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 New Southern Chinese Lions must be blessed by a traditionally ceremony called the Hoi Gong (eye opening/dotting). Traditionally a new lion should not be used if it hasn't gone through the Hoi Gong ceremony. According to the tradition if the lion is used at any kind of event without being blessed or awakened it will bring misfortune and bad luck.
"Dotting the Eye" refers in particular to the Chinese tradition of painting in the eye of the Chinese lion before the start of the lion dance to awaken the spirit of the lion. Hoi Gong is a traditional ceremony to bless and awaken a new lion or in a more traditional concept bring down the spirit of the lion from the heaven and give it life. In other words this ceremony signifies the existence or birth of a new lion into the world.
The actual eye dotting ceremony itself may differ from school to school. The following is a short description of how the ceremony is carried out in most southern gung fu schools. The ceremony usually begins by the new lion laid down in front of the ancestral altar where the lion waits to be awakened with its eyes securely shut and the mouth tightly closed. Traditionally a priest/monk present begins the ceremony chanting of prayers to heavenly gods and summon the spirit and soul of the lion from the heaven down into the lion. While the lion still awaits, an important individual is invited to the open the eyes of the lion by dotting the lion with symbolic blood or red ink-cinnabar. Traditionally the blood from a live rooster's comb was used to dot the lion. According to Chinese tradition red is regarded as a life giving colour as well as being associated with good fortune and prosperity and the rooster symbolizes maleness/positive yang element, which represents life and power. First the mirror on lion's forehead is dotted to give the lion life. Second are the eyes for sight, followed by the nose, tongue, ears, horn, back of head, spine and, finally the tail. Then a red ribbon is tied on to lion's horn, which is a symbol of courage and honour and signify that the lion is tamed. The red ribbon is also a reminder for the lion to do only good deeds.
Dotting is carried out to the soft sounds of the drum, gong and the cymbal, but as the lion awakes and begins to move/dance the sound of the instruments become extremely loud. As the lion awakes the firecrackers are lid up and explode to drive away the evil spirits and bad luck. First the lion's eyes begin to move, flickering and blinking. Then the mouth opens and the body begins to breath, ears flickering, biting and scratching. Now the lion is alive and fully awake, ready for its first performance as it bows three times in front of the altar.
"Eye Dotting" Origin Of The Tradition
(Chinese Text from Ming Pao Daily, Translated by E. Hou)
 It is generally believed that the tradition of "eye-dotting" originated from 2 Chinese stories concerning printing pictures. During the Eastern Jin Dynasty [314-420 A.D. ]a painter named Gu Kai Zhi was famous for painting portraits. However, he had a strange habit of leaving the eyeballs out, even for several years. When he was asked why, he said, "The most life-like strokes of a subtle portrait come from the eyes." Actually he implied that even a single stroke should not be done casually.
Furthermore, when a painter called Zhang Seng You was designated to paint a mural for the An Le Monastery in Nanjing during the Southern Dynasty [420-589 A.D.] , people found that all the dragons on the wall-paintings lacked pupils in their eyes. When the Abbot invited him to add the pupils, Zhang said, "It must not be done, otherwise they will fly away from the wall into the sky."
The Abbot was not convinced. Eventually those dragons with eyeballs painted on them emerged and flew away, while those without stayed on the wall - (This is the origin for the Chinese proverb "Draw the dragons, dot the eyes".)
In fact, when we dot the eyes, we are dotting out the essence. When extended to literature, we may say that the most life-like words as "the stroke that dots the eyes."
When we dot the eyes for dragon-boats, lion dance or masks, the meaning is the same:We draw the eyes, we give them life! We are conveying our personal feelings! |
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