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Fully sculptural animal-form vessels are the rarest forms of Chinese archaic bronzes. The only
complete Shang example that appears to have been ofered at auction is a bufalo-form zun
sold at Christie’s New York, 1 December 1988, lot 143. The Fujita gong is particularly charming for
its thoroughly prepossessing ram form. Compare two other gong vessels of related form, but with
highly stylized elephant heads: one in the collection of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington
D.C., illustrated by Robert W. Bagley in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections,
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987, pp. 416-420, no. 74; the other excavated in 1983 from
Zhangjia village, Yangxian county, Shaanxi province, illustrated in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji
(Compendium of Chinese Bronzes), Beijing, 1998, vol. 4, p. 90, no. 91. The ram had special prominence
amongst southern bronzes, i.e. bronzes discovered in and likely to have been cast in the Yangzi River
region. The most notable examples are the four-ram zun from Ningxiang, Hunan province, now in the
National Museum of China, and two double-ram zun in the Nezu Museum, and the other in the British
Museum (see ibid., nos. 115, 132, and 133 respectively).

There are twelve other known Shang quadruped animal-shaped vessels, including four bufalos,
three elephants, two mythical animals, one boar and one rhinoceros, all in museum collections. The
Hunan Museum holds three quadruped animal vessels: a gong of bufalo form, a zun of elephant
form, and another zun of boar form, all found in Hunan province and illustrated ibid., no. 87, 130, and
135; the latter two vessels were selected for the exhibition ‘Min’ Fanglei and Selected Bronze Vessels
Unearthed from Hunan, Shanghai Museum, 2015, cat. nos. 8 and 9. The Shanghai Museum holds a
quadruped animal gong, with a later-made cover copied after the cover of the Hunan bufalo-form
gong, illustrated by Chen Peifen in Xia Shang Zhou qingtongqi yanjiu (Research of the Xia Shang Zhou
Bronzes), Shanghai, 2004, pp. 336-337, no. 163. A bufalo-form zun inscribed with a two-character
clan name, Ya Chang, was found in the Huayuanzhuang Dongdi M54, and is illustrated by Yue
Hongbin ed., Ritual Bronzes Recently Excavated in Yinxu, Kunming, 2008, pp. 158-161. A bufalo-form
gong, but lacking surface decoration, is in the Harvard Art Museums Collection, Cambridge, and
illustrated in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji (The Complete Collection of Chinese Bronzes), Beijing, 1998,
vol. 4, no. 89. Another plain bufalo-form gong is illustrated by Sueji Umehara in Nihon shucho shina
kodo seika (Selected Relics of Ancient Chinese Bronzes from Collections in Japan), vol. 4, Osaka,
1961, no. 266. An elephant-form zun with a cover surmounted by a small elephant is in the collection
of the Freer Gallery, Washington D.C., and illustrated ibid, no. 129. Another elephant-form zun, but of
unusually large size is in the collection of the Musée Guimet, Paris, illustrated ibid, no. 131. A pair of
mythical horned animal gong found in the Fuhao tomb in Anyang city is illustrated in the Tomb of Lady
Hao at Yinxu in Anyang, Beijing, 1980, fg. 40 and 41, col. pl. 9. A rhinoceros-form zun with a lengthy
inscription dating it to the reign of the last Shang king is in the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco and
is illustrated in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji (The Complete Collection of Chinese Bronzes), Beijing,
1998, vol. 4, no. 134.

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