A new study has revealed that the iconic bronze-winged lion in St. Mark’s Square, Venice, may have originated in 8th-century China.

一项新研究表明，威尼斯圣马可广场的标志性青铜翼狮可能起源于 8 世纪的中国。

Based on research done after a 1980s restoration, the statue was believed to have been made in Anatolia during the early Hellenistic era (4th century B.C.), but a study of the lead isotopes in the metal alloy found they came from mines in the lower basin of the Yangtze River in southeastern China. Armed with the hard science, researchers reexamined the lion’s design and found characteristic features of Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.) sculptures in the head, mane and chest.

根据上世纪80年代修复工作后的研究，雕像曾被认为是在早期希腊化时期（公元前4世纪）的安纳托利亚制造的。但对金属合金中铅同位素的研究发现，这些元素来自中国东南部长江下游流域的矿山。有了这一科学依据，研究人员重新审视了狮子的设计，发现其头部、鬃毛和胸部具有唐代（公元618-907年）雕塑的特征。

This style of creature had a specific function in Tang Dynasty sculpture as tomb guardians. Known as zhenmushou figures, they were fantastical beasts ferocious in demeanor that were placed at tomb gates to scare away evil spirits and protect the spirits of the dead. By the 7th century, they were typically placed in pairs, one with a human-like face, one with a lion or beast-like face.

这种风格的生物在唐代雕塑中常常作为墓葬守护者，被称为镇墓兽。这些雕像是充满威慑力的幻想生物，通常放置在墓道入口，用以驱赶邪灵并保护亡者的灵魂。到7世纪时，它们通常成对出现，一只具有人形面貌，另一只是狮子或兽类面貌。

Some of the characteristic features shared by St. Mark’s lion and zhenmushou figures include wide nostrils with a moustache pointing up on each side, a wide open mouth with a pair of wide-set canines in the top jaw and more narrow set ones on the bottom, a flat plate of teeth between them and prominent orbital sockets in which horns were mounted. The orbitals are truncated in the lion, indicating that it too had once had horns or antlers, but they were amputated to make him look more lionine. His ears also appear to have been trimmed and rounded, as the original zhenmushou ears were higher and pointed.

圣马可狮子与镇墓兽雕像之间的一些共同特征包括：两侧翘起的胡须、宽大的鼻孔、张开的嘴、上颚位置较宽的犬齿以及下颚较窄的犬齿、以及两者之间的平板牙齿。此外，雕像上突出的眼窝中原本装有角。由于这些眼窝被截断，表明这座狮子雕像曾经也有角或鹿角，但后来被去除以使其更像狮子。狮子的耳朵似乎也被修剪成圆形，而最初的镇墓兽耳朵更高且呈尖状。