Page 58 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

portion of the base are decorated with a leiwen pattern set on a diagonal,
identical to that in the second register at the top of the neck. Two pairs of
confronting kui dragons occupy the lower register of the base, an u n d e r -
rated square space appearing between the faces of each confronting pair;
a corresponding square space, perforated by a small round hole, separates
the tails of the two pairs. The interior of the tall foot is undecorated; the
flat base, apparently original, was inset, as indicated by the irregular traces
of metal about its perimeter, applied molten to secure the base in place.
The arrow game was an aristocratic drinking game in which two
contestants or teams threw arrows at the mouth of a touhu vessel; 1 the
side that pitched the greatest number of arrows into the pot won and
celebrated victory by serving penalty drinks to the vanquished. The game
had been invented at least as early as the Eastern Zhou period, attested
by its mention in the Zuozhuan 2 (Zuo Commentary on the Spring and
Autumn Annals), attributed to Zuoqiu Ming, about sixth-fifth century BC;
its complex rules and prescribed etiquette are set down in some detail in
the Liji (Book of Rites), one of the Confucian classics. 3
A Han tomb relief from Nanyang, Henan province, depicts two figures
engaged in a game of touhu and an eighth-century painted leather guard
from a musical instrument, now in the Shoso-in, Todai-ji, Nara, is decorated
with a group of gentlemen in a setting that includes a touhu vessel. 4 From
the Song onward, the touhu pot and arrows were frequently depicted in
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paintings of scholars at their leisure. The Song scholar-statesman Sima
Guang (1019-1086) authored a treatise on the game entitled Touhu xinge,
confirming continuing interest in the sport.
One of the earliest extant touhu vessels - an eighth-century bronze
example preserved in the Shoso-in - has a compressed globular body set
on a splayed footring; two, narrow, tubular appendages with winglike,
flaring lower edges flank its mouth, and a delicate floral pattern graces its
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surfaces. The arrows that accompany the pot have round padded balls at
the tip. According to the Liji, the arrows should be made of mulberry or
zizyphus wood with the bark intact.
Like many Ming-dynasty pitch pots, the shape of this touhu derives
ultimately from the long-necked, bottle-shaped variant of the hu that was
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8
popular in both bronze and ceramic ware during the Han dynasty [compare 3].
This general interpretation of the shape must have been standard by the
Song dynasty, if small touhu-shaped flower vases in guan ware accurately
reflect the appearance of contemporaneous bronze touhu vessels. 9

5 4 C H I N A ' S R E N A I S S A N C E IN B R O N Z E