CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

ing upward to form the taotie's "crest." The alert
and menacing appearance of the face suggests that
the image was probably apotropaic.
The taotie, moreover, is accompanied by other
creatures. Lower down on the right side is another,
more attenuated face, found amid the swirling,
vaporous lines that fill the surface. Two sweeping
S-curved shapes form the face, one the mirrorreverse
of the other, with narrow, slanted lines representing
the eyes. A second face of the same kind
appears below, to the right. This particular type
of face is also seen on one other vessel recovered
from the same tomb as the lei. 3
To the left of the taotie can be discerned a final
figure, which reaches to the bottom of the painted
register. The head is rendered only as a horizontally
placed C-shape with a point at the center, but the
rest of the form seems humanlike, with pointed
shoulders, its arms bent to the chest, and a long
spinelike body, with what at the bottom resemble
legs drawn up as if the figure were squatting. Winglike
appendages are apparently hinged to its arms. 4
This figure, no less cryptic than the taotie and the
other faces, seems to be presented as the apparition
of a mysterious, almost dreamlike world.
The taotie on the lei is reminiscent of the
demonic faces with large eyes seen on the slightly
older Liangzhu jades. 5 The two faces on the right
side, on the other hand, compare with those on the
turquoise-inlaid bronze plaques from the contemporary
site of Erlitou (cat. 38). 6 While a link almost
certainly exists between these images, the story
behind their transmission from one culture to another
remains sketchy. A satisfactory explanation is
also needed for the apparent relationship between
the endlessly twisting convolutions forming the
context for the figures on the lei and the curvilinear
patterns associated with the Bronze Age taotie and
other images, which by Anyang times become compressed
to form the leiwen.
This lei f in contrast to the other Dadianzi vessels
exhibited here, comes from the burial M 371.
It was found in a niche cut into the wall of the
tomb almost two meters above the foot of the coffin.
Placed on top of it was a // vessel resting upside
down. The niche also contained other vessels and
traces of red lacquer, jade and stone ornaments,
cowrie shells, and pigs' feet. The skeleton, estimated
to have been about forty years old, was poorly preserved;
but a staff point and thirteen bone arrowheads
unearthed nearby indicate that it was a male.
Across his shinbones was found a lacquer gu vessel
inlaid with turquoise. In the fill above the tomb
chamber were the remains of several dogs and pigs,
including one pig with an arrow lodged between its
cervical vertebrae and its shoulderblades. 7 LF-H
1 Excavated in 1976 (M 371:10); published: Zhongguo 1996,
105, fig. 54:1; pi. 11, fig. 3.
2 The only other taotie to vie in age with the one on the
Dadianzi lei is a fragmentary image carved in lacquered
wood from Erlitou (Zhongguo Erlitou 1983, 203, fig. 9:9).
Related images are seen on other Dadianzi vessels; for
example, Zhongguo 1996,105, fig. 54:3.
3 Zhongguo 1996,105, fig. 54:4; pi. 5:1.
4 A figure of the same type shown in profile occurs on an
Early Shang bronze fitting from Xiaoshuangqiao accompanied
by a serpent and a tiger; see Henan 1993, 247, fig. 7:2.
5 Compare Mou 19893, 91, fig. 119.
6 Zhongguo Erlitou 1984, 38, fig. 5:1; pi. 4:1; Zhongguo
Erlitou 1986, 321, fig. 6, top; pi. 7:1.
7 Zhongguo 1996, 56; 57, fig. 30.
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