Page 133 - Christie's, Important Chinese Works of Art, Hong Kong Dec 3 2021

fig. 1 Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei
圖一 國立故宮博物院藏品

required that more sober ritual practices be observed for the Zhou clawed foot at the bottom, or occasionally, if rarely, in the form of
to maintain the “mandate of heaven”. Therefore, the use of wine a simple tab. Such gui vessels tended to be decorated with wide
was reduced while meat and cereal grains were emphasized as more horizontal flutes rather than with vertical ribs.
righteous offerings. As a result, many types of wine vessels were
gradually abandoned during the Western Zhou. Although the bowl Although the taotie mask was the decorative motif most frequently
of this gui food-serving vessel follows the basic Shang interpretation encountered on bronze ritual vessels from the Shang dynasty,
of the form, the addition of the socle and the reliance upon ribbed including gui vessels, other motifs were popular as well, including
decoration reflects the new, post-Shang age in which this vessel was long- and short-tailed birds, kui dragons, and even snakes. Apart
produced. from those “representational” motifs, a variety of abstract, non-
representational, geometric motifs also appear on Shang bronzes,
The standard Shang form of the gui—a compressed, globular including interlocking T-forms, zig-zag, or chevron, patterns,
bowl set on a circular footing, the bowl with a lightly flaring neck diamond-and-boss patterns, and yet others. Long forgotten, the
and two visually substantial, vertically oriented, loop handles— meaning of such decorative schemes, if any, has been lost to the
continued into the Western Zhou, though modifications in both mists of time for both representational and geometric types—
form and decoration soon ensued. The most obvious alteration including that of the vertical ribs on the present gui vessel—though
to the form involved elevating the vessel, often by presenting it speculation about their meanings abounds. Many such motifs
on an integrally cast square socle, as in the present example, but continued into the Western Zhou.
occasionally by setting it on four legs, as witnessed by the Zuo Bao
Yi Gui, which sold at Christie’s, New York, on 13 September 2018 Decoration of vertical ribs —occasionally also termed zhewen, or
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(lot 888). Aesthetically, the elevation of the gui on a socle makes “pleats” or “creases”, in Chinese—appeared only at the very end of
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the vessel more imposing and imparts monumentality, solemnity, the Shang, gaining popularity during the Western Zhou. Arguably
and even majesty. Even so, the reasons for raising the vessels the earliest Western Zhou vessel with a mature presentation of ribbed
remain unknown but could involve changes in religious needs or décor is the famous Kang Hou Gui, formerly in the collection of
ceremonial requirements, for example, or perhaps a simple desire Neill Malcolm (1869–1953) and now in British Museum, London
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for greater visual impact. (1977.404.1). Dated to the eleventh century BC, the Kang Hou
Gui boasts a band of vertical ribs around its midsection and a
Favored throughout much of the Western Zhou (c. 1046–771 BC), narrow band of alternating whirligig bosses and flower-like motifs
socled gui vessels declined in popularity during the last decades around its neck and another around its footring. In fact, the present
of the Middle Western Zhou period (c. 975–c. 875 BC). Even so, vessel’s decorative style is closely related to that of the Kang Hou
gui vessels themselves continued to be important, but rather than Gui, though the latter lacks a square socle and its handles are much
resting on a square socle, they came to stand either on a circular larger more assertive. Despite those differences, the similarity of the
footring or, more typically, on three short legs generally in the form present vessel to the Kang Hou Gui confirms that it too dates to the
of a stylized animal or bird, with a masklike face at the top and a Early Western Zhou period.

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