CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

FIG. i. Bronze zun inlaid
with lacquer from Tomb 2
at Wangshan, Jiangling,
Hubei Province; Warring
States period; height. 17.1
(6 3 /4): from above; cross
section. After Hubei 1996,
135, fig. 91.
materials (fig. i). Archaeological discoveries have
suggested that these workshops were located near
or even within the Chu capital, close to the presentday
city of Jiangling. These workshops, which produced
wine vessels (hu or lei), as well as round
bronze food containers, 2 probably ceased operations
when the capital was destroyed by the Qin
army in 278 BCE.
The highly complex — almost abstract — designs
on the lid and vessel body are based on dragon-andbird
motifs. Their zoomorphic forms are concealed
in the ornament: eyes, marked by circular dots, stare
out of heads that emerge from intricate bodies,
which flow into the forms of other, similarly abstract
creatures. Four units of the motif can be seen on
the main register and, in a different rendering, at
the center of the lid; another motif is repeated six
times on the sides of the vessel. Though organized
in repeating units, the animals are intricately
configured to create an impression of endless movement
and to suggest that they are, in fact, alive. AT
1 Excavated in 1987; published: Hubei 1991, i: 190-191, fig.
120; 2: color pi. 11.1 and pi. 56.1.
2 See Guangdong 1974, 71, fig. 5; Lawton 1982, no. 9; Hubei
1996,135-136, figs. 91-92, and color pi. 4.
337 | TOMB 2 AT BAOSHAN, JINCMEN