• YUAN DYNASTY - Fusion of Mongolian nomadic culture

    For the first time in its long history—was completely subjugated by foreign conquerors and became part of a larger political entity, the vast Mongol empire.
    • Ruling from their capital in Dadu (also known as Khanbaliq; now Beijing), the Mongol Khans increasingly assumed the role of Chinese emperors.
     
    • Fu Dogs are also sometimes acknowledged by their innate qualities or abilities: and an auspicious lion is Ruishi, a fortuitous lion is Fushi, while the Lion of Buddha is Foshi.
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    • Southern Chinese, having resisted the Mongol invasion the longest, faced a conscious policy of discrimination, leading many scholars to withdraw from public life to pursue their own personal and artistic cultivation, often under the aegis of the Buddhist or Daoist religions.

    • The concept of Fu Dog, which originated and became popular in Chinese Buddhism, features a pair of highly stylized lions —often one male with a ball which represents the material elements and one female with a cub—which represents the element of spirit , were thought to protect the building from harmful spiritual influences and harmful people that might be a threat. Used in imperial Chinese palaces and tombs, the lions subsequently spread to other parts of Asia.