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Taotie
The taotie is an ancient Chinese mythological creature that was commonly emblazoned on bronze and other artifacts during the 1st millennium BCE. Taotie are one of the Four Perils in Chinese classics like the Classic of Mountains and Seas, alongside the Hundun, Qiongqi, and Taowu.
The Taotie is often represented as a motif on dings, which are Chinese ritual bronze vessels from the Shang (c. 1600 – c. 1050 BCE) and Zhou dynasties (c. 1046 – 256 BCE). The design typically consists of a zoomorphic mask, described as being frontal, bilaterally symmetrical, with a pair of raised eyes and typically no lower jaw area. Some argue that the design can be traced back to jade pieces found at Neolithic sites belonging to the Liangzhu culture (3310–2250 BCE). There are notable similarities with the jades of the Shijiahe culture (2500-2000 BCE) and the painted pottery of the Lower Xiajiadian culture (2200–1600 BCE).[citation needed]
Although modern scholars use the word taotie, it is actually not known what word the Shang and Zhou dynasties used to call the design on their bronze vessels; as American paleographer Sarah Allan notes, there is no particular reason to assume that the term taotie was known during the Shang period. The first known usage of Taotie is in the Zuo Zhuan, a narrative history of China written in 30 chapters between 722 and 468 BCE. It is used to refer to one of the four evil creatures of the world 四凶; sì xiōng: a greedy and gluttonous son of the Jinyun clan, who lived during the time of the mythical Yellow Emperor. Within the Zuo Zhuan, taotie is used by the writer to imply gluttony.
Nonetheless, the association of the term taotie is synonymous with the motifs found on the ancient Zhou (and Shang) bronzes. The Lüshi Chunqiu (16/3a, "Prophecy") states:
The taotie on Zhou bronzes [ding] has a head but no body. When it eats people, it does not swallow them, but harms them.
However, Allan believes the second part of the sentence should be translated as follows because the association between gluttony (the meaning in the Zuo Zhuan) and the use of dings for food sacrifices to the "insatiable" spirits of the dead is significant:
It devoured a man, but before it could swallow it, its own body was damaged
Li Zehou, a Chinese scholar of philosophy and intellectual history, thinks the description of the taotie in the Lüshi Chunqiu has a much deeper meaning, and that "the meaning of taotie is not [about] 'eating people' but making a mysterious communication between people and Heaven (gods)."
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Taotie
The taotie is an ancient Chinese mythological creature that was commonly emblazoned on bronze and other artifacts during the 1st millennium BCE. Taotie are one of the Four Perils in Chinese classics like the Classic of Mountains and Seas, alongside the Hundun, Qiongqi, and Taowu.
The Taotie is often represented as a motif on dings, which are Chinese ritual bronze vessels from the Shang (c. 1600 – c. 1050 BCE) and Zhou dynasties (c. 1046 – 256 BCE). The design typically consists of a zoomorphic mask, described as being frontal, bilaterally symmetrical, with a pair of raised eyes and typically no lower jaw area. Some argue that the design can be traced back to jade pieces found at Neolithic sites belonging to the Liangzhu culture (3310–2250 BCE). There are notable similarities with the jades of the Shijiahe culture (2500-2000 BCE) and the painted pottery of the Lower Xiajiadian culture (2200–1600 BCE).[citation needed]
Although modern scholars use the word taotie, it is actually not known what word the Shang and Zhou dynasties used to call the design on their bronze vessels; as American paleographer Sarah Allan notes, there is no particular reason to assume that the term taotie was known during the Shang period. The first known usage of Taotie is in the Zuo Zhuan, a narrative history of China written in 30 chapters between 722 and 468 BCE. It is used to refer to one of the four evil creatures of the world 四凶; sì xiōng: a greedy and gluttonous son of the Jinyun clan, who lived during the time of the mythical Yellow Emperor. Within the Zuo Zhuan, taotie is used by the writer to imply gluttony.
Nonetheless, the association of the term taotie is synonymous with the motifs found on the ancient Zhou (and Shang) bronzes. The Lüshi Chunqiu (16/3a, "Prophecy") states:
The taotie on Zhou bronzes [ding] has a head but no body. When it eats people, it does not swallow them, but harms them.
However, Allan believes the second part of the sentence should be translated as follows because the association between gluttony (the meaning in the Zuo Zhuan) and the use of dings for food sacrifices to the "insatiable" spirits of the dead is significant:
It devoured a man, but before it could swallow it, its own body was damaged
Li Zehou, a Chinese scholar of philosophy and intellectual history, thinks the description of the taotie in the Lüshi Chunqiu has a much deeper meaning, and that "the meaning of taotie is not [about] 'eating people' but making a mysterious communication between people and Heaven (gods)."