Page 141 - Deydier UNDERSTANDING CHINESE ARCHAIC BRONZES

The Fish Motif 魚紋
In ancient Chinese mythology numerous tales describe fish being
transformed into dragons. This potential of the fish to transform itself
into a royal, imperial dragon and the fact that the Chinese character
for fish 魚 is pronounced the same as the character 餘 yu, meaning
a ‘superabundance’, a ‘surplus’, etc. may account for the lasting
popularity of the fish as a decorative device in all forms of Chinese art
since the earliest periods up to the present.

In the 1930s archaeologists working at the Shang Royal Tombs at Yinxu
殷墟 (Anyang 安陽) found many small, finely carved jade fish in the
tomb of King Wuding 武丁王. In 1976 other archaeologists unearthed
similar jade fish in the tomb of Wuding’s consort Fuhao 婦好.

During the Shang 商 and Western Zhou 西周, the fish appeared on
bronze vessels as a secondary decor and most often inside and on
the inner and outer sides of the large deep-dish-shaped pan 盤 water
vessels.

During the stylistically innovative Warring States period (circa 475 –
221 B.C.), realistically cast fish sometimes also appeared on the sides
of tall bronze vessels used to hold water or fermented beverages, along
with figures of ducks or other animals. A particularly fine example of
such a bronze vase-shaped vessel is conserved in the Dong Bozhai 東
波齋 Collection which was exhibited at le Musée du Président Jacques
Chirac at Sarran in 2011 (See photo on page 92).

Complete vessels cast in the shape of a fish are extremely rare, but in
1988 at Baoji 寶鷄 in Shaanxi 陝西 province a zun 尊 vessel in the
shape of a sacred carp supported on human-shaped legs was unearthed
and is now kept in the Baoji Museum.

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Fish motif, detail of the pan, Shang dynasty, Erligang period (circa 17 /16 – circa 14 centuries
B.C.) shown on page 73.
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