Page 100 - Deydier UNDERSTANDING CHINESE ARCHAIC BRONZES

Generally found alone and positioned with its opening towards the sky,
the zheng 鉦 was used during ritual sacrifices to the natural elements,
such as the wind, the rain, the stars, etc. as well as to mountains and
rivers.

These large zheng 鉦 bells were very popular from the end of the Shang
商 dynasty throughout the early part of the Western Zhou 西周 and
have been mainly excavated in more southerly provinces of China
including Hunan 湖南, Jiangxi 江西, Zhejiang 浙江, Fujian 褔建 and
Guangxi 廣西.

Bo 鎛 / Zhong 鐘

The bo 鎛 and zhong 鐘 are fairly thick-sided bells which, like western
bells, are suspended facing downwards from their handles. For the
bo 鎛, the handle is semi-circular, sometimes simple, but more often
elaborately decorated with three-dimensional animal forms, while
for the zhong 鐘 the handle consists of a single long, thick, tubular or
multi-sided projection. Bo 鎛 and zhong 鐘 are usually found in sets of
from four or five to fourteen, or sometimes of as many as sixty-five, as
in the set of bells excavated from the tomb of the Marquis Yi of Zeng 曾
侯乙墓 in 1978.

th
Bo, Eastern Zhou dynasty (circa 5 century B.C.)
Height: 29.3 cm – Private Collection.
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