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Fig. 2. The frst publication of the inscription on the present fangding by Wu Rongguang in Yunqingguan jinwen (Bronze Inscriptions in the Yunqingguan studio), 1842, vol. 4, pp. 9-10.

Fig. 3 The Wu Shifen provenance of the present fangding as stated in Meigu lu (The Record of Pursuing Antiquity), 1895, vol. 1, p. 7.
In the 22nd year of Daoguang (1842), the inscription of the Ya Yi fangding was frst published by Wu
Rongguang (1773-1843) in his Yunqingguan jinwen, where he stated that the owner of this fangding
was Han Kejun. (Fig. 2) Han Kejun (1766-1840), whose courtesy name is Yunfang, was a native
of Fenyang, Shanxi province. He served as provincial governor of Guizhou, Yunnan, and Fujian
consecutively during the Jiaqing (1796-1820) and Daoguang (1821-1850) eras. He is renowned for
peacefully resolving disputes between a local tribe and the Burmese in Yunnan and constructing
a walled city in Danshui, Taiwan. The Ya Yi fangding consequently entered the collection of Wu
Shifen (1796-1856). (Fig. 3) Wu Shifen was an epigraphist, calligrapher and Secretary of the
Cabinet at the court of the Daoguang Emperor (1821-1850) and was one of the great collectors
of his generation. A descendant of a renowned Shandong family, Wu was also related through
marriage to another prominent Shandong collector, Chen Jieqi (1813-1884).

24 Nineteenth-century ink rubbing of the present fangding from the Wu Shifen suocang jinshi tapian (Ink Rubbings of
Bronzes and Stelea in Wu Shifen’s Collection). Courtesy of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica.