Page 288 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

generally believed to have been one of Marquis Yi's 1 Excavated in 1978 (C 38); reported Hubei 1989,1:228-234,
predecessors (probably his father or grandfather). 9 figs. 127-128 and 2, color pi. 10 and plates 69-74. The
neck of the zun is incised with the inscription "Marquis
The vessel thus probably dates from the first half of Yi commissioned [this vessel]; may he possess it and use
the fifth century BCE and was an heirloom when it it for eternity." An inscription cast into the inside of the
entered Marquis Yi's tomb. pan reads "The [ ] vessel of Marquis Yu of Zeng." A later
incised inscription, partly obliterating the original one,
The early date of the piece may explain how reads "Marquis Yi commissioned [this vessel]; may he
two vessels of unrelated ritual function came to be possess and use it for eternity."
combined into a single unit. Although no precedent 2 For a discussion of the origins of this style, see So 1983,
64-71; Rawson 19873, 49-52; Mackenzie 1991,132-141;
for this combination (nor even for the zun itself as and So 1995, 21-36.
a vessel type) is known from the Chu or Zeng reper- 3 The pattern-block technique differed from traditional
casting methods in that an ornament was pressed into
toire of forms, a zun-pan set has been excavated
sections of clay, which were then set into the interior of
from the tomb of Marquis Zhao of Cai (r. 518-491 the vessel mold. For a full discussion of this technique,
BCE), a small state located between Zeng and the see Bagley 1995, 46-54. For a discussion of the use of
pattern blocks in Zeng bronzes, see So 1995, 52-53.
southeastern states of Wu and Yue. The Cai pan and
4 See Hubei 1991,1:177.
zun bear virtually identical inscriptions stating that 5 For a discussion of the lost-wax method of casting in
they were made for the dowry of a Cai princess on China, see Bagley 1987, 44-45; So 1980, 266; and
Mackenzie 1991,136-139.
her marriage to a Wu monarch; the inscriptions
6 The jin was excavated from Tomb 2 at Xiasi, Xichuan Xian,
imply that the objects were made to function as southern Henan province. See Henan 1991,126-128,
10
a unit. Although no zun-pan combinations have fig. 104, and pi. 49.
7 Mackenzie 1984 -1986, 31 - 48.
been found in Wu territory, single pan and zun were 8 See Hubei 1991,1:28 - 45, figs. 18 - 22, for a discussion of
extremely important there well into the Eastern the motifs on the coffin.
Zhou period; in fact, as a number of scholars have 9 See Hubei 1991,1:229-230 and note i above.
10 For a discussion of these pieces, see foreword by Tang Lan
pointed out, this was the only region where zun to Wu Sheng 1958, and pi. 45 (zun) and pi. 50 (pan), 3-4.
survived after the middle of Western Zhou period. 11 11 See Kane 1974 -1975, 77 -107; Rawson 19873, 45 - 49.
It seems likely, therefore, that the idea of combin- 12 The only other zun recovered from an Eastern Zhou period
Chu site is an unprepossessing funerary ceramic, com-
ing pan and zun into a single, composite unit first pletely devoid of decoration, from Tomb 2 (fourth century
arose in the Cai or the Wu state and that the idea BCE) 3t Changtaigusn, Xinyang, Hensn province. See
was then briefly taken up in the Zeng state. How- Henan 1986, pi. 98:8.
ever, the combination does not seem to have taken
12
hold, either in the Zeng or the Chu state. The
only other bronze vessel that could tentatively be
advanced as a derivative of Marquis Yu's zun-pan
is a vessel from a late'fourth-century BCE hoard at
Yuyi Nanyaozhuang in Jiangsu province. Although
it is conventionally identified as a hu, the vessel has
four zoomorphic handles (unusual in a hu) reminis-
cent of Marquis Yu's zun, and a strange, dishlike foot
that may be a vestige of the pan, now fused with the
zun into a single vessel. CM

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