About Taotie

Looking up the Chinese dictionary, the explanation of Taotie is as follows: Taotie: taotie. 1. A greedy and ferocious beast in legend, often used as a pattern on bronze vessels, called the Taotie pattern. 2. A glutton or a greedy person. 3. A glutton.

The explanations in the dictionary have many derogatory meanings, which are very different from our current usage. Nowadays, there are many people who call themselves gluttons. Most of them are self-deprecating on the surface but actually proud of themselves. Perhaps it can also be a psychological transcendence of being complacent and living a prosperous life. Although people who are known as gluttons are mostly successful or semi-successful people who can eat, know how to eat, dare to eat, and can afford to eat, calling themselves "gluttons" is nothing more than a joke, emphasizing their superiority in eating and abandoning greed. of. This is also the fundamental reason why current gourmets are respected by people. If you say you can eat and are greedy, respect will turn into hatred. Xia Jie and Shang Zhou are representatives of this type of characters.

In its origin, Taotie is not a beast, but a person. He is a guy who advocates luxury, is greedy for money, and has no sympathy. There is such a story in "Zuo Zhuan - Wen Gong's Eighteenth Year": "The Jinyun family (Xia Guan during the Yellow Emperor's time) had an untalented man who was greedy for food and drink, risked bribes, invaded and lavished, and could not make a profit. ... Regardless of the distinction. The people of the world compare themselves to the three evils, and call them Taotie. From this we know that Taotie was the son of Jinyun, the official of the Yellow Emperor, and he was a typical glutton and shameless person.

During the Zhou Dynasty, the image of the Taotie was cast on the tripod containing food to warn people not to be gluttonous like the Taotie. Later, it slowly transformed into a necessary decoration of the tripod. Its original meaning was gradually forgotten by people, and gluttony was spread in people's oral and written language as a symbol of gluttony and eating. The original intention of eating in moderation and not overindulging has been rarely mentioned.

The ancient rulers made gluttons, called for frugality, and encouraged greed. This was not only a political need, but also had a lot to do with the low level of material production and the serious shortage of supplies at that time. Gluttony not only harms the body, but is also closely related to the prosperity of the country. People in ancient times had just shifted from an egalitarian society to a private ownership society. The idea of ??egalitarianism still had a great influence. Coupled with the lack of material production, the rulers occupied a large amount of food, which would arouse the dissatisfaction of the majority of people and increase social dissatisfaction. A sense of fairness, if you are frugal in your diet, you will be supported by people. Dayu was the positive example of that era, while Xia Jie and Shang Zhou were the negative examples. The greed and extravagance of Xia Jie and Shang Zhou aroused the anger and hatred of the people, leading to the destruction of the country. There are many records about this in history books.

From the people's hatred of Xia Jie and Shang Zhou's gluttonous behavior, we can know that the people are full of fear of hunger. They can't think of anything better than "eating more" and "drinking more" There are also serious sins, so the condemnation of indulgent eating has become the most common voice in the whole society. The Zhou people made gluttonous dishes on tripods and passed them on to their descendants, which was to learn from the lessons of Shang Zhou and warn future generations to avoid repeating the same mistakes. This has become one of the dominant political ideas in China's feudal society, which has been dominated by natural economy for thousands of years.

However, people’s pursuit of delicious food cannot be limited by the decorations on the tripod and the propaganda of the rulers. If we had followed the requirements of the ruling class, China's food culture would not have developed to what it is today. Everyone wants to have fancy clothes and delicious food. There is a joke that "the content of corruption: money, beauty, and food are all people's inner desires." Come to think of it, this is really the case. This is also the fundamental reason why food culture can develop, and it is also one of the basic reasons for social development. Without the pursuit of beauty, society will lose its motivation to move forward. China's development over the past few decades also illustrates this. This is probably why gluttons still appear in large numbers today.

I think today’s definition of glutton should be like this: able to eat, able to eat, dare to eat, know how to eat without being greedy.

Taotie: (1) A legendary kind A greedy beast. Ancient bells, tripods, and Yi vessels were often engraved with the shape of their heads as decoration. "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals·Xian Shi": "Zhou Ding's gluttonous food has a head but no body." (2) It is a metaphor for a greedy and vicious person. "Zuo Zhuan: The Eighteenth Year of Wen Gong": "The Jinyun family had an untalented man who was greedy for food and drink, and took risks in buying and selling bribes.

Invading desires and advocating extravagance should not be excessive; accumulating real wealth without knowing how to discipline it. No distinction is made between orphans and widows, and no sympathy for poverty. The people of the world compare the three evils and call them gluttonous. "Du Yu's note:" Greed for money is gluttony, gluttony is gluttony. "Then it also specifically refers to people who are greedy for food. Such as gluttons. - "Cihai"

From the interpretation of "Cihai" we can see that there is no final conclusion on the original meaning of "glutton" , but later generations gradually introduced the meaning of gluttony and delicious food. The great writer Su Dongpo once said in "Ode to the Taoist": "I gather the beauty of things to nourish my old gluttons." Among them, "Lao Tao". The word "Taotie" evolved from "Taotie". It can be seen that in the Song Dynasty, people had forgotten the original meaning of "Taotie" and used it to refer to the love of food. Transformation process.

The meaning of Gluttony Night: French name, originally meaning "the all-night party of gluttonous advertisers"

Gluttony Night is a global popular cultural entertainment event. , since its inception in 1981, has been toured and screened in nearly 100 cities in dozens of countries around the world, with more than 4 million viewers each year, making it an annual world-renowned entertainment program brand. "