Page 295 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

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Bronze brazier, charcoal shovel, and dustpan affixed to the vessel mold's interior; molten bronze
2
was then poured in to form the object. The shape
1
brazier: height 14 (s ^), diam. 43.8 (17%)
and decoration of the dustpan faithfully imitate
shovel: length 38.6 (15%)
basketwork, the conventional medium for such
dustpan: length 29.0 (11%)
implements; an example in bamboo from the Chu
Warring States Period (c. 433 BCE)
state was found in Tomb 2 at Baoshan near Jingmen
From Leigudun, Suixian, Hubei Province
in Hubei province. 3
Hubei Provincial Museum, Wuhan A perforated shovel found in the tomb of Fu
Hao at Anyang may have been used for charcoal
The shovel (chan) and dustpan (qi) were discovered and suggests that braziers may have been in use,
stacked inside the brazier (lu), 1 which was placed although not consigned to tombs, as early as the
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in the central chamber between the two large huo Shang period. Examples begin to appear in tombs
ding (cat. 92). From this placement, it seems possi- during the sixth century BCE, and their forms are
ble that the brazier was actually used to cook the particularly prominent in the south and southeast.
contents of the ding. Chain handles on either side The earliest known example is a brazier from
of the brazier would have allowed it to be lifted Lijialou, Xinzheng in Henan province identified
while the fuel was alight. with the Chu prince Yingci, who was active during
S
An inlaid copper scroll of avian forms encircles the first decades of the sixth century BCE. The
the sides of the brazier, and a similar scroll, incor- decoration of that example is closely related to
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porating dragonlike figures, decorates the shovel. styles popular in the southeast. A brazier excavated
In both cases, the inlay was cast separately and from Jing'an Shuikou in Jiangxi province is in-

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