Page 432 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

texts are exceedingly rare events); the text's author
may in any event have intended simply to contrast
a dew basin's yin qualities with iheyang character
of a circular mirror.
The beaker form exists in a number of other
examples (albeit without the flange seen here):
one from the Epang palace site at Chezhangcun,
3
at Xi'an, and another from Luopowan at Guixian
4
in Guangxi province. Two very similar U-shaped
beakers were found in at Shizishan at Xuzhou in
Jiangsu province, the site of one of the tombs of
5
a Han dynasty Chu king. It seems likely, therefore,
that this was a standard jade item made for the
highest members of the elite. Lacquer versions of
the U-shaped beakers have been found, and it is
possible that the form originated in this more easily
worked material. 6 JR

1 Excavated in 1983 (D 102); reported: Guangzhou 1991
1:202-203, fig. 132.
2 Major 1993, 65-66.
3 Wenwu jinghua 1993, no. 64.
4 Guangxi 1978, no. 89
5 Shizishan 1998, fig. 8.
6 For pottery examples, see Hubei 1993, figs. 7:2, 7:3, 8.

FIG. i. Components and
cross section of cat. 148.
Adapted from Guangzhou
1991, 203, fig. 132.

43 1 TOMB OF THE K I N G OF N A N Y U E