CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

8i
Shi Qiang bronze pan vessel
Height 16.2 (6 3 /s), diam. 47.3 (i8 5 /s)
Middle Western Zhou Period, end of tenth
century BCE
From Zhuangbai, Fufeng, Shaanxi Province
Zhou Yuan Administrative Office of Cultural Relics,
Fufeng, Shaanxi Province
The Shi Qiang pan 1 is without question the most
important of the 103 vessels found in Hoard i.
Indeed, in a little more than two decades after
its discovery and first publication, it has already
come to be regarded in many respects as the most
important of all Western Zhou bronze vessels,
a position attributable almost entirely to its 270-
character-long inscription, which might justly be
described as the first conscious historical writing
in China. In two balanced halves, it juxtaposes
an outline of the first seven Western Zhou kings
(including the reigning Tianzi [Son of Heaven], who
is not named but who must have been King Gong
[r. c. 917-900 BCE]) with a similar genealogy of
four generations of the Wei family. The inscription
concludes with a prayer that Qiang's own merits be
acknowledged and that he be granted a long life so
that he may continue to serve the Zhou kings.
The genealogy given in the Shi Qiang pan inscription
has made it possible to date the rest of
the Hoard i vessels and is an important historical
document in itself. The inscription is equally important
as evidence for the rise of poetry in China,
being stylistically identical to the four-character
rhyming line structure of the Shi jing (Classic
of poetry). 2 ES
Inscription of the Shi Qiang pan
Accordant with antiquity was the Cultured
King!
He first brought harmony to government.
Di on High sent down fine virtue and great
security.
Extending it above and below,
he joined the ten thousand countries.
Capturing and controlling was the Martial
King!
He proceeded and campaigned through the
four quarters,
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