Page 467 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

placed one in each corner of the innermost cham-
ber, where they must have been used in an esoteric
Buddhist ritual of purification before any of the
other votive objects were deposited there. 4
The inscription on the staff reads as follows:
"The Wensiyuan has received the command of
the twenty-third day of the third moon of the four-
teenth year of Xiantong [873 CE] to make a silver
staff to welcome the true body [relic] with gilded
decoration and twelve rings, weighing a total of 60
liang, 5 of which 2 liang of gold and 58 Hang of silver.
Craftsman An Shuyun; Administrative Assistant with
the rank of Purple Gold Fish Pouch Wang Quanhu;
Vice-Commissioner for Court Service Qian Zhi;
Commissioner of the Palace Gate Guard of the
6
Left, General [Wu] Hongque." This inscription is
couched in the terms required by the regulations,
probably promulgated at the beginning of the
reign, under which the Wensiyuan, or Crafts Insti-
tute, operated; all of those involved had strictly
defined official functions. Together with other
inscriptions found on vessels and objects in the
Famen Monastery deposit, the inscription is proof
that during the Tang dynasty the Wensiyuan was
not merely an imperial storehouse: it housed the
imperial workshops, located within the palace and
operated under the strictest controls. 7 RW

1 Excavated in 1987 (FD 5: 041); reported: Shaanxi 19883,
20-22.
2 Liebert 1976,135.
3 Yen 1998.
4 Whitfield 19903, 252.
5 One liang during the Tang dynasty was equivalent to
approximately 40 grams. Francois Louis (1999, 93 n. 417),
provides a convenient breakdown of the weight mea-
sures and their equivalents: 4 zi = i qian; 10 qian = i liang;
16 liang = ijin. The approximate metric equivalents are
i zi = i g; i qian = 4 g; i liang = 40 g; ijin = 640 g.
6 Han Wei 1995, 72. A few years before, Wu Hongque had
the lower position of Administrative Assistant of High
Rank (see cat. 163).
7 Han 1995, 75.

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