CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

97
without lid
FIG. i. Profile and cross
section of a jian-fou from
the Zenghou Yi tomb. After
Hubei 1989:1, 224, fig. 122.
provision of a "jian for ice/' 2 and several passages in
the Chu ci (Songs of Chu) refer to cool wine.
The idea of combining jian basins and fou into
composite wine coolers developed during the sixth
century BCE, probably in the south. Basins were
a common form of vessel from the beginning of
the Eastern Zhou period; by the early sixth century
their size had increased dramatically, sometimes
approaching 60 centimeters in diameter. Although
the basins probably fulfilled a variety of functions,
the discovery of a jian and fou placed side by side
in a mid-sixth-century BCE Chu tomb suggests that
by this time the two types were already on occasion
used in combination, 3 and by the end of the century
the association had become formalized. In
the tomb of Marquis Zhao of Cai at Shouxian in
Anhui province, two paired, square basins were
found with matching square-sectioned fou placed
inside them. 4
291 I ZENGHOU YI TOMB AT LEICUDUN