Lion-Turtle - Ancient Turtle
Is the Lion-Turtle a lion hybrid animal, or just very ancient?
Let’s recap: It is very ancient, can communicate with humans, has a lion mane and his wise.
The turtle (龜) is one of the auspicious animal in China. (Other auspicious animals are phoenix (fenghuang 鳳凰), unicorn (qilin 麒麟) and dragon(long 龍).)
Can communicate with humans:
It is said in the Zhong xuan ji 中玄記 (a collection of supernatural stories from the Jin Dynasty 晉 (265-420) that thousand-year old turtles gain the ability to communicate with humans.
In the later Shu yi ji 述異記 “Tales of strange matters” (a collection of ancient novellas and stories of strange events from Southern Qi period 南齊 (479-502), the following Liang period 梁 (502-557).) Says that a:
Has a lion-mane i.e. hair:
In the age of one thousand years a turtle grows hair, as the Shuyiji 述異記 says.
Is wise:
A five thousand years old turtle is called shengui 神龜 “divine turtle”, an animal older than ten thousand years is called linggui 靈龜 “spiritual turtle”.
Now, I am very aware that the show uses hybrid-animals, but I think that, when you compare the lion-turtle’s traits with what traits ‘ancient turtles’ in Chinese stories have, you can clearly see where the inspiration for the lion-turtle came from.
The books I am talking about can be found here: One
