Detail View: The AMICA Library: Wine Vessel: Zun

ASIA.1993.003

1999

Decorative Arts and Utilitarian Objects

Asian; Far East Asian; Chinese

Chinese

Wine Vessel: Zun

Full view

Shang period, 13th-11th century BCE

0

0

Bronze

Vessels

Bronzes

North China

H. 13 in. (33 cm); D. 8 1/4 in. (21 cm)

Asia Society

New York, New York, USA

1993.003

Asia Society: Estate of Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller

http://www.asiasociety.org

The description of the Shang and Zhou periods in Chinese history as a Great Bronze Age stems from both the astonishing variety of shapes and motifs found in their ritual vessels and the sheer technical complexity involved in producing them. The use of bronze is one of the hallmarks of the culture that controlled a large part of northern China during the Shang period, c. 1700-c. 1050 BCE. Anyang, the capital city of the late Shang period (c. 1300-1050 BCE), was located in Henan Province in north-central China. The excavation of this site over the last 66 years has revealed large palace buildings, bronze-casting and other workshops, important burials, and numerous spectacular bronze vessels. These provide a wealth of new material and help to define the stylistic evolution of early Chinese bronzes.

This zun vessel, which was used for storing and serving wine, typifies the art of the late Shang period. It was cast using several ceramic molds, a method that has no parallel elsewhere in the world. In this technique, ceramic molds carved with complicated, multilayered designs were assembled around an interior clay core. Molten bronze was then poured in the space left between the mold and the core. After the bronze had cooled and hardened, the ceramic molds were broken to reveal the vessels. It required time and precision to make bronze vessels in this fashion, and the control of raw materials, labor, and technology needed to make such objects was one of the prerogatives of the ruling elite during the Shang period.

Bronze vessels were used in cult rituals, particularly those in which the rulers communicated with their ancestors, and were often buried as part of the grave goods in elaborate tombs. Drinking and eating played an important role in Shang-period ceremonies; the majority of the vessels cast during this time were intended for this purpose. Vessels were often cast in sets whose numbers of pieces increased according to the owner's rank. This zun was probably part of a large and complicated group, one used by the highest ranking members of society.

The striking designs on this zun typify the decorative imagery of ritual bronzes of the late Shang period. Interlocked spirals known as thundercloud motifs (leiwen), executed in low relief, fill the background of all the decorated areas. A triangular form, alternately identified as a cicada or a plantain leaf, decorates the neck and is filled with C-shaped horns and eyes cast in high relief. Small curvilinear dragons fill a narrow band directly beneath these triangles. The body and foot of the vessel are decorated with a design that consists of the horns, eyes, and snout of a mythical creature known as the taotie. The taotie design is one of the most commonimages in the decoration of Shang-period bronze vessels. Its function is controversial. Some specialists believe that the taotie design evolved as a result of the complicated technique used to make bronzes and insist that it has no iconographic orsymbolic function. Others point to the importance of bronze vessels as ritual objects, arguing that given their use, such significant and ubiquitous motifs must have had a purpose or meaning. The current trend in scholarship is toward the latter interpretation.

Debate over the taotie's meaning began as early as the Song period (960-1127), when the study of these ritual vessels was part of a broader interest in antiquarianism fostered by the imperial court. Some Chinese texts describe the taotie as a type of monster mask, suggesting that it may have been intended to serve as a warning against gluttony and overindulgence.

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