CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

64
Bronze bo bell
Height 33 (13), weight 12.6 (27 3 / 4 )
Late Shang Period (c. 1200-1050 BCE)
From Dayangzhou, Xin'gan, Jiangxi Province
Jiangxi Provincial Museum, Nanchang
During the Zhou period, chimes of bronze bells
assumed a key role in the elaborate web of status
and ceremonial relations governing the lives of the
elite. The Shang period prototypes for these musical
bells include two products of mid-Yangzi and
Gan Yangzi regional cultures: a large bell standing
on its shank with mouth open at the top (nao), and
the much rarer type seen in the example here. 1 This
bell type, conventionally called bo, was designed to
be hung from its loop; it may have had a clapper
suspended within through the opening in the top.
By contrast, the large nao type was mounted on
a stand; its tones were produced by striking the
exterior lip with a mallet. The bells that assumed
greatest prominence in the subsequent Zhou period,
yongzhong, combined features of both earlier
southern types. Yongzhong were suspended in the
same orientation as the bo, mouth down, but retained
the shank and striking method of nao. Loop
suspension bells descended from Shang bo were
made throughout much of the Zhou period, albeit
less commonly than yongzhong.
This bo 2 is elliptical in cross section and wider
at the mouth than at the top. Its two convex faces
are decorated with a horned mask below a whorl
device; intaglio lines trace curls and spirals, while
fragments of a dragon's body float to either side.
The edges feature large, hooked flanges; a bird
facing outward rests on the top flange at each side.
The swallowtail motif observed on the four-legged
yan and round ding (cats. 60-61) frames the top
and bottom margins and encircles the whorl as well
(see fig. i).
2O4
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