It is a mysterious monster in ancient Han myths and legends. The ancient book "Classic of Mountains and Seas" introduces its characteristics: its shape is like a sheep's body and human face, its eyes are in the armpits, tiger teeth and human claws, and its sound is like a baby.

Legendary monsters

The shape of its head is engraved on the ancient bell and Ding Yi vessel as a decoration. "Lü's Spring and Autumn Knowledge": "Zhou Ding's book, there is a head without a body, cannibalism is not swallowed, harm to his body, and repay him with words. "The Divine Sutra of the Southwest Desolation": "There are people in the southwest, hairy, wearing pigs on their heads, greedy as wolves, so that they can accumulate wealth by themselves, and do not eat the valley of people. Song Shaobo's "Records after Hearing and Seeing" volume 26: "Shao Shengchu, the ancestor of the official Chang'an Mansion, sold soup cakes in front of the Han Gaozu Temple in Xicheng, and got a white jade sage, with a high ruler, carved clouds and dragons and phoenixes all over the place, covering it as a sacred mountain in the sea, enough to be a treasure of three generations. With the change of the times, Shang, Zhou Ding on the meaning of governing the body and the country of the line gradually forgotten, the descendants of the image of the greedy part to exaggerate, Su Dongpo once wrote a "gluttonous Fu" said: "cover the beauty of the aggregate, to raise my gluttony", to add loveliness. To this day, friends who love food are called "clans".

In the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", the "roe deer owl" refers to.

Ding with

Sex is good food, so it stands on the top cover. It is also said that gluttony is called gluttony, so gourmets are commonly known as "gluttony"; In the world, it represents the greed of human nature.

The greedy "Wei Shu Huan Xuan Biography": "The concubine who takes the concubine is the same as the six bodies, which is to make the scholar shoot as a matchmaker, and the long history as a welcome guest, and the concubine, and the same Changqiu." ”

gluttony

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The first scene of Cao Yu's "Pekingese": "And he is the most particular about eating, he is a famous person who is good at tasting the beauty and evil of food." It is a mythical beast in ancient Chinese legends, and its biggest feature is that it can be eaten. It is an imaginary and mysterious monster. This monster has no body because he is too good at eating and eats his body, only a big head and a big mouth, and is very greedy, and finally eats himself all. It is a symbol of greed, so it is often used to describe gluttony or greedy people.

Tang Dufu's poem "Muntjac": "Dressed and a thief, with a beard." Qing Li Yu's "Nai He Tian Gang Vinegar": "In the end, if you don't break into the table, the first guest will endure the empty shackle." "Nie Xuan's "A Brief Talk about Mr. Lu Xun": "And the evil ghosts of human beings are high in these living bones, and the dead life is feasted on human flesh. ”

A metaphor for greed

Corrupt "Old Tang Dynasty Book, Wenyuan Handed Down, Liu Wei": "There is no government of Qing Hui at the top, and there is harm to it; there is no loyalty festival at the bottom, and there is the crime of adultery." Ai Qing's poem "Reed Flute Ma Qian": "Its whale swallowing can make the fertile land of the East suffer more than the locust blows and droughts, deep and unsalvageable!"

One of the four evils

"Zuo Chuan: The Eighteenth Year of Duke Wen": "Shun Chenyao, Bin in the Four Gates, the Four Fierce Clans, Chaos, Poor Qi, Han Zhu, Cast into the Four Descendants, in order to resist the charm." It is to collapse and the world is as one, with one heart Dai Shun, thinking that the Son of Heaven is the Son of Heaven, with his sixteen phases, to the four murderers. "Lü's Spring and Autumn Period: The Emperor [1]": "The north of the Lingmen, the country of eagles, eagles, and whiskers, and the land of poor wonders. "The four murderers are just chaotic, poor, and miserable, and metaphors for people.

Other Definitions

That is, the tattoo totem, the Australian natives as the Kabang of the Kebian, the Li people of Hainan as the Tauttan, and the Miao people of Xiangxi as the disciples or the turn of the sound of the Tutu. "The Book of the Later Han Dynasty: The Biography of the Southern Barbarians": The famous canal is handsome and the master calls each other for the apprentice.

The surname of the Southern Dynasty Liang Shizu gave the surname of Wuling Wang Ji. See Book of Liang, b] The Biography of King Wuling.

One of the seven deadly sins in the Divine Comedy is wasting food, or overindulgence, alcoholism, or overstocking of food. Dante's view is "excessive pleasure covetousness".

2. Historical records are edited

It is recorded in Cihai:

It is "the legendary gluttonous beast." The shape of its head is engraved on the ancient bell and Ding Yi vessel as a decoration. "Cihai" said when explaining the word gluttony: gluttony is "greedy, "Hanshu Lile Zhi": "greedy and dangerous" Yan Shigu Note: "Greed is very greedy." 'Specifically gluttony. ”

"The Divine Sutra: The Southwest Wilderness Sutra": "There are people in the southwest, hairy, and wearing pigs on their heads. Greedy as vicious, accumulating wealth without using it, and good at taking people's grains (the original work of the previous two sentences is "good for self-accumulation, not cannibalism", according to the "Historical Records of the Five Emperors" righteous citation). The strong take the old and the weak, and the strong are afraid of the strong and hit the single, which is famous. "Spring and Autumn" is not a talented son of the Jinyun clan. ”

"Zuo Chuan: The Eighteenth Year of Duke Wen" clouds: "The Jinyun clan has no talent, greedy for food, risky for bribes, greedy for extravagance, and cannot be tired of it; The people of the world are compared to the three evils, which is called it. The so-called "Spring and Autumn" words of the "Divine Sutra" are this.

"Lü's Spring and Autumn Period: First Knowledge": "Zhou Ding's book, there is no body, cannibalism has not swallowed and its body, and it is better to repay it with words. ”[2]

Song Luomi's "History of the Road: The Biography of Chiyou" notes the clouds: "The god of Chiyou Tianfu, the shape is not usual, three generations of Yi vessels, and many of them are like Chiyou, which is the ring of the greedy and abusive." Its image is in the shape of a beast, with meat wings. "What he said, he died.

"Zuo Biography" is said to be "Jinyun's untalented", "Historical Records: Five Emperors' Benji": "Jinyun's is not talented, greedy for food, risky for bribery, the world is called it." And the collection of "Historical Records: The Book of the Five Emperors" quoted Jia Xuan as saying: "Jinyun's family, surnamed Jiang, is a descendant of Emperor Yan, and he was also an official in Jinyun when he was the Yellow Emperor." "Chiyou Jiang's surname is also a descendant of Emperor Yan ("Lu Shi Chiyou Biography"), so Chiyou is likely to be the "untalented" of the Jinyun clan. According to legend, it was the head of Chi You who was beheaded after the defeat to the Yan and Huang Emperors, and the head was turned into resentment in a different place, and it had the ability to devour all things, and was sealed by the Yellow Emperor with the Xuanyuan Sword (the dragon pattern on the sword), and was guarded by the lion clan for generations (guarding the stone lion). and the "roe deer owl" recorded in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas: The Second Classic of the North", Guo Pu's note thought that it was the "Zuo Biography".

"Strange Spirits and Strange Beasts": There are evil beasts in the extreme south of Shenzhou, with four eyes and black skin, long neck and four legs, fierce sex, and extremely greedy. Traveling swiftly like the wind, it is a disaster. A kind of Jiaolong water beast, the head has a pair of horns, the whole body is surrounded by cold air, most of them are blue-white, dozens of zhang long, sometimes mild and sometimes irritable, soaring into the air and stirring up several zhang water waves, mighty.

There is a cloud in "The Divine Strange Scripture: The Western Wilderness Sutra": ", the name of the beast, the body is like a cow, the human face, the eyes are under the armpits, and the cannibalism. ”

3. Pattern culture editing

It is a legendary beast that is extremely gluttonous, so greedy that it even eats up its own body, so its shape is generally headless and bodyless. "Lü's Spring and Autumn Period: First Knowledge" said: "Zhou Ding, there is no body, cannibalism has not swallowed and its body, and it is better to repay it with words." In ancient Chinese mythology, it is one of the four evils. Legend has it that the Yellow Emperor fought Chiyou, Chiyou was beheaded, and his head landed. There is a cloud in "The Classic of Mountains and Seas: The Classic of the North Mountains": "There is more jade on the top of the mountain of Hook Wu, and there is more copper under it." There is a beast, its shape is like a sheep's body and human face, its eyes are under the armpits, tiger teeth and human claws, its sound is like a baby, its name is roe deer owl, it is a cannibal."

According to Guo Pu's annotation in the Jin Dynasty, the "roe deer owl" here is. There is also a similar record in the "Divine Mystery Sutra: The Western Wilderness Sutra": "The name of the beast, the body is like a cow, the human face, the eyes are under the armpits, and the cannibal is cannibal". The "Sutra of Differences" says that it refers to the Sanmiao people in the southwest, and the neighbor Chen Mengjia further says that it is Chiyou, while Mr. Liu Chiping's "Bronze Pattern Questioning" believes that it is Shennong's. Later, there was a legend that the dragon gave birth to nine sons, and Lu Rong and Yang Shen of the Ming Dynasty were listed as one of the nine sons of the dragon, which was already a kind of attachment. Lu Rong's "Shuyuan Miscellaneous" recorded that "good water, so the bridge is built", and Yang Shen's "Sheng'an Collection" remembers it: "Good food, so it stands on the top cover".

The animal face ornaments of the Shang and Zhou bronzes reflect the worship of nature gods at that time, so they have a mysterious and solemn atmosphere, but there are different opinions about the specific meaning of these mysterious ornaments. The bronze ware is the embodiment of the consciousness of "respecting the gods" of the ancestors of the Yin Shang Dynasty, and the Zhou Dynasty developed into the "Respect for Heaven and Dharma Ancestor", forming a representation of the trinity of religion, political power and clan power. Most scholars believe that the Shang and Zhou rulers used the "hideous terror" of bronze ornamentation to express the "mysterious majesty" of royal power, to express their possession of political power, status, and wealth, which was daunting. The slave owners placed all their majesty, will, nobility, fantasy and hope in these terrible ornaments. 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 God. Due to the low level of productivity in primitive society, people attribute many unexplained phenomena to the power of the gods, and people are full of reverence for the gods, begging the gods, pleasing the gods, and dominating things with the help of divine power. Therefore, the wizard who "can communicate with the gods" has a very high status, and the wizard class has become the original imperial ruling class. Sacrifice is the prerogative of shamans, and it is also the central link in communicating with people and gods, and sanctifying the order on earth. Wizards used the animals on the bronze to communicate with the gods, so these strange animal patterns represent mystery and power. According to the research of Chen Gongrou and Mr. Zhang Changshou, the most primitive form of the bodyless animal face pattern is just a pair of round bubble-shaped milk nails to represent the eyes of the animal face. The eyes are the main body of the animal face pattern, because the animal face pattern is generally only seen with two eyes, it should have originated from the prehistoric eye worship. There are pairs of eye patterns on prehistoric faience pottery, and pairs of eye patterns on jade objects. In the late Neolithic period, there were already standard animal face patterns, and there were also simplified forms of animal face patterns, that is, eye patterns. According to Mr. Tang Huisheng's research, the god of heaven in shamanism is also the god of the sun, and the sun god is often depicted in the shape of an eye, because in many ancient myths, the sun is called the "eye of heaven". For example, the sun god of the Balmanical religion is also known as the "eye of the sky" or "the eye of the world". Scholars who hold this view believe that the traditional tattoo is not just a kind of animal face pattern, but that it belongs to the god of heaven or the sun, and the emphasis on the eyes in the tattoo is a description of its characteristic as the sun god - light. [3]

This kind of pattern first appeared on the jade of the Liangzhu culture in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River 5,000 years ago, but the pattern is more common on bronzes, especially on Dingshang, which appeared on the bronzes of the Xia culture in Erlitou.

However, the name "Wen" did not exist in ancient times, but was named by the Song people when Jinshi science arose. The most perfectly patterned mask is 21.0 cm tall and is now in the Seattle Library in the United States. The ornamentation usually has the bridge of the nose as the midline, and the sides are arranged symmetrically.

What exactly does the tattoo refer to? There have been many debates and so far no conclusion. There are many types of patterns in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, some like dragons, tigers, cows, deer, and mandrills, and some like birds, phoenixes, and people. Among the ornaments, the pattern is the most widely recognized.

In ancient times, the tiger was also a very important beast of the heavens, and the shape of the sorcerer riding the tiger appeared in many cultural relics in later generations.

In the long history of Chinese culture, before the worship of the "dragon and phoenix", there was a rather long stage of dragon and tiger worship. The dragon and tiger fighting pattern was very popular in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty to the Western Han Dynasty, especially the dragon and tiger fighting picture unearthed from the Mawangdui Han Tomb is the most exquisite, and the momentum is extraordinary. The ancients believed that the tiger was a yang beast, "the cloud is from the dragon, and the wind is from the tiger." "The dragon and tiger fight each other, indicating the combination of yin and yang. In the Han Dynasty, Canglong, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Xuanwu represented the four officials of the East, West, South, and North of the Astronomical Universe. At least, in the early years of Chinese history, the tiger's status was not below the dragon. However, the depiction of the tiger's supernatural powers in ancient texts is clearly difficult to compare with its prominence in bronze.

The true name and prototype of the mythical beast referred to by the beast face pattern have long been buried in the irreproducible era, and later generations have given it its name because of its fierce, mysterious, terrifying, and some of them have human heads in their mouths. Originally used in the Zuo Biography to describe the unkind and unrighteous who are greedy for money and gluttony, modern scholars have pointed out that naming the animal face pattern as cannibalism is purely far-fetched, which is contrary to the social and cultural conditions of the Shang and Zhou dynasties.