Culture resting on Chinese gate piers

Box-shaped Gate Pier

Designs carved in the gate piers are varied. The most commonly seen are the auspicious designs such as kylin (an animal in Chinese mythology), ruyi (an S-shaped ornamental object, a symbol of good luck), and xiangyun (auspicious clouds)

Designs of longevity and health are also frequently engraved in gate piers, like fu shou shuang quan which consists of bats and peaches and a crane and a turtle.

Stories behind Gate Piers

Each gate pier carries a story or a message from its owner, which develops a unique culture integrating Chinese folk stories, homophonic and auspicious culture.

Marble-made lion-shaped gate piers set by royal families are in pairs, a male on the left and a female on the right. The male one steps upon an embroidery ball with its right claw to represent power, which is called lion rolling the embroidery ball. Under the left claw of the female one is a baby lion, meaning that the family will have many offspring.

Some families place two lion sculptures, an adult and a baby one, on one gate pier. “Lion” in Chinese sounds shi which is the same pronunciation as “generation” in Chinese. Then two lions in Chinese can be read shi shi, meaning “from generation to generation”. The message conveyed by this gate pier is in the hope of living together from generation to generation.

Peach in China is the symbol of longevity. As folklore goes, Xi Wang Mu (a character in Chinese mythology, Queen Mother of the West) lives forever after eating longevity peaches.

Bai Yuan Shou Tao

Bai Yuan Shou Tao (the white monkey and longevity peaches) tells a story: The mother of the white monkey in Yunmengshan (a mount in Beijing) fell ill and wanted to eat peaches. The white monkey was a filial son and went to steal peaches of immortality. Fairy Sun Zhenren who was guarding the peach orchard caught him, but he was moved by the monkey’s filial piety and let it go. To repay, the recovered mother let her son send a book on the art of war to fairy Sun. Since then on, Bai Yuan Shou Tao is endowed with wishes of longevity.

Kylin is an animal in Chinese mythology. There are two sorts of gate piers featuring kirin. The one is a kylin turning round its head and opening its mouth. This kylin gazes into the sky, majestically having every appearance of god, which is to pray for the peace, order and prosperity of the country.

The other is based on a story about kylin: One night, Confucius saw a flash of light rising into the sky. At dawn, he encountered a boy by the river beating a kylin with stones. Confucius rushed to cover the kylin with his cloth and dressed its wound. The kylin licked his hands and gave him three books through its mouth. Gate piers with this carved design on are to wish good luck in imperial examinations.

Gate piers are a unique vehicle for Chinese culture. They marked down folk stories, history and the hopes of their owners.

Bearing all kinds of wishes and dreams, gate piers stand in front of doors, guarding families and witnessing one age passing after another.