{{Short description|Ancient Chinese mythological creature}} {{Italic title}} {{Infobox Chinese | title = ''Taotie'' | pic = Bin Li.jpg | piccap= Taotie on Chinese ritual bronze | c = 饕餮 | l = | p = tāotiè | gr = tautieh | w = {{tonesup|t'ao1-t'ieh4}} | mi = {{IPAc-cmn|t|ao|1|.|t|ie|4}} | y = tōu-tit | j = tou1 tit3 | ci = {{IPAc-yue|t|ou|1|.|t|it|3}} | poj = tho-thiat | oc-zz = {{IPA|*l̥ʰaːw r̥ʰɯːd}} | oc-bs = *{{IPA|tʰˤaw tʰˤət}} }} 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''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Legge| first=James |year=1872 |url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/cfu/index.htm |title=The Chinese Classics |volume=5 |publisher=Trubner}}</ref>
The ''Taotie'' is often represented as a motif on ''dings'', which are Chinese ritual bronze vessels from the Shang ({{circa|1600|1050 BCE}}) and Zhou dynasties ({{circa|1046}}{{snd}}256 BCE).<ref name="Woolf2007">{{cite book |first=Greg |last=Woolf |title=Ancient civilizations: the illustrated guide to belief, mythology, and art |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=94NuSg3tlsgC&q=Taotie+jade+cong|year=2007 |publisher=Barnes & Noble |isbn=978-1-4351-0121-0 |page=216}}</ref> 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).<ref name="Kesner" /> There are notable similarities with the jades of the Shijiahe culture (2500-2000 BCE)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sohu.com/a/335779422_302522 |title=良渚神徽的后世演变：夏商周饕餮纹 |work=Sohu.com |language=zh-CN}}</ref> and the painted pottery of the Lower Xiajiadian culture (2200–1600 BCE).{{citation needed|date=November 2025}}
==Etymology== [[File:Tripod for food (Ding), for rituals celebrating the ancestors. The surface is decorated with 3 taoties (zoomorphic masks). Shang Dynasty, 1300-1050 BCE. Bronze. From China. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.jpg|thumb|Shang ''ding'' for food rituals celebrating ancestors. The surface is decorated with three ''taotie'' motifs{{snd}}Victoria and Albert Museum, London]] 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.<ref name=allan145>{{harvnb|Allan|1991|pp=145,148}}</ref> 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'' {{zhi|c=四凶|p=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.<ref name=allan145/>
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:
<blockquote>The ''taotie'' on Zhou bronzes {{bracket|''ding''}} has a head but no body. When it eats people, it does not swallow them, but harms them.<ref name=li>{{harvnb|Li|1994}}. ''Lüshi Chunqiu'', chapter [http://ctext.org/lv-shi-chun-qiu/xian-shi/zh {{lang|zh|先識}}] ("Prophecy"), quote: {{lang|zh|周鼎著饕餮，有首無身，食人未咽，害及其身，以言報更也。}}</ref></blockquote>
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: <blockquote>It devoured a man, but before it could swallow it, its own body was damaged<ref>{{harvnb|Allan|1991|p=145}}</ref></blockquote>
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)."<ref name=li/>
<blockquote>It is hard to explain what is implied in this, as so many myths concerning the ''taotie'' have been lost, but the indication that it eats people accords fully with its cruel, fearful countenance. To alien clans and tribes, it symbolized fear and force; to its own clan or tribe, it was a symbol of protection. This religious concept, this dual nature, was crystallized in its strange, hideous features. What appears so savage today had a historical, rational quality in its time. It is for precisely this reason that the savage old myths and legends, the tales of barbarism, and the crude, fierce, and terrifying works of 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 concentrated a deep-seated historic force. It is because of this irresistible historic force that the mystery and terror of the ''taotie'' became the beautiful—the exalted.<ref name=li/></blockquote>
==Bronze motifs== [[File:Liu Ding part.jpg|thumb|Taotie on a ''ding'' bronze vessel from late Shang era]] Scholars have long been perplexed<ref>{{harvnb|Allan|1991|p=128}}; Quote: "To some, the problem of meaning has seemed impenetrable"</ref> over the meaning (if any) of this theriomorphic design, and there is still no commonly held single answer. The hypotheses range from Robert Bagley's belief 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,<ref>{{cite book | first = Robert | last = Bagley | title = Shang Ritual Bronzes | publisher = The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation | year = 1987 | isbn=978-0-674-80525-5 }}</ref> to theories that it depicts ancient face masks that may have once been worn by either shamans or the god-kings who were the link between humankind and their deceased ancestors (Jordan Paper).
The once-popular belief that the faces depicted the animals used in the sacrificial ceremonies has now more or less been rejected{{citation needed|date=May 2024}} (the faces of oxen, tigers, dragons, etc. may not even be meant to depict actual animals). Modern academics favor an interpretation that supports the idea that the faces have meaning in a religious or ceremonial context, as the objects they appear on are almost always associated with such events or roles. As one scholar writes "art styles always carry some social references."<ref name="Kesner">{{cite book | title = The Taotie Reconsidered: Meaning and Functions of the Shang Theriomorphic Imagery | first = Ladislav | last = Kesner | publisher = Artibus Asiae | volume= 51, No. 1/2 | year = 1991 | pages = 29–53 }}</ref> Shang divination inscriptions shed no light on the meaning of the ''taotie''.<ref>{{cite book | first = David | last = Keightley | title= Sources of Shang History: The Oracle-Bone Inscriptions of Bronze Age China' | publisher = University of California Press | year = 1978 | isbn = 0-520-02969-0 | page = 137 }}</ref>
==Later interpretations== [[File:Cernuschi Museum 20060812 033.jpg|thumb|A vessel with a ''taotie'' design{{snd}}Musée Cernuschi, Paris]] During the Ming dynasty, a number of scholars compiled lists of traditional motifs seen in architecture and applied art, which eventually became codified as the Nine sons of the dragon. In the earliest known list of this type (in which the creatures are not yet called "children of the dragon", and there are 14 of them, rather than 9), given by Lu Rong (1436–1494) in his ''Miscellaneous records from the bean garden'' ({{lang|zh|菽園雜記}}, ''Shuyuan zaji''), the ''taotie'' appears with a rather unlikely description, as a creature that likes water and depicted on bridges.<ref>Lu Rong's ''Shuyuan zaji'' is quoted in Yang Jingrong and Liu Zhixiong (2008): {{lang|zh|饕餮，性好水，故立橋頭。}}. The full text of ''Shuyuan zaji'' can be found at a number of sites online, e.g. here: [http://xxgblog.tcip.net.cn/index.php/56/viewspace-3024.html {{lang|zh|菽園雜記}}] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100306151643/http://xxgblog.tcip.net.cn/index.php/56/viewspace-3024.html |date=2010-03-06 }}</ref> 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:
<blockquote>The ''taotie'' likes to eat and drink; it used to appear on the surface of the ''dings''.<ref>Yang Shen's ''Sheng'an Ji'' ({{lang|zh|升庵集}}) quoted in Yang Jingrong and Liu Zhixiong (2008): {{lang|zh|饕餮，好飲食，故立於鼎蓋。}}</ref></blockquote>
The historian {{ill|Luo Bi|zh|罗泌}}, of the Southern Song dynasty, connected the Taotie motif to Chiyou, writing in the ''Lushi'' that the Yellow Emperor "cut his head off; and for this reason sages later cast his portrait on bronzes to warn the greedy."<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Whitfield |first=Roderick |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NPXpAAAAMAAJ |title=The Problem of Meaning in Early Chinese Ritual Bronzes |date=1993 |publisher=Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London |isbn=978-0-7286-0203-8 |pages=115 |language=en}}</ref> Luo Bi's son, {{ill|Luo Ping (historian)|zh|罗苹_(宋朝)}}, expanded on this further, writing that: {{blockquote|Chiyou was a spirit of the heavenly magic; his nature and shape were never consistent. The bronzes from the three dynasties were often cast with Chiyou's portrait to warn those who are greedy. The form of Chiyou is most likely an animal, with the addition of wings of flesh; it started at the time of the Yellow Emperor.<ref name=":0" />}} In the ''Book 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== The Tao Tie (spelled as "Tao Tei") are the primary antagonists in the 2016 fantasy epic film ''The Great Wall''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bustle.com/p/what-are-the-tao-tei-in-the-great-wall-these-mythical-monsters-are-hungry-38748 |last=Truffaut-Wong |first=Olivia |date=February 16, 2017 |title=What Are The Tao Tei In 'The Great Wall'? These Mythical Monsters Are Hungry |work=Bustle |access-date=June 25, 2020 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200625191607/https://www.bustle.com/p/what-are-the-tao-tei-in-the-great-wall-these-mythical-monsters-are-hungry-38748 |archive-date=June 25, 2020}}</ref> In the film, they are depicted as green-skinned quadrupedal alien creatures, with shark-like teeth, eyes located on their shoulders, and the Tao Tie motif visible on their heads. They are shown living in a eusocial hive similar to ants, from which they attack the capital of China every 60 years to collect food to feed their queen.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://fm.kuac.org/post/great-wall-stands-monument-absurd-cgi-clutter|title='The Great Wall' Stands As A Monument To Absurd CGI Clutter|first=David|last=Edelstein|website=fm.kuac.org|date=17 February 2017 }}</ref>
A Taotie appears in the ''Touhou Project'' spinoff game ''Touhou Gouyoku Ibun ~ Sunken Fossil World'' as the primary antagonist (and unlockable playable character) Yuuma Toutetsu,<ref>{{Cite web |title=『東方剛欲異聞 ～ 水没した沈愁地獄』Nintendo Switch™版の配信日が10月20日に決定！ 10月6日、Nintendo eShopにて予約開始！ |url=https://touhou-project.news/news/7886/ |access-date=2025-07-20 |website=東方Projectよもやまニュース |language=ja}}</ref> who spends the majority of the games seven scenarios drinking petroleum from Former Hell of Blood Pools. She is a goat-horned girl with curly white hair wielding a large spork as a weapon, and wears a blue dress with patterns inspired by the designs on dings. Yuuma possesses the ability to swallow things both physical and spiritual in order to absorb their power.
Taotie is also represented in ''Digimon New Century'' from the ''Digimon'' franchise, in the form of Taotiemon. The Digimon is a mammalian monster sporting a large, bronze mask it uses to eat things with, and is one of the Four Perilous Beasts.
Taotie also appeared in Fabulous Beasts (有兽焉) as a red fur ball with 2 horns on his head, wings on the back and several patterned dots on his face. His eyes are at his armpits and normally wears eyes purely of makeup. Taotie has a haughty and bold megalomaniac, having a high ego of himself and is one of the Four Perils in the story<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-11-15 |title=Taotie |url=https://youshouyan.miraheze.org/wiki/Taotie |access-date=2026-03-11 |website=You Shou Yan |language=en}} </ref>
In the Age of Mythology: Retold downloadable content ''Immortal Pillars'', the Taotie is a form of mythical creature recruitable by the Chinese pantheon under Nüba.
==See also== *Four Symbols (China) *Four Perils
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==References== {{commons category|Taotie}} * {{citation|author-link=Sarah Allan |first=Sarah |last=Allan|publisher=SUNY Press |year=1991|isbn=0-7914-0460-9 |title=The shape of the turtle: myth, art, and cosmos in early China |series=SUNY series in Chinese philosophy and culture |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=QlEZd4x9LUAC}} *K. C. Chang, ''Art, Myth, and Ritual: The Path to Political Authority in Ancient China''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1983. *Mircea Eliade, ''Shamanism'', trans. W. R. Trask. NY: Bollingen Foundation, 1964. * {{citation|title=The Path of Beauty: A Study of Chinese Aesthetics|author-link=Li Zehou|last=Li|first=Zehou|place=New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1994|orig-year=1988|pages=[https://archive.org/details/pathofbeautystud0000lits/page/30 30–31]|isbn=0-19-586526-X|series=Oxford in Asia paperbacks|url=https://archive.org/details/pathofbeautystud0000lits/page/30}}, translated by Gong Lizeng. There is an [https://web.archive.org/web/20110721124452/http://www.think-ink.net/guide/taotieh.htm excerpt on ''taotie''] at [https://web.archive.org/web/20081121193544/http://www.think-ink.net/guide/brguide.htm AsianArt Study Guide]. *Jordan Paper, "The Meaning of the 'T'ao-T'ieh'" in ''History of Religions'', Vol. 18, No. 1 (August, 1978), pp. 18–41. *Roderick Whitfield, ed. ''The Problem of Meaning in Chinese Ritual Bronzes''. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1993. * {{citation|publisher=中国书店|year=2008|isbn=978-7-80663-551-3|url=http://vip.book.sina.com.cn/book/catalog.php?book=69989 |author1={{lang|zh|杨静荣}} (Yang Jirong)|author2= {{lang|zh|刘志雄}} (Liu Zhixiong)|ref=yang2008 |script-title=zh:龙之源 |trans-title=The Origin of the Dragon |at=Chapter 9, {{lang|zh|龙的繁衍与附会——龙生九子}} (Dragon's derived and associated creatures: The nine children of the dragon)}} ([http://vip.book.sina.com.cn/book/chapter_69989_55313.html Section 1], [http://vip.book.sina.com.cn/book/chapter_69989_55314.html Section 2], [http://vip.book.sina.com.cn/book/chapter_69989_55315.html Section 3]).
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Category:Chinese iconography Category:Four Perils Category:Shang dynasty bronzeware Category:Zhou dynasty bronzeware