Page 120 - Deydier UNDERSTANDING CHINESE ARCHAIC BRONZES

湖南 province, in 1959). At Anyang 安陽 the taotie 饕餮 is cast as a
mask with two eyes, two eyebrows, two horns, a nose, and sometimes
also with two ears and an upper jaw. It is often formed by joining two
confronting kui 夔 dragons shown in profile and, in some rare cases,
two animal bodies. Thus the taotie 饕餮 does not necessarily represent
any one particular animal and its form is in a continual state of change,
with only its eyes remaining constant throughout.
With the Zhou 周 dynasty, the taotie 饕餮 mask gradually becomes less
important as a motif on ritual bronzes and gradually disappears as a
major decorative motif.
The Dragon Motif 龍紋
The dragon 龍 is, after the taotie 饕餮, the most common motif
appearing on Shang dynasty bronze vessels.
The dragon is the subject of many ancient Chinese myths and, according
to Ma Cheng-Yuan 馬承源, the late curator of the Shanghai Museum,
and other eminent Chinese scholars, the dragon is, in reality, a deified
version of the snake whose shape and movements are based on those
of the snake found in nature.
A creature that lives on the earth, in the water and even in the heavens,
the dragon is, for the Chinese, the symbol par excellence of power.
118
Godly, Imperial Dragons and Water
A hint of the dragon’s imperial and godly grandeur and the respect it
inspires in the Chinese people, often being used as the symbol of the
Emperor and imperial power itself, can be gained from a reading of one
of the earliest Chinese legends concerning the dragon.
When King Yu 禹 of Xia 夏, so the legend says, was struggling to control
the floods and drain the arable land submerged by the overflowing
rivers, a sacred, god-like dragon, moved by Yu’s virtue and tenacity,
suddenly appeared and fanned the flood waters so forcefully with its
tail that the waters receded, leaving the land dry enough to cultivate
once more.
This and other such legends highlight the connection between the
dragon and water and reflect the fact that in ancient China, in addition
to its other roles, the dragon was regarded as the god of water, the
source of life and the sine qua non of agriculture, the foundation of
Chinese society.
119