Page 111 - Sotheby's NYC September 20 2022 Forging An Empire Bronzes

he twelve-character inscription superbly cast on the present vessel in an unique artistic
calligraphy translates to ‘the Chu King Yin Qian made this cast basin, to be used for the
Tyearly chang ritual’. The owner of this bronze, Yin Qian, has been determined by scholars
to be King Kaolie of Chu (262-238 BC), whose name often appears in the historical literatures as
Xiong Yuan 熊元 or Xiong Wan 熊完. Chang is an ancient ritual ceremony held in the autumn at the
ancestor temple by the Son of Heaven and lords of the vassal states. The ritual involved offering fresh
grain to ancestors. According to Zhouli (The Rites of Zhou), different ritual bronzes were to be used for
ceremonies of different seasons. The autumn and winter seasons are required to use jiayi 斝彝 (grain
vessel) and huangyi 黃彝 (yellow vessel).

The present basin belongs to a distinguished set of vessels made by King Kaolie of Chu for the chang
ritual. Other vessels from the set include two ding and three fu, all of which, except for one ding, are in the
collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, published in The Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of
Social Sciences, ed., Yinzhou jinwen jicheng [Compendium of Yin and Zhou bronze inscriptions], Beijing,
2007, nos 02623, 04549-04551. The Anhui Museum, Hefei, houses the remaining ding, published in Wu
Zhenfeng, Shangzhou qingtong qi mingwen ji tuxiang jicheng [Compendium of important inscriptions
and images of bronzes from the Shang and Zhou dynasties], vol. 4, Shanghai, 2012, no. 01980. The
present basin is the only vessel from the set in private hands.

Fig. 1 A map showing the states of Chu and Qin in the mid-late Warring States period, original version of the
map illustrated in Michael Loewe & Edward L . Shaughnessy, eds, The Cambridge History of Ancient China.
From the Origins of Civilisation to 221 B.C., Cambridge, 1999, p. 636
圖一 戰國中晚期楚、秦方位圖 地圖原版錄於魯惟一及夏含夷編，《劍橋中國上古史：從文明的起源到公元
前221 年》，劍橋，1999 年，頁636

The death of King Zhao of Zhou during his southern expedition gave opportunity for the rise of the Chu
“ I N T H E S T A T E O F C H U , T H E state. The famous story of King Zhuang of Chu (613-591 BC) enquiring about the weight of the Nine
Ding 九鼎 possessed by the Zhou king, which was considered as an act of utmost defiance towards the
B R O K E N T I P S F R O M T H E rightful Son of Heaven, was a testament to the superior power of Chu during the Spring and Autumn

H O O K S O F T H E H A L B E R D S period. The glorious era of Chu, however, perished with the rise of the Qin empire towards the end of the
Warring States period (fig. 1). Qin’s dominating power soon debilitated the Chu state through a series
W OU L D B E E N OUG H T O of key historical events and battles. King Kaolie of Chu was left with an exhausted state depleted of
resources and morale.
M A K E T H E N I N E D I N G . ” 「楚國折鉤之喙，足以為九鼎」
The king’s rise to power was challenging. When he was the crown prince, Xiong Yuan was sent by his
R E C O R D S O F T H E G R A N D 《史記•楚世家》 father King Qingxiang of Chu (298-263 BC) to the Qin state as a hostage for nearly ten years, as an
exchange for a peace treaty. When the old king fell ill, Xiong Yuan sought permission from the king of Qin
HI S T O R I A N : T HE HI S T O R Y O F C H U
to visit his father. His requests were relentlessly denied. Xiong Yuan’s loyal official, Huang Xie 黃歇, who
accompanied him to Qin, decided to risk his life to rescue his lord. He dressed Xiong Yuan as one of the
messengers from Chu and secretly arranged the prince’s escape to claim the throne at home. The new
king generously rewarded Huang Xie’s loyalty by conferring him the title Lord Chunshen 春申君, who
later became one of the famous Four Lords of the Warring States.

108 POWER / CONQUEST: THE FORGING OF EMPIRES