Page 92 - Deydier UNDERSTANDING CHINESE ARCHAIC BRONZES

vessel. This masterpiece was excavated in 1938 at Ningxiang 寧
鄉, Yueshanpu 月山鋪 in Hunan province 湖南 (See illustration
below).

2. By the end of the Yinxu 殷墟 period, the wide-shouldered zun 尊
is replaced by the high, narrower, cylindrical zun 尊 with its wide
flaring top and base (See photo on page 90).

The high cylindrical vessel bulging at its centre and opening out
as it rises to end in a trumpet-like mouth, is similar to an enlarged
version of a gu 觚, but is of larger, stockier proportions. Like the
gu’s 觚, this type of zun’s 尊 foot is also flared.

3. A third type of zun 尊 take the form of an animal. Such animal-
shaped vessels grouped under the heading zun 尊 are known cast
in the form of elephants, buffaloes, rams, rhinoceroses, rabbits,
pigs, mythological hybrid animals, etc. or birds. Considered to
be southern in origin, such animal-shaped vessels appear in the
repertoire of Chinese bronzes as early as the beginning of the Shang
商 dynasty, during the Erligang 二里崗 period (circa 17 /16 – 14
th
th
th
centuries B.C.).
In general zun 尊 in the form of animals are spoken of as
niaoshouzun 鳥獸尊 (bird-animal zun 尊), xizun 犠尊 (ox zun 尊),
xiangzun 象尊 (elephant zun 尊), etc. in Chinese to differentiate
them from regular zun 尊.

Zun, late Shang dynasty or early Western Zhou dynasty (circa 11 century B.C.)
th
Height: 31.6 cm – Meiyintang Collection n° 62.
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