Page 166 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

ing a dedicatory inscription to another of Wu Here the kui is poised with snout and jaws upward,
Ding's consort, designated posthumously Mu Wu. its single eye in relief, and its long body and curled
2
This fangding vessel, however, is modest in tail filling the vessel leg. The flat leg was already
scale, one of a pair notable for their fine decora- established as a formal element in the Early Shang,
tion. Each of the four flat sides carries a large, high- but its use in vessels produced at Anyang remained
3
relief rendering of the prototypical animal mask. limited. Present information suggests that flat
The rendition is remarkably complete in anatomical legs were more common during the Late Shang
terms, with snout, jaws, eyes in their sockets, ears, (c. 1300-1050 BCE) in foundry production outside
and horns. The thick flanges that transfix the masks Anyang. RT
run from the nose ridge up to a crest with no obvi-
ous anatomical rationale. The raised surfaces of 1 See Fong 1980,108.
2 Excavated in 1976 (M 5:812); reported: Zhongguo 1980, 38.
these masks are embellished with sunken lines for 3 In an unpublished database of 690 published vessels I
necessary details (such as eye sockets and nostrils) compiled in 1992, only n of 116 ding from Yinxu sites had
or hooked spirals that fill space. The surrounding flat legs.
ground, by contrast, is covered entirely by fine-
lined, squared spirals, crisply cut into the molds.
The vessel is also notable for its flat legs,
aligned at a diagonal under each corner, and given
attributes of the so-called kui dragon. This dragon
motif often complements masks in the main bands
of decoration, as seen here, and also appears in
lesser bands on ring feet, necks, and other surfaces.

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