01- South American Deity Viracocha as depicted on Gate of the Sun
02- One of earliest form of Viracocha, distinguished as a fanged deity with twin serpents
03- A fanged deity found in a Zhou dynasty tomb identified as a relic belong to an earlier Neolithic culture called Shijiahe culture
04- A fanged deity from Shijiahe culture
05- a human-like deity mounted on a beast, also found in the Shijiahe culture
06- The main deity of Liangzhu culture, identified as the precursor to later Taotie motif found on typical Shang-Zhou period bronze ritual vessels
07- Like human-like Shijiahe deity, the Liangzhu deity also is mounted on a beast which later become the Taotie motif
08- Taotie motif on Shang bronze ritual vessel, where the human-like figure of Liangzhu phase is removed, leaving only the beast, Taotie always appear on ritual vessels, functioned as medium for communication with Heaven. Yet, according to certain interpretation, Taotie is actually changed form of Chi You, which was used to warn people about greed, it is relevant to mention that it seems human sacrifice culture suddenly arose during Shang period, and last Shang king, according to Chinese folklore was tyrannical ruler whose Queen was possessed by evil spirit, Shang dynasty was overthrown by the Zhou (around 11th century BC), whose founding kings were able to defeat the Shang because they got the help from “immortals” who possess supernatural powers. And a group of Shang elites (as many as 500,000) vanished in Chinese history because they “went to the sea”; this led some scholars to speculate that these Shang elites ended up in Mexico. The Zhou on the other hand introduced what would later be called Confucianism to replace the Shang cultural norm which was much focused on “supernaturals”.
09- The human-like LiangZhu deity are found on many Liangzhu jade relics
10- LiangZhu jade piece depicting only the fanged beast which is mounted by the human-like deity
11- A ‘spring-autumn – warring states period bronze piece with a deity with the twin serpents
12- A deity with twin serpents, origin unknown (China)
13- A Deity with twin serpents again, origin unknown (China)
14- A human-like deity mounted on a beast, which resembles the ones from both Liangzhu and Shijiahe cultures of Southern China can also be found in the Northern Neolithic Hongshan culture
15- Human-like deity type 1 from Hongshan culture
16- Human-like deity type 2 from Hongshan culture
17- Along type 1 and type 2 deity, there is also the non-human-like Hongshan ‘bull deity’, which like human-like types, is also mounted on a beast (my take is this bull headed Hongshan deity is the original form of Chi You)
18- Neolithic cultures in China, I-Hongshan culture, V-Liangzhu culture, and Shijiahe culture would be around the area between V and IV
19- Hmong people still consider Chi You to be their ancestor
edit on 5-4-2012 by sunsky because: (no reason given)
