Taotie

Chinese: 饕餮. Wade-Giles romanization: t'ao t'ieh. Monster mask commonly found on ancient Chinese ritual bronze vessels and implements. The taotie typically is a sort of zoomorphic mask in full face that may be divided into profile views of two one-legged beasts (夔 kui/k'ui dragons) confronting each other. (source: Encyclopedia Britannica/chinese characters and romanization added/corrected)

It is thought that the taotie designs' original purpose was to portray the dangerous demons that lurked in the unknown periphery of society. By knowing the appearance of the demons, their image (xiang 象), one would be protected from their evil influence, as knowledge of the spirits translated directly into power over them. Eventually, the fearsome designs became a generic apotropaic device, playing a sort of guardian role. One stele depicts Emperor Shihuangdi, first ruler of the short-lived Qin Dynasty, attempting to dredge up the legendary Nine Tripods previously held by the Zhou dynasty, only to have the ropes attached to one of the vessels bitten through by a taotie dragon emerging from the tripod, signifying that the virtue of the Qin was insufficient to possess the mythical bronzes.

Later, the taotie design lost much, if not all, of its significance, and became simply an artistic motif which was generally supposed to be present on works of bronze. It appears on purely decorative items like animal figures, rather than exclusively on ritual vessels, before the use of bronze declined in the Han Dynasty.