Page 283 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

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Bronze dou vessel inlaid with turquoise plete ritual repertoire of forms, they were only
intermittently fashionable in bronze, and it was
3
Height 26.4 (io A in), diam. at mouth 20.6 (SVs)
Warring States Period (c. 433 BCE) in ceramic, wood, or basketry that they were more
From Leigudun, Suixian, Hubei Province popular. Bronze forms often show a dependence
on ceramic, wood, or basketry models. Flat, dishlike
Hubei Provincial Museum, Wuhan forms became fashionable during the Late Western
Zhou period, but grew rarer and eventually dis-
Bowl-shaped forms with a domed lid on a tall stem appeared in the course of the Early Eastern Zhou
are conventionally termed dou, while flatter, dish- period. A more rounded form with a domed lid,
shaped forms lacking a lid are termed bian or/u. imitative of ceramic examples, began to appear dur-
In the Zhou li (Rites of Zhou) the dou is defined as ing the sixth century in the north and was popular
a container for sauces, while the bian is a container throughout the fifth century. In the Chu sphere,
for dried meats. 1 In the Yi' li (Book of ceremonial) on the other hand, bronze stemmed vessels are
4
they are often listed following one another, indicat- rare in the sixth and fifth centuries BCE. None was
ing that they performed related functions. 2 This is found in the Xiasi tombs, and only three — this dou
confirmed by the placement in the tomb of the and two bian — were present in Marquis Yi's tomb.
dou 3 next to two bian. By contrast, twenty-three lacquered dou were found
Although the ritual texts indicate that stemmed in the tomb, and it is in this material, rather than
vessels were indispensable components of a com- bronze, that the dou form is usually found in the

282 CH U AN D OTHE R C U L T U R E S