Page 262 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

coarse ribbon decoration of the piece are typical of
Late Western Zhou period bronzes. The shape is
extremely unusual but is paralleled by an example
from Shaanxi province (the county of Fufeng in the
Zhouyuan). 4
This vessel and cat. 90 are representative of a
new tradition of shapes that came into being dur-
ing the latter part of the Western Zhou period.
Prior to this period, human forms rarely (if ever)
appear in the decoration of ritual vessels from the
Yellow and Wei River areas, although examples are
found occasionally on chariot fittings and weapons.
Human faces and figures are slightly more prevalent
among cast bronzes from the south (although their
style is quite different from Western Zhou represen-
tations illustrated in this example and cat. 90), and
well-known examples have been found in the east
(Anhui province), the central region (Hunan
5
province), and the west (Sichuan province). The
weakening of Zhou power and the growing inde-
pendence of specific territories such as the Jin state
may have been paralleled by the easing of ritual
control over bronzecasters, permitting a greater
variety in design. JR

1 Excavated 1993 (M 31:8); reported: Shanxi 19943.
2 For a brief report on the tomb see Shanxi 19943.
3 For a discussion of the type, see Rawson 1990, part i, nos.
112-115.
4 Rawson 1990, part i: fig. 152.
5 Bagley 1987, figs. 80,187, and Bagley 1990, 52 - 67, fig. 28.

26l I ROYAL T O M B S OF THE JIN STATE, B E I Z H A O