CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

50
Bronze fangjia vessel
Height 67 (26 Ys), weight 19.2 (42 'A)
Late Shang Yinxu Period II (c. 1200 BCE)
From Xiaotun Locus North, at Yinxu, Anyang,
Henan Province
The Institute of Archaeology, CASS, Beijing
In addition to innovative animal-shaped vessels, the
Anyang foundries produced vessels in new, squaresection
(fang) shapes. While ding made as rectangular
vessels appear in other periods, square-section
vessels are limited to the Late Shang. Such vessel
types include pod-base vessels for warming or serving
wine (jue, jia, he) and several ring-base types for
drinking and storing wine (gu, lei, zun, hu, as well as
the new fangyi). The attraction of this shape for
potters in foundries might have included the ease
of making outer mold sections from a square model
or core, the opportunities that the wide, flat field
presented for decoration with large, graphic imagery,
and possibly the implied distinction from
ceramic, wheel-made prototypes. (Square-section
vessels were not produced as pottery.) While an
interest in fang vessels was apparently widespread,
it does not seem to have endured: The fangjia from
Tomb 5 are the only examples from the period
(Yinxu II) at Anyang; another pair from Tomb 160
(Yinxu III) are the only later traces of this variant
among excavated examples. 1
The formal innovations introduced by the designers
of this vessel 2 include a body and tall neck
in square-section complemented by relief decoration
and fairly thick flanges. Other details, however,
might be deemed less successful aesthetically: the
four squared legs are very thick and create a congested
appearance where they join the flat base.
The square posts and caps dominate the rim and
detract from the visual buoyancy of the;iVs usually
sleek form.
The masks that fill the four sides of the body
are composed of disparate elements in relief rather
than the unified face that decorates the fangding
(cat. 46). These elements are covered with the same
tight, squared spirals that appear in the background,
an ornament that undercuts the readability
or integrity of the mask motif. Altogether, the assemblage
of vessels made for Fu Hao shows a considerable
variety of decoration, belying the notion
of any simple and predictable evolution over time
from one characteristic decorative style to another.
This vessel is one of three large fangjia made for
Fu Hao. It was found with another, round-section
vessel of similar scale and other jia bearing the
names of other lineages; it may be that the gift of
jue and gu from the Si Tu Mu, Ya Qi, and Shu Quan
lineages included these warming vessels, as well
as the serving vessels. The tomb assemblage also
held large containers with two of these inscriptions
identifying their owner's lineage. The true nature
of the gifts from these lineages therefore may well
have been both a large quantity of alcoholic spirits
and the equipment to use it. RT
1 Zhongguo 19983, 93 - 94.
2 Excavated in 1976 (M 5752); reported: Zhongguo 1980,
67-68.
1/2 BRONZE AGE CHINA