The Earliest Appearance of the Taotie Motif in Chinese Art Dates to

Tao tie
Taotie on a ding from the Shanghai Art Museum
Chinese	饕餮
Literal meaning	Legendary voracious brute
Transcriptions Standard mandarin Hanyu Pinyin tāotiè Wade–Giles t'ao1-t'iehiv IPA [tʰáʊ.tʰjê] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization tōu-tit Jyutping tou1 tit3 IPA [tʰóu.tʰīːt̚] Southern Min Hokkien POJ tho-thiat Quondam Chinese Baxter–Sagart (2014) *tʰˤaw tʰˤət Zhengzhang *l̥ʰaːw r̥ʰɯːd

The Taotie (Chinese: 饕餮) is an ancient Chinese mythological creature that is commonly emblazoned on bronze and other artifacts during the 1st millennium BC. Taotie are one of the "four evil creatures of the world". In Chinese classical texts such as the "Archetype of Mountains and Seas", the fiend is named alongside the Hundun (混沌), Qiongqi (窮奇) and Taowu (檮杌).^[1] They are opposed past the Four Holy Creatures, the Azure Dragon, Vermilion Bird, White Tiger and Black Tortoise.^{[2] [3]} The four fiends are too juxtaposed with the four benevolent animals which are Qilin (麒麟), Dragon (龍), Turtle (龜) and Fenghuang (鳳凰).^[4]

The Taotie is often represented as a motif on dings, which are Chinese ritual statuary vessels from the Shang (1766-1046 BCE) and Zhou dynasties (1046–256 BCE).^[five] 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 exist traced back to jade pieces found at Neolithic sites belonging to the Liangzhu civilisation (3310–2250 BCE).^[6] In that location is besides notable similarity with the painted pottery shards found at Lower Xiajiadian cultural sites (2200–1600 BCE).

Etymology [edit]

Although mod scholars utilise the discussion "Taotie", it is actually not known what discussion the Shang and Zhou dynasties used to call the design on their statuary vessels; as American paleographer and scholar of aboriginal China Sarah Allan notes, there is no particular reason to assume that the term taotie was known during the Shang period.^[7] The commencement known usage of Taotie is in the Zuo Zhuan, a narrative history of Cathay written in thirty chapters between 722 and 468 BCE. It is used to refer to one of the four evil creatures of the world Chinese: 四凶; pinyin: sì xiōng : a greedy and gluttonous son of the Jinyun clan, who lived during the time of the mythical Yellow Emperor (c.2698–2598 BCE). Within the Zuo Zhuan, taotie is used by the writer to imply a "glutton".^[7]

Withal, the clan of the term taotie is synonymous with the motifs plant on the ancient Zhou (and Shang) bronzes. The post-obit passage from Lü Buwei's Spring and Autumn Register (16/3a, "Prophecy") states:

The taotie on Zhou bronzes [ding] has a head but no body. When it eats people, it does not consume them, but harms them.

— ^[8]

Even so, Allan believes the second part of the sentence should exist translated as follows considering the association betwixt gluttony (the meaning in Zuo Zhuan) and the dings use for food sacrifices to the "insatiable" spirits of the dead is significant.

It devoured a man, but before it could consume it, its ain body was damaged

— ^[9]

Li Zehou, a Chinese scholar of philosophy and intellectual history, thinks the clarification of the taotie in the Spring and Autumn Register has a much deeper meaning and that "the pregnant of 'taotie is non [near] "eating people" but making a mysterious communication between people and Heaven (gods)."^[eight]

It is hard to explain what is implied in this, equally so many myths concerning the taotie take been lost, but the indication that it eats people accords fully with its roughshod, fearful countenance. To alien clans and tribes, it symbolized fear and forcefulness; to its ain clan or tribe, it was a symbol of protection. This religious concept, this dual nature, was crystallized in its strange, hideous features. What appears then vicious today had a historical, rational quality in its time. It is for precisely this reason that the vicious old myths and legends, the tales of barbarism, and the crude, violent, and terrifying works of fine art of ancient clans possessed a remarkable aesthetic appeal. As it was with Homer's epic poems and African masks, so it was with the taotie, in whose hideous features was full-bodied a deep-seated historic strength. It is because of this irresistible celebrated forcefulness that the mystery and terror of the taotie became the beautiful—the exalted.

— ^[8]

Bronze motifs [edit]

Taotie on a ding bronze vessel from belatedly Shang era

Scholars have long been perplexed^[10] over the meaning (if any) of this theriomorphic pattern, and there is still no commonly held single reply. The hypotheses range from Robert Bagley'south conventionalities that the design is a result of the casting process, and rather than having an iconographic meaning was the artistic expression of the artists who held the technological know-how to cast bronze,^[11] to theories that it depicts aboriginal face masks that may have one time been worn by either shamans or the god-kings who were the link between humankind and their deceased ancestors (Jordan Newspaper).

The once-popular belief that the faces depicted the animals used in the sacrificial ceremonies has now more or less been rejected (the faces of oxen, tigers, dragons, etc. may non even be meant to describe actual animals). Modern academics favor an interpretation that supports the idea that the faces have significant in a religious or ceremonial context, every bit the objects they appear on are almost ever associated with such events or roles. As one scholar writes "art styles always carry some social references."^[6] It is interesting that even Shang divination inscriptions shed no light on the pregnant of the taotie.^[12]

Later interpretations [edit]

During the Ming dynasty, a number of scholars compiled lists of traditional motifs seen in compages and practical fine art, which somewhen became codified every bit the Nine Children of the Dragon ( 龍生九子 ). In the earliest known list of this type (in which the creatures are not even so called "children of the dragon", and there are 14 of them, rather than 9), given past Lu Rong (1436–1494) in his Miscellaneous records from the edible bean garden ( 菽園雜記 , Shuyuan zaji), the taotie appears with a rather unlikely description, equally a beast that likes water and depicted on bridges.^[13] However, a well-known later list of the Nine Children of the Dragon given by Yang Shen (1488–1559) accords with both the ancient and the modern usage of the term:

The taotie likes to eat and drink; it used to appear on the surface of the dings.

— ^[14]

Some scholars believed that the Taotie motif is a reference to Chi You and is used to serve as a warning to people who covet power and wealth.^[15]

In the Volume of Imaginary Beings (1957), Jorge Luis Borges interpreted the figures as representing a dog-headed, double-bodied monster that represented greed and gluttony.

In popular culture [edit]

Taotie equally portrayed in The Great Wall.

The Tao Tie (spelled equally "Tao Tei") are the primary antagonists in the 2016 historical-fantasy epic motion picture The Great Wall.^[sixteen] In the motion picture, they are depicted as greenish-skinned quadrupedal alien creatures, with shark-like teeth, optics located on their shoulders, and the Tao Tie motif visible on their heads. They are shown living in a eusocial hive like to ants, where they attack the uppercase of Red china every 60 years to collect food to feed their queen.^[17]

Taotie is the proper noun of a warthog enemy character in DreamWorks's animated serial Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness.

Taotie, Shadow of the Yang Zing is a dragon-like animal in the trading card game Yu-Gi-Oh!.

Taotie is i of the Iv Perils of the Grandis in the MapleStory.

The Taotie appear in Valt the Wonder Deer.

Alongside the other Four Perils, Taotie is depicted in Highschool DxD/Slash Dog light novel series as a legendary demonic monster, who was exterminated in aboriginal times and its soul sealed into a Sacred Gear in the form of a masked racoon wielded Nanadaru Shigune, reflecting Taotie's gluttony, its has the power to devour absolutely anything.

Taotie is a recurring demon in the Shin Megami Tensei franchise.

Yuuma Toutetsu, from the Touhou Project series, is a Taotie who appears as the terminal boss of the 17.5th entry, Touhou Gouyoku Ibun, as the last boss and culprit. Her ability, akin to a Taotie, is to blot absolutely anything, whether its body is concrete, spiritual, organic or inorganic.

See likewise [edit]

• Four Symbols (China)
• Four Perils

Notes [edit]

1. ^ Legge, James (1872). The Chinese Classics. Vol. 5. Trubner.
2. ^ Tom, M. Southward. (1989). Echoes from Old China: Life, Legends, and Lore of the Middle Kingdom . Academy of Hawaii Press. ISBN0824812859.
3. ^ "The Chinese Sky". International Dunhuang Project. Retrieved 2011-06-25 .
4. ^ Rong Cheng Shi Archived 2012-04-25 at the Wayback Machine.
5. ^ Greg Woolf (2007). Ancient civilizations: the illustrated guide to belief, mythology, and fine art. Barnes & Noble. p. 216. ISBN978-1-4351-0121-0.
6. ^ ^{a b} Kesner, Ladislav (1991). The Taotie Reconsidered: Significant and Functions of the Shang Theriomorphic Imagery. Vol. 51, No. ane/ii. Artibus Asiae. pp. 29–53.
7. ^ ^{a b} Allan 1991, p. 145,148
8. ^ ^{a b c} Li 1994. The primary source: Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals, chapter 先識 ("Prophecy"), quote: " 周鼎著饕餮，有首無身，食人未咽，害及其身，以言報更也。 "
9. ^ Allan 1991, p. 145
10. ^ Allan 1991, p. 128; Quote: "To some, the problem of meaning has seemed impenetrable"
11. ^ Bagley, Robert (1987). Shang Ritual Bronzes. The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation. ISBN978-0-674-80525-v.
12. ^ Keightley, David (1978). Sources of Shang History: The Oracle-Bone Inscriptions of Bronze Historic period China' . University of California Press. p. 137. ISBN0-520-02969-0.
13. ^ Lu Rong's Shuyuan zaji is quoted in Yang Jingrong and Liu Zhixiong (2008): " 饕餮，性好水，故立橋頭。 ". The full text of Shuyuan zaji tin be plant at a number of sites online, e.g. here: 菽園雜記 Archived 2010-03-06 at the Wayback Machine
14. ^ Yang Shen's Sheng'an Ji ( 升庵集 ) quoted in Yang Jingrong and Liu Zhixiong (2008): " 饕餮，好飲食，故立於鼎蓋。 "
15. ^ Wangheng Chen; Various (2001). Chinese Brozes: Ferocious Dazzler. Asiapac Books Pte Ltd. pp. 62–63. ISBN9789812290205.
16. ^ Truffaut-Wong, Olivia (February 16, 2017). "What Are The Tao Tei In 'The Great Wall'? These Mythical Monsters Are Hungry". Bustle. Archived from the original on June 25, 2020. Retrieved June 25, 2020.
17. ^ Edelstein, David. "'The Neat Wall' Stands As A Monument To Absurd CGI Clutter". fm.kuac.org.

References [edit]

Wikimedia Eatables has media related to Taotie.

• Allan, Sarah (1991), The shape of the turtle: myth, art, and cosmos in early on China, SUNY series in Chinese philosophy and civilisation, SUNY Press, ISBN0-7914-0460-ix
• Thou. C. Chang, Art, Myth, and Ritual: The Path to Political Authority in Ancient Red china. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Printing, 1983.
• Mircea Eliade, Shamanism, trans. W. R. Trask. NY: Bollingen Foundation, 1964.
• Li, Zehou (1994) [1988], The Path of Beauty: A Study of Chinese Aesthetics, Oxford in Asia paperbacks, New York: Oxford University Printing, pp. thirty–31, ISBN0-19-586526-X , translated by Gong Lizeng. In that location is an extract on taotie at AsianArt Study Guide.
• Jordan Paper, "The Meaning of the 'T'ao-T'ieh'" in History of Religions, Vol. 18, No. 1 (August, 1978), pp. eighteen–41.
• Roderick Whitfield, ed. The Trouble of Meaning in Chinese Ritual Bronzes. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1993.
• 杨静荣 (Yang Jirong); 刘志雄 (Liu Zhixiong) (2008), 龙之源 [The Origin of the Dragon], 中国书店, Affiliate 9, 龙的繁衍与附会——龙生九子 (Dragon'southward derived and associated creatures: The nine children of the dragon), ISBN7-80663-551-3 (Section ane, Section 2, Section 3).

rosalesfamme1942.blogspot.com

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taotie#:~:text=The%20first%20known%20usage%20of,between%20722%20and%20468%20BCE.

Share this post