In those days Chinese tables were about 8 inches high and people were seated around them on mats or cushions. These small dogs were very low and square and had short muzzles, and bronze vessels which have survived from this Dynasty are decorated with running figures of small dogs with feathered ears and long curling tails which identify them as Pekingese. Numerous legends have grown around this little breed, one being that a lion once fell in love with a small monkey and prayed to the Lord Buddha to make him small enough to court his true love. Legend has it that the Lord Buddha granted the lion s wish and turned him into a Lion Dog, changing only his size but leaving him his lion shape and courage.
All evidence shows that the breed has been established for thousands of years in China.
The supreme symbol of the new religion was the lion and it became the most common figure in the art of China. Lions did not exist in nature in China and rarely were they able to be captured and transported to China from Central Asia, Arabia or Egypt. The Lion Dog with its massive mane became a substitute. The Lion Dog was bred by the eunuchs of the Imperial Court who, eager to gain favour with the Emperor, presented him with the most perfect and lion-like specimens. The Emperor s dogs were kept in the royal Ancestral Temple and their portraits were painted on long scrolls of silk to decorate the walls of the Palace.