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Taotie
Sign in to saveThe 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.
In the Vinony graph
Vinony's link graph records 135 inbound references to Taotie, and connects out to Fuxi, zoomorphism and Chinese ritual bronzes.
It is catalogued under topics including Chinese iconography, Four Perils and Shang dynasty bronzeware.
Vinony links it to 18 Wikipedia language editions.
Key facts
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- Taotie
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- Taotie on Chinese ritual bronze
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via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- mythical creature
- Part of
- Four Perils
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- Commons category
- Taotie
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~9 min read
Encyclopedic overview
7 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Bronze motifs
- Later interpretations
- In popular culture
- See also
- Notes
- References
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 () and Zhou dynasties (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).
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Taotie” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.