Page 291 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

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Bronze jian-fou cooler and ladle ated by the top-heavy profile of the vessels: large
slabs overhanging the edges of the vessels bear
7
jian: height 63 (24 A)
down on the heads of the serpentine handles,
fou: height 51.8 (20 V-z)
while the small creatures that support the vessels
ladle: length 84 (33)
appear to sag under the weight of their burden.
Warring States Period (c. 433 BCE)
Each comprises an outer vessel (jian) and a
From Leigudun, Suixian, Hubei Province
much smaller inner vessel (fou). A removable grate
The National Museum of Chinese History, Beijing with a square opening holds the neck of the fou.
The base of the fou is secured at the bottom by
Houston and San Francisco only
L-shaped prongs that protrude from the inside of
A pair of jian-fou were found in the central cham- the jians base and fit into square openings in the
ber of the tomb next to the other vessels associated foot of the/ou; a hinged lock on one of the prongs
with the serving of wine — the zun-pan (cat. 95), holds them in position (see fig. i). The composite
the pair of large hu (cat. 96), and the filter (cat. 98). form of these vessels suggests that they were used
Lying across the top of each jian-fou was a large to cool wine by filling the space between the two
1
ladle (shao) used to extract the wine. Each weigh- containers with ice. The provision of ice for cool-
ing approximately 170 kilograms, the jian-fou are ing wine seems to have been important in cere-
the largest of the Marquis Yi ritual vessels (fig. i), monies and banquets during the summer months.
and the impression of immense mass is accentu- A passage in the Zhou li (Rites of Zhou) refers to the

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