Page 301 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

ponent of the rituals is confirmed by their depic-
tion in conjunction with bell-chimes and stone
chimes on a number of pictorial vessels from the
5
north and west. A lacquered wood box in the form
of a duck found in the western chamber of Marquis
Yi's tomb (cat. 107) depicts a figure playing a hafted
drum (jiangu).
Only two other drum stands are known — one
from the Leigudun Tomb 2 (possibly the tomb of
Marquis Yi's consort or of a close descendant) 6 and
another from a late sixth- or early fifth-century BCE
tomb at Shucheng Jiulidun in Anhui province.
Composed of intertwined serpents (like the mar-
quis' drum stand), the Jiulidun stand suggests that
drums may have had a particular association with
serpents. Although the frequent depiction of the
jian gu on the pictorial vessels, as well as its mention
in the ritual texts, indicate that the instrument was
widely used, the fact that all known examples of
bronze drums or drum stands are associated with
the south probably reflects not only the plentiful
supplies of copper and tin in the region, which
allowed a wider range of articles to be cast, but also
the local prestige of the item itself. CM

1 Excavated in 1978 (C 67); reported: Hubei 1989, i: 152 -154,
fig. 68:1 and 2: pi. 43. Inscribed at mouth of center tube:
"Commissioned by Marquis Yi of Zeng for his possession."
2 Chap. 16 in Yi /i, Yang 1982.
3 Liang and Gao 1968, pi. 16.
4 See Bagley 1980,123, for a discussion of these two drums.
5 See Weber 1968, figs. 66d, 676, 68e, and Fong 1980,
290-292, and 316-317, no. 91.
6 Hubei 1985^ 16-36, 29, fig. 36 (M279) and pi. 3:3.

shows that the skin used for the tympanum was
reptilian; the scales left a visible impression in the
3
soil. The barrel drum may have been particularly
important in the south, since the only two bronze
versions known — one in the Sumitomo Collection
and the other excavated from Wangjiazui Baini,
Chongyang, in southern Hubei province — are of
southern manufacture. 4
By the Eastern Zhou period, such drums were
conventionally raised on hafts fixed into heavy
bases. That drums constituted an important com-

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