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

Fig. 1 The present lot illustrated in Liang Shizheng et al., Xiqing gujian [Catalogue of antiques in the Xiqing
pavilion], vol. 26, 1755, p. 14.
圖一 本拍品錄於梁詩正等，《西清古鑑》，卷26，1755年，頁14

nown as the Ding Mu Zhi, this rare archaic bronze vessel was once in the collection of
the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1736-1795) and was first published in Xiqing gujian 西清古
K鑑 (Catalogue of antiques in the Xiqing pavilion) (vol. 26: zhi vessels, p. 14), one of the
Emperor’s bronze catalogues compiled by court artists between the 14th and 20th year of his reign
(1749-55). The catalogue comprised line drawings of some 1,500 bronzes in the imperial collection.
The present vessel is entitled Zhou Nü Zhi 周女觶 (zhi of a lady from the Zhou dynasty) in the catalogue,
illustrated alongside rubbings of the pictograms cast on its lid and body and detailed with its overall
measurements (fig. 1). The two-character inscription is now read as Ding Mu, ‘Mother (from) Ding’, with
Ding possibly being either the name of a clan or a location at the time.

Vessels of this form appeared around the late Shang dynasty (c. 1600-1046 BC) and continued to be
popular throughout the Western Zhou dynasty (c. 1046-771 BC). Zhi are ritual vessels used by high-
ranking people for wine. The Liji 禮記 (The Book of Rites), a collection of texts compiled in the Warring
States period (475-221 BC) describing social norms, governmental organization and ritual conduct
during the Zhou dynasty (c.1046-221 BC), states: “During the ceremonies held in ancestral temples, the
superior men raise zhi, and the inferior men raise jiao” (宗廟之祭，尊者舉觶，卑者舉角) – signifying the
prestigious social status of the original owner of the present vessel.

There are at least three known examples of zhi cast with similar registers of design and with a ‘dog-tooth’
band below the rim: Yu Fu Xin Zhi 魚父辛觶, a vessel bearing a three-character inscription, lacking a
cover, excavated in 1984 from the ruins of Shijia, Huantai county, Shandong province, now in the Zibo
Museum, Shandong province; another cast with related taotie masks on its body, also lacking a cover,
illustrated in Jessica Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections,
Washington D.C., 1990, pl. 99, and sold in these rooms, 5th May 1972, lot 433; and a taller zhi with cover,
of more slender form and without an inscription, formerly in the collection of Addie W. Kahn, now in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession no. 49.135.13).

18 POWER / CONQUEST: THE FORGING OF EMPIRES