Page 292 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

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without lid

2
FIG. i. Profile and cross provision of a "jian for ice/' and several passages in
section of a jian-fou from the Chu ci (Songs of Chu) refer to cool wine.
the Zenghou Yi tomb. After
Hubei 1989:1, 224, fig. 122. The idea of combining jian basins and fou into
composite wine coolers developed during the sixth
century BCE, probably in the south. Basins were
a common form of vessel from the beginning of
the Eastern Zhou period; by the early sixth century
their size had increased dramatically, sometimes
approaching 60 centimeters in diameter. Although
the basins probably fulfilled a variety of functions,
the discovery of a jian and fou placed side by side
in a mid-sixth-century BCE Chu tomb suggests that
by this time the two types were already on occasion
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used in combination, and by the end of the cen-
tury the association had become formalized. In
the tomb of Marquis Zhao of Cai at Shouxian in
Anhui province, two paired, square basins were
found with matching square-sectioned fou placed
inside them. 4

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