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Zhou Gui Research Paper

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The Gui was created during the Zhou Dynasty. It is a ritual vessel that most of the time contained grain. The Gui was more used by the Western Zhou Dynasty than the Eastern. During this dynasty they believe a lot in the link between heaven and earth. The Zhou also had a great respect for their ancestors. It was actually everything for the Zhou Dynasty. The families offered food to the dead using the Gui while the government officials offered food to the gods. What the Gui does is addresses the world of the dead but emphases authority in the world of the living. The propose of offering food in the Gui was to nourish the dead so in return the person descendants will be looked over by the ancestors and the dead. The Gui was one of the objects…show more content…
To create a Gui it took a lot of time, labor work, and precision. The Gui ritual vessels had inscriptions inside talking about the spirits, major events, and the events of the Zhou Dynasty. When it comes to the Gui physical description it can have different designs on it, but the shape would most of the time be the same. The common description for the Gui is that it usually has two or four handles, with a boxlike stand, a taotie mask, and animal motifs. The Taotie is the most seen animal in the bronze vessels including in the Gui. The taotie looks like a mask, but the mask is actually two dragons put together. The taotie has two eyes, mouth, horns, legs, tails, and fangs. There are actually stories about the Taotie. One story about the taotie was that he had eight dragon brothers, but he was the one who worked in the kitchen all the time so because of that fact his father put Taotie’s image on the vessels that contain food in order to protect the vessel and food. Another story of the taotie is that he use to have a body but he was vicious to the point that he ate humans and he didn’t have any boundaries. So as punishment the gods took his body away, so he wouldn’t be about to eat
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