Pixiu Meaning: The Chinese Mythical Beast of Fortune

The pixiu is a winged, lion-like mythical beast of Chinese tradition. It began as a guardian of tombs and palaces, charged with warding off evil, and in modern times it has become one of the best-known symbols of wealth in feng shui.

Guardian beasts of the Han

From the Han dynasty onwards, pairs of winged, four-legged beasts in stone guarded the approaches to important tombs. The National Palace Museum in Taipei describes these bixie as winged creatures, probably inspired by forms from Western Asia, placed as huge stone statues along the spirit roads leading to tombs, and also carved in fine jade as ornaments for the powerful. Eastern Han examples survive at the Luoyang Museum, and colossal Six Dynasties beasts still stand outside imperial tombs near Nanjing.

Pixiu, bixie and tianlu

The names overlap. Bixie means "ward off evil"; after the Han and Six Dynasties periods it came to mean a specific winged, lion-faced beast, of the same family as the pixiu and the tianlu. Taiwan's National Museum of Natural Science notes that some traditions distinguish them by their antlers, and that early texts mention the pixiu: Ge Hong's Baopuzi has pixiu clearing the way behind the sage Laozi, and the Book of the Later Han lists it among the beasts embroidered on an empress's ceremonial dress.

How the pixiu became a wealth symbol

In modern feng shui, the pixiu is above all a beast of fortune. A popular modern story says it feeds on gold and silver and never lets them go, which made it a favourite of merchants and gamblers. That association is modern belief built on an ancient guardian figure.

The pixiu in jewellery

A pixiu design carries both layers: the ancient guardian that warded off evil and the modern emblem of prosperity. See the AURYN Pixiu bracelet, or read our guide to Chinese auspicious symbols.