"Gluttony" is a mythical beast in ancient legends in China, and its greatest feature is that it can eat.

The real name and prototype of the beast referred to in the animal face pattern have long been buried in an era that cannot be reproduced. Later generations were named gluttonous because of their ferocious, mysterious and horrible faces, and some of them still had heads in their mouths. Gluttony was originally used in Zuo Zhuan to describe those heartless people who are greedy for money and food. Some scholars in modern times pointed out that naming the animal face pattern gluttonous is purely far-fetched and contrary to the social and cultural conditions in Shang and Zhou Dynasties.

Because of its fierce and horrible face and notorious gluttony, the trace of this beast in the cultural and artistic evolution of China is almost impossible to find. In the mid-Western Zhou Dynasty, animal ornamentation, which had prevailed for hundreds of years, suddenly withdrew from the main pattern of bronze decoration. However, several animal patterns, such as dragon, tiger, phoenix and turtle, which appeared on bronzes at the same time, appeared in official and folk cultures in the later cultural evolution, and became the most famous mascot and endless theme of artistic expression in China culture. Dragons, in particular, in the bronze age, mostly had the same ferocious face as gluttonous patterns. As far as mystery, power and status are concerned, dragons were far less gluttonous in the Bronze Age. However, the dragon later ascended the highest throne of China's cultural and political symbol, but "gluttony", the supreme of the Bronze Age, was hard to find.

What exactly does gluttony mean? There have been different opinions, and there is no conclusion so far. Some people say it's cattle, sheep, tigers, deer and mandrills. Among these theories, gluttony is the most vocal. Many scholars engaged in the study of primitive culture and art believe that the gluttonous pattern is an exaggerated deformation of the tiger pattern. In ancient times, the tiger was also a very important god beast. Later, the figure of a wizard riding a tiger appeared in the cultural relics. In the long cultural history of China, there was a long stage of dragon and tiger worship before the worship of "Dragon and Phoenix". From the Eastern Zhou Dynasty to the Western Han Dynasty, Long Hudou's pattern modeling was very popular, among which the Long Hudou figure unearthed from Mawangdui Han Tomb was the most exquisite and extraordinary. The ancients thought that the tiger was a yang beast, "the cloud follows the dragon and the wind follows the tiger." Fighting between dragons and tigers means intercourse between yin and yang. In the Han Dynasty, Black Dragon, White Tiger, Suzaku and Xuanwu respectively represented the four astronomical officials in the Middle East, the West, the South and the North. At least, in the early history of China, the status of the tiger was not lower than that of the dragon. However, the description of the magical power of the tiger in ancient books is obviously difficult to compare with the prominent position of gluttony in bronze wares.

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