Page 293 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

Since no earlier square jian-fou are known, it
seems likely that the Cai versions inspired the
basic form of the Marquis Yi jian-fou. Once adopted
into the Zeng repertoire of vessels, this essentially
plain vessel-type was transformed by the addition
of heavy appendages — elaborate zoomorphic
handles and feet and angular outcrops over the rim
— into a much more elaborate form consonant
with the Chu-Zeng style. Certain aspects of this
style may derive from woodcarving techniques: a
lacquered wood jin stand from the central chamber
exhibits the same contrast between sinuous zoo-
morphic form and the angularity of the outcrops
present on the jian-fou. These blocks may have
been purely decorative features, but it is also possi-
ble that they possessed some as-yet unrecognized
symbolic significance. 5 CM

1 Excavated in 1978 (C 139); reported: Hubei 1989,1:223 ~
2:
an
228, figs. 122-125, d color pi. 9:3-4, pis. 66-68; for
the ladle (C 138), see Hubei 1989,1:235-236, fig. 133:1 and
color pi. 9:3 and pi. 66. Inscriptions incised on the inte-
rior of the jian (outer vessel) and/on (inner vessel) read:
"Marquis Yi commissioned [this article); may he possess
and use it for eternity." The same inscription, much more
elegantly written and probably cast rather than incised,
appears on the interior of the ladles.
2 Lin 1983, 53.
3 See Tomb M 3 at Xichuan Xiasi. Henan 1991, 213, fig. 156,
nos. 19 (jian) and 21-22 (zunfou).
4 Rings on the inside of each wall of the jian may have
served to secure the fou in some way or may have sup-
ported a grating on which the ice was placed. Similar
rings appear on the inside of two jian cast for King
Guang of Wu also found in the Cai tomb, indicating that
these also were intended to be used with internal vessels.
See Anhui 1956, pi. 15:3.
5 The L-shaped corners of a cosmological diagram on a
lacquered wooden clothes chest from Marquis Yi's tomb
are tantalizingly reminiscent of the corner blocks on the
jian-fou and;in (see Hubei 1989, 2: pi. 121). On the chest,
these L-shapes are clearly not decorative features but
serve to delineate the shape of the cosmos. On another
chest, linked cruciform shapes are also reminiscent of
the layout of the top of the jian-fou and jin (Hubei 1989,
2: pi. 124:1).

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