Page 71 - Sotheby's NYC September 20 2022 Forging An Empire Bronzes

he present li is a fascinating and rare example of ritual bronze vessels commissioned for
females in the early Eastern Zhou dynasty. It bears a nine-character inscription on the top
Tof the rim, reading wang zuo Xu shang Xuan Mu bao shang yi, which can be translated as
‘the king made this precious heating vessel for Xuan Mu who married to the lord of Xu state’. Whilst the
character wang (king) began to appear on bronzes commissioned by foreign clans other than the Zhou
royalty in the late Western Zhou period, the excavation site of the present li vessel in the Shaanxi province
suggests it was likely a product for the ruling Zhou kings. For more discussions on the related topic,
see Wang Shimin, ‘Xizhou Chunqiu jinwen zhong de zhuhou juecheng [Title usage among the lords of
vassal states during Western Zhou dynasty and the Spring and Autumn period],’ Lishi yanjiu / Historical
Research, Beijing, 1983, p. 5.

The Zhou king made this vessel for a woman named Xuan Mu. The sixth character mu is commonly
recognized as the character for ‘mother’. However, it is also a character used in female names during
the Zhou dynasty. Examples show that mu is normally the second character following a first character,
which often indicates a good wish, a plant’s name or, in this case, the name of a ferocious animal, xuan
贙, which, in Chinese mythology, is a powerful beast resembling the appearance of a hound. According
to Wu Zhenfeng’s study, the third character on the present inscription reads Xu, an unknown vassal state
that Xuan Mu was engaged to or originated from (see Wu Zhenfeng, Shang Zhou qingtong qi mingwen
ji tuxiang jicheng [Compendium of important inscriptions and images of bronzes from the Shang and
Zhou dynasties], vol. 6, Shanghai, 2012, no. 02821).

A line drawing of the present lot illustrated in Duan Fang, Taozhai jijinlu [Catalogue of bronzes from the Taozhai collection], vol. 2, 1908, p. 53.
本拍品線描圖錄於端方，《陶齋吉金錄》，卷2，1908年，頁53
68 POWER / CONQUEST: THE FORGING OF EMPIRES