Legendary Monster Ancient bells, tripods and vessels were decorated with the shape of their heads. Lv's Spring and Autumn Annals: "The Taotie (饕餮)
, which has a head but no body, eats people without swallowing them, and harms its own body, in order to say that it is also a reward for more work." The Gods and Monsters - Southwest Wasteland Scriptures: "There is someone in the southwestern part of the country, with a hairy body and a boar on his head, greedy as a wolf, good at accumulating wealth, but not eating people's grains, the old and weak are taken by the strong and the weak are afraid of the group and hit the single, called Taotie." Song Shao Bo "heard after the book" Volume 26: "Shao Sheng early, my ancestors official Chang'an Province, in the West City, Han Gaozu Temple in front of the people selling soup cakes, got a white jade trousseau, feet high, engraved with clouds, dragons and phoenixes, covered with the sea in the mountains of the gods, the foot of the Taotie, the real three generations of the treasures." With the changes of the times, the Shang, Zhou tripod on the allegory of governance of the body and the country Taotie pattern is gradually forgotten, later generations of Taotie image of gluttony in the part to be exaggerated, Su Dongpo wrote a "Taotie Fugue", said: "Gathering of the abortive beauty of things in order to feed my gourmets." For the taotie added a few points of gluttony cute. To this day, friends who like food are called "taotie people". [1]
The nine sons of the dragon are: Prisoner Bull, Jairus, Chaofeng, Pugong, Mythical Beibi, Bi Xi, Quodid, Chi Kui, Taotie, Kirin, Pepper, and Centipede.
Metaphor for an insatiable greed Taotie is good at eating, so it stands on the lid of the tripod.
Ancient tripod for the earliest cooking utensils Also said, gluttony is said to taotie, so the gourmet commonly known as "taotie"; greedy for money is said to tie.
The greed for disability "Wei Shu - Huan Xuan biography": "take the concubine's arrogance, almost the same as the six bodies, is to make the Shangshu servant for the matchmaker, the long history of the guest, treat concubine Taotie, He with the long autumn." Tang Sunhua (清唐孙华)《发粟行》：""However, the officials lived off the gluttony, and the imperial edicts hung on the wall in vain." Zhang Binglin, "The Discussion on Whether or Not": "Therefore, it makes the greedy man overflow in the court, and the gluttonous man pay tribute in the court."
Special reference to gluttony Cao Yu, "The Beijinger," Act I: "And he is most concerned about eating, he is a famous gourmand, good at savoring the beauty and wickedness of food." "Taotie is a sacred beast in ancient Chinese legend, whose most important characteristic is its ability to eat. It is an imaginary and mysterious monster. This monster has no body because he can eat too much to eat his own body, only a big head and a big mouth, very gluttonous, see what to eat, due to eat too much, and finally be stretched to death. It is a symbol of greed, so it is often used to describe gluttonous or greedy people.
Metaphor for greed, avarice and cruelty "Old Tang Book - Wen Yuan Biography - Liu Xianxian": "Residing on the upper level, there is no clear and favorable government, but there is the harm of gourmandism; residing on the lower level, there is no loyal section, but there is the sin of treachery and deceit." Ai Qing's poem "Reed Flute - Ma Qian": "Its taotie's whale swallowing can make the bountiful land in the East suffer more vastly than after the locust's strikes and droughts, deep and unredeemable!"
Greedily devouring Tang Dufu's poem "Suede": "Clothes and crowns and thieves, gourmandizing with Si-shu." Li Yu (李渔), "Naihe Tian (奈何天-伙醋)"：""Finally, if we don't break into the seat, we will be gluttonous, and the first guest will tolerate the empty hollow of the tree." Nie Konyu, "A Brief Discussion of Mr. Lu Xun's <Weeds>": "And the evil ghosts of mankind are perched on the bones of these living corpses, and the dead lives are gluttonous over the feasts of human flesh."
Relieved to be one of the four ferocious "Zuozhuan - Wen Gong 18 years": "Shun Chen Yao, Bing in the four doors, flow of the four ferocious family, Chaos, poor Qi, 檮杌, Taotie, cast into the four descendants, in order to defend against the chi dragon. It was because Yao collapsed and the world was as one, and they were of one mind to wear Shun as the son of heaven, because he raised sixteen phases and removed the four evils." Lu Shi Chun Qiu (吕氏春秋-恃君): "To the north of Yan Men (鴈門), the country of the Falcon, the Sojourner, and the Su Peep, and the land of the Taotie and the Poverty of Qi (饕餮、穷奇)." See the entry for the Four Fouls. The four evils are compared to Hun Dun, Poor Qi, Financial Beast and Taotie.