Page 44 - Ancient Chinese Bronzes, 2011, J.J. Lally, New York

19. A G i l t B r o n z e R a m - F o r m We i g h t
Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C.–A.D. 8)

the recumbent animal well modelled in a quiet pose with head turned to the left and slightly raised,
with three legs held in close to the body and one hind leg modelled in the round, the muscular body
smoothly contoured and the small, stylized tail curled down at the rump, the large horns powerfully
curved and deeply ribbed, the richly gilded surface showing natural wear exposing the bronze
beneath, with some light green encrustation and warm reddish-brown patination, the interior filled
with lead amalgam.

3
Length 3 ⁄8 inches (8.6 cm)
In Han China people customarily sat on woven mats on the floor. Sculpted weights were placed at the corners of the floor
mat as a luxurious decoration and a display of rank. The image of a ram is symbolic of good fortune in China because the
pronunciation of the word for “ram” (yang) closely mimics the pronunciation of the word for “auspicious” (xiang); and the
ram has been a popular image in Chinese art since antiquity.
Compare the similarly modelled bronze ram-form weight excavated from a Western Han tomb in Hebei, illustrated in a line
drawing by Sun, “Han zhen yishu” (Notes on the Design and Manufacture of Weights in the Han Dynasty), Wenwu, 1983, No.
6, p. 70, fig. 7. Another similar bronze ram-form weight excavated from a Chu State tomb in Jiangling, Hubei is illustrated in
Kaogu, 1980, No. 5, pl. 5:1.
For a discussion of the forms of ancient Chinese weights and their function, see the catalogue of the Isabella Stewart
Gardner Museum exhibition by Wang, A Bronze Menagerie: Mat Weights of Early China, Boston, 2006.

西漢 鎏金銅羊鎮 長 8.6 厘米