Page 306 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

than hammered from sheets, the conventional 1 Excavated in 1978 (E 2); reported: Hubei 1989,1:390-392,
method of forming vessels in precious metals in figs. 242 - 243:1, and 2: color pi. 17. The objects were dis-
5
other parts of the ancient world. Casting, whether covered beneath the marquis' coffin near a gold goblet
and two gold lids that may originally have covered vessels
using ceramic section-molds or the lost-wax made of now-decomposed organic materials. Four gold
method, requires a more extravagant use of metal belt hooks were found within the marquis' inner coffin.
See Hubei 1989, i: 392-393 and 399, figs. 243-244.
than does hammering; the piece thus testifies to the 2 A similar openwork bronze spoon was found in Tomb i at
application of traditional Chinese bronzecasting Mashan in Jiangling Province. See Hubei 19853, pi. 33:1.
techniques to vessels in precious metals despite 3 See Hubei 1989, i: 200, fig. 101.
4 Hubei 1989, i: 393, table 45. See Dictionary of Art, s.v.
their relative wastefulness of the metal. Hammering "metalwork"; Encyclopaedia Britannica, s.v. "electrum."
was, however, commonly used to create precious- 5 Thomas Chase states that the piece was cast, although
he cites no evidence for this (see Chase 1991,31). For
metal plaques. Over nine hundred such plaques, a discussion of casting versus hammering techniques,
6
probably appliques for armor, were found in Mar- see Bagley 1987,16 -17.
quis Yi's tomb, mostly in the northern chamber; 6 See Henan 1991, 203 - 208 and pis. 73 - 76; Hubei 1989,
1:390 - 399 and pis. 148 -149.
Tomb 2 at Xiasi, Xichuan (sixth century BCE) con-
7 See Jiangsu 1984,10- 28, pi. 5:1.
tained similarly hammered precious-metal plaques. 8 See the Chu Wang Xiong Shenyu (Metropolitan Museum
Solid gold vessels, on the other hand, are virtually of Art, New York, Accession no. 199 -165.243 - b) and the
X yu Wei (?) zhan from Yidigang, Suixian: Cheng and Liu
unknown in pre-Han period China, presumably
1983, no. i, 75, fig. 3. See Tan and Bai 1986, no. 3, 58.
because of the material's cost. The only other exca- 9 See also an example of this type from Tomb 2 at Xichuan
vated piece is an oval bowl with jade handles from Xiasi: Henan 1991, pi. 32.
Tomb 306 (early fifth century BCE) at Shaoxing in
7
Zhejiang province; the piece is considerably
smaller, however, than Marquis Yi's bowl.
Identification of this bowl as a zhan rests on its
similarity to a bronze bowl-and-cover type identi-
8
fied in their inscriptions as zhan oryu. Such vessels
were important in the Chu state and apparently
were derived, over the course of the seventh cen-
tury BCE, from gui grain containers. In its new form,
the vessel assumed a more spherical shape; the gui's
massive handles were reduced in size, and the ring
foot was replaced by three small zoomorphic legs.
During the sixth century, these appendages were
often cast in openwork, as exemplified by a yu of
Chu Wang Xiong Shen (Gong Wang, r. 590-560
9
BCE); the elaborate openwork of these sixth-cen-
tury examples shows that they were clearly impor-
tant vessels, but it is not certain whether they
continued to serve a ritual function during that
period. The placement of a gold zhan in the central
chamber of Marquis Yi's tomb, as well as the ab-
sence of bronze forms of such vessels from the
tomb's central chamber, suggests that by the sec-
ond half of the fifth century this ritual object
had become private treasure. CM

305 | ZENCHO U Yl TOMB AT LEICUDU N