Taotie, pronounced tāo tiè, is the fifth son of the legendary dragon. It is a mysterious monster that exists in legends and imaginations. The ancient book "Shan Hai Jing" introduces its characteristics as follows: its shape is like a sheep body and a human face, its eyes are under the armpits, tiger teeth and human claws, and its voice is like a baby. There are related images in games, novels, comics, and film and television works.
Table of Contents
1 Related Concepts
Legendary Monsters
The Cauldron and the Taotie
The Gluttony
>A metaphor for greed
One of the four evils
Other meanings
Extended meanings
2 Historical records
< p>3 Related Issues4 Decoration - Ancient Taotie Pattern Culture
Religious Culture
Wine Culture
Architectural Art
Furniture Decoration
Music
5 Gluttonous Nights
1 Related Concepts
Legendary Monsters
The image of Taotie
The image of Taotie
The shape of his head is often carved on ancient bells and tripods as decoration. "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals·Xian Shi": "Zhou Ding made gluttonous food, which has a head but no body. It cannibalizes people without swallowing them, causing harm to their bodies. It is necessary to repay them with words." "Shenyi Jing·Southwestern Desolate Sutra": "There is someone in the southwest. Yan has a hairy body and wears a pig on his head. He is as greedy as a wolf. He likes to accumulate wealth for himself and does not eat people's crops. The strong take over the old and weak. He is afraid of the crowd and kills singles. He is called Taotie. " Song Shaobo "After hearing about it." Volume 26 of "Records": "In the early days of Shaosheng, my ancestor was an official in Chang'an Mansion. He was selling soup cakes in front of the Han Emperor Gaozu Temple in Xicheng. He got a white jade box, which was more than a foot high. It was engraved with clouds, dragons and phoenixes. It was built as a sacred mountain in the sea, and it was enough for gluttons. "With the changes of the times, the Taotie pattern on the tripods of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, which has the meaning of governing the body and the country, was gradually forgotten by people. Later generations exaggerated the gluttonous part of the image of Taotie. Su Dongpo once wrote. A piece of "Lao Taotie Fu" says: "The beauty of things is gathered together to support my old Taotie", which adds loveliness to Taotie. To this day, friends who like good food are called "Gourmet people".
The "roe deer owl" in "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" refers to gluttonous food.
The nine sons born in the dragon are: Qi Niu, Jia Sui, Chao Feng, Pulao, Suan Ni, Bi Xi, Bi Fan, Chi Kiss, Taotie, Jiao Tu, Earthworm, etc.
The Cauldron and the Taotie
The Taotie is a good food, so it is placed on the lid of the tripod. It is also said that gluttony is called Taoism, so gourmets are commonly called "old gluttons"; greedy money is called Tie. In the world, it represents the greed in human nature.
The "Wei Shu·Huan Xuan Biography" of the greedy man said: "The concubine who took the concubine is almost the same as the six bodies, so he made the servant of the minister serve as the matchmaker, the chief historian to welcome the guests, the concubine was gluttonous, and he congratulated the concubine. "Long Autumn." Sun Hua of the Qing and Tang dynasties wrote in "Fa Su Xing": "The officials were so greedy that they hung the edicts on the wall with empty words." Zhang Binglin's "Deputy Ran Bu Lun" said: "Therefore, the greedy people were sent to the imperial court to pay tribute. Grand Court."
Gluttony
Scene 1 of Cao Yu's "Peking Man": "And he is the most particular about eating. He is a famous glutton who is good at tasting the good and evil of food. "Taotie" is a mythical beast in ancient Chinese legend
Taotie
Taotie (14 photos)
. Its biggest feature is that it can be eaten. It is an imaginary mysterious monster. This kind of monster has no body because it is so good at eating that it eats its own body. It only has a big head and a big mouth. It is very greedy and finally ate itself. It is a symbol of greed, so it is often used to describe gluttonous or greedy people.
Tang Du Fu's "Muntjac" poem: "A thief in clothes and a thief, a glutton with a beard." Li Yu in the Qing Dynasty's "Nai He Tian·Huo Jian": "In the end, the gluttons who come to the table will not tolerate the empty food. "Nie Gannu's "A brief discussion of Mr. Lu Xun's "Weeds": "The evil spirits of human beings are perched on these living bones, feasting on human flesh."
Metaphor of greed
Greed and cruelty "Old Tang Book·Wenyuan Chuanxia·Liu Di": "There is no clear and beneficial government in the upper place, but there is the harm of gluttony; there is no loyalty in the lower place, but there is deception and bullying." "Sin." Ai Qing's "Reed Flute·Ma Qian" poem: "Its gluttonous whales can cause the fertile land in the east to suffer greater harm than the locust attacks and droughts, and it is too deep to be saved!"
One of the Four Evils
"Zuo Zhuan: The Eighteenth Year of Wen Gong": "Shun and Yao, guests of the four gates, lived in the four evil tribes, Chaos, Qiongqi, Taotie, Taotie, Throw in the four descendants to ward off the evil spirits. After Yao's death, the world became unified and united to support Shun as the Son of Heaven. He used his sixteen signs to eliminate the four evils.
"Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals · Relying on the Lord [1]": "To the north of Yanmen, there is a country that eagles and falcons must peep into. It is a land of gluttony and wonder." "See the entry on the four evils. The four evils are chaos, Qiongqi, Taotie, and Taotie as metaphors for people.
Other meanings
Taotie is a tattoo totem, made by Australian natives Kebang kabang, the Li people in Hainan are called tauttan, and the Miao people in western Hunan are called Tutu Yiyinzhuan. "Book of the Later Han Dynasty·Nanman Biography": The name Qushuai is called Jingfu Xianghu Tutu.
The surname given to King Wuling by Emperor Shizu of the Southern Dynasty was Taotie. Drinking too much or hoarding too much food. Dante's point of view is "excessive pleasure"
Extended meaning
The original meaning of "glutton" is gluttony, but in the modern catering industry. For example, in the monthly magazine "Lao Tao Cuisine" of Guangzhou Zhouji Mingdianju (teahouse), the term "Tao Min" is the exclusive name for those diners who love to eat and are good at eating. And many gourmets happily call themselves "taotie people"
2 Historical records
"Cihai" records: Gluttony
is "the legendary greed." The evil beast that eats. Ancient bells, tripods, and Yi vessels were often engraved with the shape of their heads as decoration. "Cihai" said when explaining the word "tao": "Tao" means "greed". "Hanshu·Liyuezhi": "Greed and glutton are dangerous" Yan Shigu notes: "Greedy is called glutton." ’ refers specifically to gluttony. "
"Shenyi Jing·Southwestern Wilderness Jing": "There is a man in the southwest, with a hairy body and a pig on his head. Greed is like cruelty, hoarding wealth without using it, and good at taking other people's grains (the original text of the last two sentences is "good at hoarding money for oneself, but not eating other people's grains", adapted from the "Historical Records of the Five Emperors"). The strong take over the old and the weak, and they are afraid of the strong and attack alone. This is called Taotie. "Spring and Autumn" Those who are gluttonous are the untalented people of the Jinyun family. "
"Zuo Zhuan·Wen Gong's Eighteenth Year" says: "The Jinyun family had untalented people who were greedy for food and drink, took risks in bribes, invaded and admired luxury, and could not get tired of it; they accumulated wealth and did not know the rules. Extreme; does not distinguish between orphans and widows, does not care about the poor. The people of the world compare the three evils and call them gluttonous. "The so-called "Spring and Autumn Annals" in the "Shen Yi Jing" are this.
"Lu Shi Chun Qiu·Xian Shi Lan": "Zhou Ding wrote gluttonous food, which has a head but no body, and cannibalism has not harmed the body. His body repays his actions with words. "
Song Luo Mi's "Lu Shi·Chi You Biography" notes: "The god of Chi You's celestial talisman has an unusual shape. Among the Yi utensils of the three generations, there are many images of Chi You, which is a warning to those who are greedy and abusive. Its image is in the shape of an animal with fleshy wings. "Kui Qi said that Taotie is probably also Taotie.
"Zuo Zhuan" calls Taotie an "untalented son of the Jinyun family". "Historical Records: The Chronicles of the Five Emperors": "The Jinyun family had an untalented son who was greedy for food and took risks. When it comes to bribery, the world calls it gluttony. "The anthology of "Historical Records: The Chronicles of the Five Emperors" quotes Jia Xuan as saying: "The Jinyun family, whose surname is Jiang, is a descendant of Emperor Yan, and was an official in Jinyun during the time of the Yellow Emperor. "Chiyou's surname was Jiang, and he was also a descendant of Emperor Yan ("Lu Shi Biography of Chi You"), so Chi You was probably the "untalented son" Taotie of the Jinyun family. According to legend, Taotie was the head of Chi You who was beheaded after he was defeated by the Yan and Huang emperors. The body and head of this class were filled with resentment, and had the ability to devour all things. They were sealed by the Yellow Emperor with the Xuanyuan Sword (a metaphor for the dragon pattern on the sword), and were guarded by the lion clan for generations (gatekeeper stone lions). The "Roe Deer Owl" recorded in "The Classics", Guo Pu annotated that it is the Taotie in "Zuo Zhuan"
"The Strange Beasts of Gods and Demons": There is an evil beast in the extreme south of China, with four eyes and black skin. , a kind of dragon water beast with a long neck and four legs, is fierce in nature, moves as fast as the wind, and is a disaster. It has a pair of horns on its head and is surrounded by cold air. Most of them are green and white, and are dozens of feet long. Sometimes gentle and sometimes violent, it rises into the sky and stirs up water waves of several feet, which is extremely majestic.
"The Classic of Mountains and Seas: Beishan Jing" says: "There is a lot of jade on the top of Gouwu Mountain, and a lot of copper below." There is a beast, its shape is like a sheep's body and a human face, its eyes are under the armpits, it has tiger teeth and human claws, and its voice is like a baby. It is called a roe deer owl, and it is a cannibal.
The "Shenyi Jing Xihuang Jing" says: "Taotie, the name of the beast, has a body like an ox, a human face, eyes under the armpits, and cannibalism."
3 related Problems
First, Taotie is an "evil beast", not a fish, snake, python, crocodile, or fish or reptile.
There is also a reference to Shang and Zhou Dynasties in "Cihai" The Taotie pattern on the tripod. You can identify who that ferocious beast looks like just by looking at it. It looks very much like a wolf from the front. It also has round eyes and is extremely ferocious.
The second is gluttony and even gluttony
This characteristic clearly points out the characteristics of wolves. "Extreme gluttony" is one of the most outstanding characteristics of the prairie wolf.
If you don’t believe it, you can ask the old herders who is the most “voracious beast” in the world? The answer is definitely wolf. As we all know, "greed" is synonymous with wolf nature. Dong Zhongshu said that Qin "takes greed as a wolf as a custom" and also juxtaposed greed with wolves. Chinese people always describe gluttony as "wolfing down", and they also rank wolves before tigers, as wolves are more gluttonous than tigers. To describe greed, one would say "wolf ambition" but not "tiger ambition".
Because Taotie has the characteristics of two wolves: "evil beast" and "very gluttonous", and the pattern of Taotie resembles that of a wolf. Therefore, the legendary Taotie is probably a wolf, or a mythical beast that evolved from a wolf.
Third, the Taotie became the main decoration of the Shang and Zhou dings, which involves a series of issues
The ding was an important tool for the founding of the Chinese nation in the Bronze Age. In the Zhou Dynasty, the "ding", which means "one word and nine tripods", was an artifact and ritual vessel symbolizing the supreme royal power, and it was also a sacrificial vessel for worshiping heaven and ancestors. The tripod is the national "totem pole" in the minds of the Chinese ancestors. Therefore, only totems belonging to the nation are qualified to ascend to such a lofty position and be engraved and cast on the tripod.
This phenomenon reflects two problems: First, by the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, the Chinese nation had a dragon totem, and the totem worship legacy of the ancestors of the Yan Emperor and the Yellow Emperor may still exist. Because the Zhou Dynasty originated from Xirong, and most of Xirong were nomadic people who worshiped the wolf totem; secondly, the "dragon" at that time may not have been generally accepted and had not yet truly become the national totem of the Chinese nation. Otherwise, the tripod symbolizing royal power would definitely have the dragon as its main decoration. Moreover, at that time, Emperor Zhou had not yet sat on the dragon throne. At that time, he still continued the nomadic tradition of Yan and Huang: sitting on the ground.
The decoration on the Zhou tripod mainly consists of Taotie patterns and cloud patterns, with cloud patterns surrounding it. Obviously, the Taotie mythical beast is in the sky, sticking its head out of the clouds and looking down at the world. Its body is hidden in the clouds. I don’t know if it has a snake body or a dragon body, but if a dragon body is added behind Taotie’s head, it will not be far different from the later standard dragon. Therefore, I think there may be a transitional stage between the wolf totem and the dragon totem, the gluttonous totem. Taotie has both the character of a wolf and the ferocious appearance of a dragon later on.
The true name and prototype of the mythical beast referred to by the animal mask pattern has long been buried in the ages that can never be reproduced. Later generations used it because of its ferocious, mysterious and terrifying appearance, and some of them had human heads in their mouths. Give him the name Taotie. Taotie was originally used in "Zuo Zhuan" to describe those who were greedy for money and gluttony. Modern scholars have pointed out that naming the animal mask pattern as gluttonous is simply far-fetched and goes against the social and cultural conditions of the Shang and Zhou dynasties.
Because of its ferocious and terrifying appearance and its reputation as a glutton, it is almost impossible to find traces of this beast in the evolution of Chinese culture and art. In the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty, animal patterns that had been popular for hundreds of years suddenly withdrew from the field of bronze decoration as the main pattern. However, several animal patterns that appeared on bronzes at the same time as the Taotie pattern, such as dragons, tigers, phoenixes, turtles, etc., appeared in large numbers in both official and private circles in the subsequent cultural evolution, becoming the most famous auspicious symbols in Chinese culture. Objects and artistic expressions are an endless stream of themes. Especially dragons, in the Bronze Age, most of them had the same ferocious faces as the Taotie pattern. In terms of mystery, power and status, dragons were far inferior to gluttons in the Bronze Age. However, the dragon later ascended to the highest throne of Chinese cultural and political symbols, but "Taotie", the supreme figure of the Bronze Age, has been hard to find.
4 Decoration - Ancient Taotie Pattern Culture
The Taotie pattern first appeared on the Liangzhu Culture jades in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River 5,000 years ago, but the Taotie pattern is more common. It appears on bronzes, especially tripods, as far back as the Erlitouxia culture.
However, the name "Taotie Pattern" did not exist in ancient times, but was named by the Song Dynasty people when epigraphy was rising. The most perfect Taotie mask is 21.0 cm high and is now in the Seattle Library in the United States. This pattern usually takes the bridge of the nose as the midline and is arranged symmetrically on both sides.
What exactly does the Taotie pattern refer to? There have been many debates and there is no conclusion yet. There were many types of Taotie patterns in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, some were like dragons, tigers, cows, deers, and mandrills; others were like birds, phoenixes, and people. Among the various patterns, the Taotie pattern is the most widely recognized as the tiger shape. Many scholars engaged in research on primitive culture and art believe that the Taotie pattern is an exaggeration and deformation of the tiger pattern.
In ancient times, the tiger was also a very important divine beast that reached the sky. The shape of a wizard riding a tiger often appeared in the cultural relics of later generations.
Taotie pattern ornaments
Taotie pattern ornaments (8 photos)
In the long history of Chinese culture and history, before the worship of "dragon and phoenix", there was a A rather long stage of dragon and tiger worship. The dragon-tiger fighting pattern was very popular from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty to the Western Han Dynasty. Among them, the dragon-tiger fighting pattern unearthed from the Mawangdui Han Tomb is the most exquisite and impressive. The ancients believed that the tiger was a yang animal, "The clouds follow the dragon and the wind follows the tiger." The fight between the dragon and the tiger represents the union of yin and yang. In the Han Dynasty, Canglong, White Tiger, Suzaku and Xuanwu represented the four astronomical officials of the East, West, South and North. At least, in the early days of Chinese history, the status of the tiger was not inferior to that of the dragon. However, the description of the magical power of tigers in ancient books is obviously difficult to compare with the prominent position of Taotie on bronze vessels.
It is said that a dragon gave birth to nine sons, and its fifth son was called Taotie (tāo tiè). He was a ferocious and cruel monster in ancient times. He liked to eat people and had a large appetite.
Because Taotie is a ferocious monster with powerful power, it is used as a talisman by many ethnic minorities in the north. They carve its patterns on utensils and food dishes, thinking that in this way they can use the powerful power of the Taotie to prevent them from being swallowed by other ferocious beasts. Later, it gradually replaced its original cruel side of cannibalism and became a mythical beast. [2]
Religious culture
For example, the Shang Dynasty elephant cover and the Taotie pattern copper gong: the vessel is 17.7 cm high and consists of the body, feet and cover. The cover is decorated with Taotie patterns and is backed by fine cloud and thunder patterns. The belly of the utensil is decorated with Taotie patterns. Animal patterns have religious significance. Various types of tripods during the Shang Dynasty were decorated with Taotie patterns. The tripod was the most common and mysterious vessel used by ancestors to offer sacrifices, and it had strong religious significance.
For example, the Taotie-patterned bronze urn (Shang Dynasty) unearthed from Lijiahe, Pinggu, Beijing: 27 cm high, 7.5 cm in diameter, with a Taotie pattern on the abdomen and beaded patterns on the upper and lower parts, for sacrificial purposes.
Wine culture
"Shuowen": It is regarded as a thing specially used to hold wine for sacrifices or entertaining guests. Li Bai of the Tang Dynasty: "I visited Zige Peak in the morning and stayed in the village at the foot of the mountain in the evening. The village elder was so happy to see Yu that he opened a statue for me." "Zun" refers to the wine vessel, which is equivalent to the modern wine pot. A bronze statue with Taotie pattern from the Shang Dynasty was unearthed in Qianshan County, Anhui Province in 1912. It has been buried underground for more than 3,000 years and is still shining with green light and exquisite decoration. , this statue is 21.5 cm high, 19.4 cm in diameter, and weighs 2 kg. It is in the shape of a trumpet, with a high neck, bulging belly and round feet. It is named after the Taotie pattern on the jewelry. The Taotie pattern symbolizes the facial shape of a gluttonous beast in ancient legends. It was often used as a theme decoration on utensils from the Shang Dynasty to the Western Zhou Dynasty. It was often lined with cloud and thunder patterns, and the patterns varied.
Another example is the bronze statue with an ox-headed gluttonous pattern: Shang Dynasty (1600 BC - 1046 BC), 30.5 cm high and 28 cm in diameter. It was unearthed at the Xiangyang Hui Food Factory in Zhengzhou in 1982. It was a sacrificial utensil for the ancestors. The jue with the Taotie pattern was a drinking vessel that could only be used by nobles of the fifth rank in the Shang Dynasty. The jue is a drinking vessel with a "flow" for drinking in the front, a cup in the middle, a tail at the back, ears on one side, and three legs below. There is a pillar between the "liu" and the cup. In addition to being used for decoration, it can also be used to hold the bridge of the nose when drinking, which can prevent excessive drinking. Jue gradually disappeared after the early Western Zhou Dynasty.