Fu Dog / Stone Lion

A pair of guardian figures placed at an entrance — one of the few objects with a genuinely classical pedigree. Guardian lions are placed in pairs flanking a door, male and female, and are among the oldest objects in the practice. Unlike most placement objects, they are documented in the building tradition itself rather than only in remedy lists.

This database documents placement principles, not outcomes. A pair of guardian figures placed at an entrance — one of the few objects with a genuinely classical pedigree. The insistence on the pair, on the left/right assignment and on facing outward is the tradition at its most rule-bound, and it is also the case where the rule is most often broken in practice.

The classical pairing is specific: the male with a ball to the left, the female with a cub to the right, facing outward. The sources treat the pair as a unit — a single figure is described as incomplete. It is grouped under Metal (金) in the five-element system.