Page 40 - Deydier UNDERSTANDING CHINESE ARCHAIC BRONZES

Gong 觥

The gong 觥, sometimes pronounced guang, is a large vessel for
fermented beverages, with a lower section in the shape of a sauceboat
supported by a ring foot and an upper section consisting of a long cover
in the shape of the back and head of an animal. In some rare examples,
the head of the animal is attached to the vessel’s lower section, as in the
gong illustrated here on page 39.

First appearing during the Yinxu 殷墟 period of the Shang 商 dynasty
(circa 14 – 12 /11 centuries B.C.), the gong 觥 continues to be used
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until the middle of the Western Zhou 西周 dynasty, at which time the
vessel’s ring foot is sometimes replaced by four small feet.
The shape of this bronze is sometimes said to have been adapted
from earlier vessels for fermented beverages mentioned in ancient
classical texts as having been made from the horns of water buffaloes,
the animals most commonly used in sacrificial worship ceremonies
in the earliest periods. This theory seems to have been confirmed by
the discovery in 1959 at Shilou Huazhuang 石樓花莊 in Shanxi 山西
province of a bronze buffalo-horn-shaped gong 觥 with its narrower
front section ending in the head of a horned dragon.

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Gong, early Western Zhou dynasty (circa 11 century B.C.)
Height: 27.5 cm, length: 27 cm – Meiyintang Collection n° 185.
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