Page 294 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

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Bronze filter

3
Height 88.5 (34 / 4)
Warring States Period (c. 433 BCE)
From Leigudun, Suixian, Hubei Province
Hubei Provincial Museum, Wuhan

This unusual object consists of a triangular funnel
clenched in the mouth of a monster-head, which
forms the top of the stand; a curled monster in
1
profile forms the base. The funnel itself is undeco-
rated; twelve small holes are cast in the bottom,
and two loop handles are soldered to the side of
the funnel opposite the monster-head. The funnel
shape and the holes — as well as the object's place-
ment in the central chamber next to the square
jian-fou wine coolers — suggest that it was intended
to strain wine or medicinal potions (possibly in
conjunction with a cloth liner). Although no other
bronze versions are known, a small triangular fun-
nel woven in bamboo was found in a late fourth-
century BCE Chu tomb at Baoshan near Jingmen
(Hubei province).
The frequent mention of spiced wine in the
Chu ci (Songs of Chu) implies that straining filters
would have been in common use; a passage in the
Zhao hun (Summons of the soul) explicitly refers to
the straining of wine:
Jadelike wine, honey-flavoured, fills the
winged cups;
Ice-cooled liquor, strained of impurities,
clear wine, cool and refreshing;
Here are laid out the painted ladles,
and here is the sparkling wine. 2
CM

1 Excavated in 1978 (C 23); reported: Hubei 1989,1:234 - 235,
figs. 131-132:1, and 2: pi. 75:2-4. Inscribed at the top
of the stand: "Commissioned by the Marquis Yi of Zeng
for his use."
2 Hawkes 1985, 228.

293 ZENCHO U Y I TOM B A T LEICUDU N