"Here one moment and gone the next, like deities and demons." In Chinese, the movements of evil spirits have a proverbial unpredictability. But Chinese people have always taken care to protect themselves against such tricky foes. Banyan trees may be planted around the whole village, and pairs of stone lions placed at the entrance to every house. A "Wind-lion" sits atop the roof to fend off harsh weather, while opposite the entrance to the lane stands a shih-kan-tang stone tablet, to repel demons. Protection is everywhere, for the whole village and for individual residences. And if that is still insufficient an amulet can be worn around the neck for personal safety. What hope does evil have against such defenses?

These foes of demonkind are what people mostly mean when they talk of resisting evil forces. They can be found in many varieties, from temples dedicated to the local earth god and the five spirit generals, to miniature pagodas and jars that adorn roofs, and lion tablets and sword screens at the front gate. Some envelope the home in security, while others ward off specific kinds of evil. But shih-kan-tang wayside tablets and stone lions are the two most favored such objects. Both have existed in many regions of the country for centuries, but while one is a native form, the other came from a distant land.

New Year is marked in China with lion dances, and it is stone lions that stand guard at the entrances to Chinese temples. Lion images are also widely carried on door knockers and personal seals. Yet China itself has never had lions, and only came to know the animal through contact with the West, transforming it in the process into a sacred creature.

The Chinese first learned of the lion during the Han dynasty, when the Silk Route opened a westward link, and people soon held the unknown animal in awe. It was described in the following terms: "A bronze head, an iron brow and a stare like lightning. It travels 500 li in a day. Its roar scatters all beasts and makes horses piss blood." Also: "It tears apart the tiger, devours the leopard, splits open the rhinoceros and rips the elephant in two." Accounts of the animal's legendary ferocity began to earn it mythical status, creating the part-real part-imaginary Chinese lion that we know today, and enrolling it in the ranks of defenses against evil.

Wayside tablets, which owe their power to the hardness of rock, began with a belief in spirit stones. Later a story was added in which a tablet inscribed with characters reading shih-kan-tang protected a king from concealed attack during the Five Dynasties Period. The tale eventually became known throughout the mainland and across on Taiwan and Okinawa.

It is thought that the tablets were first used during the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD), and there is recorded evidence of their existence in the Sung dynasty that succeeded it. They were erected in official places for the general suppression of demons, and were also placed in the lanes and homes of common people. The earliest surviving example, which is about 800 years old, is currently in the Foochow City Arts Museum, having resisted time as well as it repels devils.

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Wind-lion figures like these, with warriors on lion-back, have almost completely disappeared from Taiwan.

A shih-kan-tang and stone lion cleverly positioned outside a restaurant, following custom and serving as ornaments.