CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

"5
Bronze zun vessel inlaid with gold and silver
Height 17.5 (67s), diam. at mouth 24.8 (97s)
Middle Warring States Period, c. second half of the
fourth century BCE (before 316)
From Baoshan, Jingmen, Hubei Province
Jingzhou Prefecture Museum, Hubei Province
This lidded vessel, 1 one of a pair, was found in the
eastern chamber of Tomb 2, along with most of the
ritual bronzes and a group of lacquered containers
for eating and drinking. Chicken bones, presumably
offerings for the deceased, were found in one of
the two vessels.
The vessel's shape is unusual for pre-imperial
bronzes. With slightly flared circular walls, and a
lid topped by a flat circle, the container is modeled
on lacquerware, and like its lacquer counterparts,
has three small feet (here ornamented with eyes)
and two movable rings attached to animal masks
(pushou). Reversed, the lid rests on its four birdshaped
rings to serve as a food receptacle. The
vessel's ornaments and fittings were cast on; traces
left by mortise-and-tenon joinery to attach them to
the interior of the mold are still visible inside the
box and beneath the lid. Mortise-and-tenon joins
were used in precisely the same manner to attach
metal fittings to wooden boxes.
The bronze's decorative motifs as well strongly
resemble the painted decoration of contemporaneous
lacquerware. Color contrasts are rendered by
gold and silver inlaid in the recesses of the bronze
surface, and the fluid and curvilinear ornaments
are imitative of brushwork. The imitation of lacquerware,
in fact, approaches the literal: the inner
walls of the bronze are coated with red lacquer. This
luxury vessel clearly illustrates the artistic dominance
of lacquerware over bronzework, a phenomenon
that first appeared at the turn of the fourth
century BCE and developed progressively through
the Han dynasty. The phenomenon reflects less the
influence of one form of production on the other
than the progressive decline in the importance of
ritual bronze decoration.
Along with another vessel discovered in Tomb i
at Jiangling (Hubei province), this vessel and its
complement from Tomb 2 at Baoshan were manufactured
by workshops specializing in luxury bronze
items inlaid with precious metals and, in some
cases, accented with lacquer, turquoise, or other
336 I CHU AND OTHER CULTURES