Taotie, one of the nine sons of the dragon in ancient Chinese myths and legends, 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.
Legendary monsters
The shape of their heads is often engraved on ancient bells, tripods and Yi vessels 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 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 people who are gluttonous are called gluttons, so gourmets are commonly called "old gluttons"; those who are greedy for money are called gluttons. In the world, it represents the greed in human nature.
The "Wei Shu·Huan Xuan Biography" of the greedy and crippled person: "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"
Gluttony
Taotie (15 photos)
Cao Yu's "Peking Man" Act 1: "And he is the most particular about eating. He is a famous Taotie who is good at tasting the good and evil of food. "Taotie" is a mythical beast in ancient Chinese legends. Its biggest characteristic 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 rescued!"
One of the Four Evils
"Zuo Zhuan·The Eighteenth Year of Wen Gong": "Shun and Yao were guests in the four gates, and lived in the four evil tribes, Chaos, Qiongqi, Taotie, Taotie, He surrendered to the four descendants to ward off the evil spirits. Therefore, after the death of Yao, the world became united and united with Shun as the Son of Heaven. He used his sixteen attributes to eliminate the four evils. "To the north of Yanmen, there is a country that eagles and hawks must spy on. It is a land of gluttony and Qiongqi." The four evils are just metaphors for humans: chaos, Qiongqi, Taotie, and Taotie.
Other meanings
Taotie is a tattoo totem. The Australian Aboriginals call it kabang, the Li people of Hainan call it tauttan, and the Miao people of western Hunan call it a disciple or a tutu. "Book of the Later Han Dynasty·Nanman Biography": The man named Qu Shuai is called Jing Fu Xiang Jie Tu.
The compound surname was given to King Wuling by Emperor Liang Shizu of the Southern Dynasty, whose surname was Taotie. See "Book of Liang]·b] Biography of King Wuling."
One of the Seven Deadly Sins in the Divine Comedy, gluttony is the waste of food, or overindulgence of appetite, drunkenness, or hoarding of excess food. Dante's point of view is "excessive pursuit of pleasure."
2 Editor of historical records
It is recorded in "Cihai":
Taotie is "the legendary gluttonous evil beast. It is often engraved on ancient bells, tripods and Yi vessels. The shape of the head is used as decoration. "Cihai" explains the word "tao": "Tao" means "greed". "Hanshu·Liyuezhi": "Greed is greedy". Yan Shigu notes: "Greed is called Tao" specifically. "Gluttony."
"Shenyi Jing·Southwestern Wilderness Jing": "There is a man in the southwest who has a hairy body and wears a pig on his head. He is as greedy as a ruthless person, hoards money without using it, and is good at stealing people's grains (Part 1). The original sentence of the two sentences is "It is good to accumulate wealth, but not to eat people's valleys." According to the "Historical Records of the Five Emperors" Zhengyi quoted). "The Jinyun family is an untalented person."
"Zuo Zhuan: Wen Gong's Eighteenth Year" says: "The Jinyun family has an untalented person who is greedy for food, takes bribes, invades, and is extravagant. "To accumulate wealth and not know how to discipline it; to make no distinction between orphans and widows, and not to care about poverty and poverty. The people of the world compare themselves to the three evils, which is called gluttony".
"Lu Shi's Spring and Autumn Annals: Xian Shi Lan": "Zhou Ding's gluttonous food has a head but no body. It eats people without swallowing them and harms its body, so it is better to repay them with words." [2]
Song Luo Mi's "History of the Road: Biography of Chi You" 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 the 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. Gentle and sometimes violent, it rises into the sky and stirs up waves of several feet, which is extremely majestic.
The "Book of Mountains and Seas: Beishan Jing" says: "There are many jade on the top of Gouwu Mountain and many coppers on the bottom." 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 an animal, has a body like an ox, a human face, eyes under the armpits, and eats people."
Ancient Taotie Tattoo Culture
The Taotie is a legendary evil beast that is extremely gluttonous. It is so greedy that it even eats up its own body, so its shape generally has a head but no body. "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals Xian Shi Lan" said: "Zhou Ding's gluttonous food has a head but no body. It eats people without swallowing them and harms its body, so it is better to repay them with words." In ancient Chinese mythology, Taotie is one of the four evil spirits. Legend has it that the Yellow Emperor fought against Chi You, and Chi You was beheaded, and his head fell to the ground and turned into a glutton. "The Classic of Mountains and Seas Beishan Jing" says: "Mountain Gouwu has a lot of jade on the top and a lot of copper on the bottom. There is a beast, its shape is like a sheep's body and a human face, its eyes are under the armpits, tiger's teeth and human claws, its sound For example, a baby named Roe Owl is a cannibal.”
Taotie
According to annotations by Guo Pu of the Jin Dynasty, the "roe deer owl" here refers to Taotie. There is a similar record in "Shenyi Jing·Xihuang Jing": "Taotie, the name of the beast, with a body like an ox, a human face, eyes under the armpits, and cannibalism." "Shu Yi Jing" said that Taotie refers to the Sanmiao people in the southwest. Chen Mengjia, a recent scholar, further said that Taotie was Chi You, while Mr. Liu Chiping's "Questioning the Taotie Pattern on Bronze Wares" believed that it was the Shennong family. Later, there was a legend among the people that the dragon gave birth to nine sons. Lu Rong and Yang Shen of the Ming Dynasty listed Taotie as one of the nine sons of the dragon. This is already a kind of attachment. Lu Rong's "Miscellaneous Notes on Shuyuan" records that Taotie "is good at water, so he built a bridge there", while Yang Shen's "Sheng'an Collection" records that "Taotie is good at food, so he built it on a tripod lid".
The animal face decorations on Shang and Zhou bronzes reflected people's worship of natural gods at that time, so they had a mysterious and solemn atmosphere. However, there are still different opinions on the specific meaning of these mysterious decorations. Bronze ware embodies the consciousness of "respecting gods" among the ancestors of the Yin and Shang dynasties. In the Zhou Dynasty, it developed into "respecting heaven and ancestors", forming a symbol of the trinity of religion, political power, and clan power. Most scholars believe that the rulers of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties used the "monstrous and terrifying" bronze decorations to express the "mysterious majesty" of royal power and to express their possession of political power, status and wealth, which was daunting. The slave owners placed all their majesty, will, glory, fantasy and hope in these horrific and ferocious decorations. Mr. Zhang Guangzhi also believes that "bronze is politics and power," but he believes that these animal patterns are not for intimidation, but for communication with gods. Due to the low level of productivity in primitive society, people attribute many unexplainable phenomena to the power of gods. People are full of awe of gods, beg gods, please gods, and use divine power to control things. Therefore, wizards who "can communicate with gods" have a very high status, and the wizard class has become the original imperial ruling class. Sacrifice is the prerogative of wizards, and it is also the central link to communicate between humans and gods and to sanctify the order of the world. Wizards used the animals on bronze vessels to communicate with gods, so these weird animal patterns represent mystery and power. According to the research of Mr. Chen Gongrou and Mr. Zhang Changshou, the most primitive form of the bodyless animal mask pattern is just a pair of round bubble-shaped breast nails to represent the eyes of the animal face. Its origin can be traced back to the Erlitou Culture. Later, the nose was gradually added. The horns, mouth, ears and eyebrows become an animal face with complete organs. Eyes are the main body of animal masks. Since animal masks generally only show two eyes, they should have originated from prehistoric eye worship. There are pairs of eye patterns on prehistoric painted pottery, and there are pairs of eye patterns on jades. In the late Neolithic Age, there were already standard animal facial patterns, as well as a simplified form of animal facial patterns, namely eye patterns. According to Mr. Tang Huisheng's research, the god of heaven in shamanism is also the sun god. The sun god is often drawn in the shape of an eye, because in many ancient myths, the sun is called the "eye of the sky." For example, the sun god of Brahmanism is also called the "Eye of the Sky" or the "Eye of the World". Scholars who hold this view believe that the Taotie pattern in the traditional sense is not just an animal mask pattern. The Taotie should be a genus of the god of heaven or the sun god. The emphasis on the eyes in the Taotie pattern is precisely because of its role as the sun god - —Description of the characteristic of light.
[3]
The Taotie pattern first appeared on jades from the Liangzhu Culture in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River five thousand years ago, but the Taotie pattern is more common on bronzes, especially tripods. It appears on the bronzes of the Erlitou Xia culture.
However, the name "Taotie Pattern" did not exist in ancient times, but was named by people in the Song Dynasty 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 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.
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.
In the long history of Chinese culture, before the worship of "dragon and phoenix", there was 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.
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 a man-eating Taotie is simply far-fetched and goes against the social and cultural conditions of the Shang and Zhou dynasties.