[Coda]

Some of the words extend into Japanese. 死 "shi" means "death"; し "shi" as a particle is a conjunction; し "shi" as a verb is the stem form of "suru" "to do"; "獅子" "shishi" means "lion".

If you want to get a little obscure, 市 "shi" means "city", 市肆 "shishi" means "market", and 死屍 "shishi" means "corpse". Of course these wouldn't be used in natural speech, but if you're TRYING to do it (or if you're looking for parallels between the Chinese and Japanese languages)...

Slightly off but close enough, 石 "ishi" is "stone".

And if such a poem were written in Japanese there would probably be four (四 "shi") lions instead of ten, and there might be reference to the 四肢 "shishi" "limbs" of the lion, and he might be 孜々"shishi" "diligent" about his goals (but his desire might be 肆意 "shii" "arbitrary"); he might want to consume their 宍 "shishi" "flesh", and he might use 四枝 "shi shi" "four long, thin things" to cut them in a "示威" "shii" "show of force". Perhaps his servants would be 嫉視 "shisshi" "jealous" and cast a 疾視 "shisshi" "spiteful gaze" -- or perhaps they would 資し "shishi" "contribute" to the quest.

And in fact the whole thing is a 詩 "shi" "poem" about the lion-eater. :P

Edit: For the record, I was using my dictionary for this post. "Death", the particle, the verb, "lion", "stone", and "four" are words I already knew but the rest are stuff that came up while I was looking for more homophones.