In ancient India,the preaching of the Buddha was characteristically compared to the lion’s roar. It symbolized the Buddha’s fearless,awesome and invincible power to conquer. The lion’s roar was a mere metaphor and sound per se had no intrinsic quality that bears on the ultimate truth of deliverance in Buddhism. Yet,the famed metaphor exhibited little significance as Buddhism acquired a new life in China. The reason is complex,it includes the fact that lions were not native to China as well as the Chinese perception of fierce wild animals. But the philosophy of sound in Confucianism and Daoism was critical. This paper traces the odyssey of the symbolic significance of sound in Chinese Buddhism. It briefly outlines its pre-history in Indian Buddhism and then identifies the native influences from Confucianism and Daoism that had helped to shape the evolution of sound from the lion’s roar to ultimate silence and to the eventual apotheosis of sound realized in heavenly piping in the heart-mind of the Chinese spiritual seeker.
