On this lane, please look up as you walk. Above a door, or high on a wall, you may find a round plaque bearing a lion's face, a single sword clenched in its…
Multilingual AI audio guide exhibit on WOUDiO (PWA). WOUDiO pioneered the world’s first audio guide platform with built-in donation: listeners can support the cultural venue without leaving the listening experience. The text below is the localized description, details, and narration script for this audio guide stop.
On this lane, please look up as you walk.
Above a door, or high on a wall, you may find a round plaque bearing a lion's face, a single sword clenched in its mouth. This is the Sword Lion — jiàn shī — a charm against evil, native to Anping.
Once you spot one, take a look at which way the sword points.
Some have the hilt to the lion's left, some to its right, and some clasp two crossed swords at once. Locals say each has its own meaning — inviting good fortune, warding off evil, or both at once. But which direction means what differs from house to house, and from storyteller to storyteller. This is not a rule fixed in writing, but something passed down by word of mouth.
There is a story told of its origin. A soldier stationed in Anping, returning home, hung his shield and sword upon his door. The shield bore the face of a lion, and across it he laid his sword at a slant. A neighbor who saw this believed it would keep evil from approaching, and began to do the same.
Whether this is true, no one can say. But it is certain that soldiers once lived in this town.
That so many of these charms remain tells us that the people who lived here once had good reason to be afraid — of the sea, of plague, of the house next door.
By the time you turn the next corner, how many will you have found?
