兽所处的位置，在垂脊、戗脊的下端，正是几坡瓦陇上端的汇合点，为封护盖住交会线的连砖的上口，必须在连砖上覆盖脊瓦；因其斜下，若无措施不免有下滑之虞，故在交梁上需用多数铁钉加固，为掩饰铁钉的痕迹，于是在钉帽上加饰了一系列的小兽形象，起到美化建筑的作用。后来建筑技术不断发展，屋檐部位不需要加铁钉，而走兽的形象却保留下来，成为建筑等级的标志和建筑装饰构件。


According to this website 故宫太和殿上的小兽,
the first animal figure was supposed to be a phoenix (凤), the entire figurine is called 骑凤仙人 or 仙人骑凤.
Its resemblance to a chicken was not missed, and some called it 仙人骑鸡.

There were various lores associated with that figure.

In one of them, it was the lord of the State of Qi (齐) escaping his enemies after being defeated. Just when he came to a river and had nowhere to run, a big bird flew and carried him to safety. The reasoning for putting the figure at the very edge of the spine of the roof structure was to imply being saved from danger (逢凶化吉).

Other lores had it it represented a wicked man ; either a nephew of Jiang Ziya (姜子牙) or King Min of Qi (齐泯王), and their presence on the edge represented them being at the edge of danger.

http://gb.chinabroad.../109@392355.htm

[rooster]

OK, Publius... guess I didn't search hard enough...
Perhaps merge this with the other?

[Publius]

Here are a few pictures I took of our rooftop friend:



Also, does anyone know the significance of the number of figures adorning the rooftop? They vary from 3 to 9 and are always an odd number.

[sylvester]

Publius, on Sep 25 2007, 06:00 AM, said:

Here are a few pictures I took of our rooftop friend:



Also, does anyone know the significance of the number of figures adorning the rooftop? They vary from 3 to 9 and are always an odd number.

number of those figures(...not a figure really...it is a cape for the wooden nail) imply the social position, or say the power, of the house owner.
all around china, you will find 1~9 figures on somebody's roof, but the one and only one of 10 standing figures you can see, is the hall of supreme harmony,
that hall was the only one place that, god and human contact happens, that hall owned by the emperier and the god, so it having 10.
those photo you show us is not taken at hall of supreme harmony, that hall named 乾清宮 is the living place of emperor and his wifes, haveing 9 of it,
and you may find 7 at house that owned by blood borthers of emperor,
5 at the roof of some important officials,
3 at normal officials,
and 1 at lower position officials,
and none at normal citizens.

i am a chinese living in Hong Kong, forgive my poor english,
but i really happy to know foreigners like you guys get interested in chinese culture.