Page 70 - Status & Ritual Chinese Archaic Bronzes

Two Shang Period Jue Ritual Wine Vessels
The prominent spout, whorl capped posts, fared tail and
long tripod legs make the jue one of the more striking
vessels of the Shang dynasty ritual bronze assembly.
These two Jue showcase the highest mastery of ancient
bronze casting technology, in a unique amalgamation of
aesthetic ornamentation and ritualistic function. Used by
Shang Kings in wine ceremonies linking them with the
ancestral spirits, the unique silhouette of the jue wholly
befts this original ritual use, and consequently became
a marker of status when interred as a burial good in the
graves of nobility.
As one of the oldest vessel forms, jue were used and
continually adapted over several centuries, enjoying a
relatively long period of popularity. In the earliest forms
of Chinese writing, the character for jue in oracle bone
inscriptions depict the long legs, spout and upright posts
of the two present jue, suggesting a distinct vessel form
and function from very early on (as discussed by E. Childs-
Johnson in The Jue and its Ceremonial Use in the Ancestor
Cult of China, Artibus Asiae, vol. 48, No. 3/4, 1987).
Smaller fat-bottomed pottery jue preceded the
development of bronze forms, emerging during the
Late Neolithic at sites such as Beiyinyangying, Jiangsu.
(Zhongguo Kexueyuan Kaogu yanjiusuo, Xin Zhongguo
Kaogu de Shouhuo, Beijing, 1962). The earliest primitive
bronze jue date from the pre-Shang Erlitou period, with
thin short legs, a dainty narrow spout and bulbous ‘waist’
to the body, with these design features continuing into
early Shang (see the Panlongcheng Shang Dynasty
Erligang period Bronzes in Hubei Provincial Museum,
Panlongcheng Shangdai Erligang qingtongqi, Wenwu
1976.2; pp.26-43, picture no. 5). Over time, certain
features became more pronounced, with longer legs and
taller rim posts, perhaps to better fulfl its role during
libation rituals. The exact way in which jue were used,
leading to such a distinctive silhouette has been a point of
continued scholarly discussion.
A corpus of over twenty diferent types of wine vessel in
use during the Shang period attests to the importance of
these libation ceremonies conducted by the rulers. Ritual
preparation and drinking of wine would link the kings to
the spirits of their ancestors, and symbolise both their
power and legitimacy to rule with the mandate of Heaven.
The traditional ascription of the jue as a libation cup is
somewhat problematic, with scholars early on recognising
the curious rim posts and long spout would do more
to impede drinking that to aid it. The eminent Li Ji, one
of the ‘fore-fathers’ of Chinese archaeology, based his
research on excavated jue from the Shang ruins at Yinxu,
concluding the jue was designed for pouring wine, perhaps
from a large storage jar in to a smaller vessel for drinking, Oxford; accession no. EA1956.840).
and was used in tandem with gu fared vessels, as seen
in lot 8, (Li Ji, Studies of the Bronze Jue Cup, Nangang,
Taiwan, Archaeologia Sinica, 1966, n.s 2). However, the
long legs and peculiar capped posts at the rim hint at a
yet more specifc use. Current scholarly opinion suggests
that the splayed legs of the jue allow for stable positioning an intricacy of craftsmanship evincing the importance
over hot coals in order to heat the wine during libation
rituals. The two upright posts at the rim may have been
used in tandem with the long tail when tipping the hot
vessel for pouring wine using “their overhanging caps,
which could be caught and pulled up by leather thongs”,
(Childs-Johnson, ibid, p.174). These distinct features of
sophisticated jue form are refected in the present lots 18
and 19.
These two jue represent typical late-Shang form, with
deep U-shaped spouts, long tails and round-bottomed
bodies. With the progression of time, the vertical posts
became taller, placed further back from the spout along
the rim. Whilst similar in form, the ornamentation of lots 18
and 19 are quite distinct, illustrating the frequent variations
of decorative motif accompanying the fourish of ritual jue
manufacture in late Shang.
Lot 18 is cast with two registers of stylised taotie mask
designs on the upper body, extending along the underside
of the spout. The upper taotie masks have protruding
eyebrows between curled horns, whilst the lower masks
boast wider set eyes, with pupils in relief. The taotie scrolls
are loose and fowing, unlike the tight leiwen cast on the
body of the second jue, lot 19, and echo the earlier less
refned style of early Shang ornamentation. The border
of small circles below the main register, is a common
decorative feature on the earliest decorated bronzes,
such as a 15th century BC bronze zun in the Sackler
Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C
. (illustrated in R. Bagley, Anyang Mold Making and the
Decorated Model, Artibus Asiae, Vol.69, No.1, 2009, pp.42,
79). Despite these early decorative elements, the three
characters cast beneath the handle give clues to the later
date of this jue. Of the three characters Shi Fu Gui, literally
‘Scribe Father Gui’ the latter is rendered in its late form
with small perpendicular dashes across the ‘X’ shaped
graph; a form which according to Bagley appears only
after the penultimate Anyang reign period.
In contrast, lot 19 exhibits intricately cast decorative motifs
epitomising the classic late-Shang jue. A single register
of taotie comprises pupils set in high relief, against fne
scrolls of thundercloud motif leiwen, framed by low-
scored vertical fanges, absent from the earlier style, lot
18. The triangular blades extending from the main register
up towards the rim depict stylised cicadas, a popular
motif among archaic ritual bronzes, which may have had
ritualistic symbolism. A number of comparable jue such
as those in the British Museum and Shanghai Museum
collections attest to the popularity of this distinct style
of decoration (see Shanghai Bowuguan cang Qingtongqi,
fuce, Shanghai 1964, p.15, no. 17); as well as other vessel
forms also with the same popular decorative motifs of
taotie, cicada design, leiwen, see lot 8, (see also a ritual
wine vessel jiao on display at the Ashmolean Museum,
Together, these two jue represent the pinnacle of bronze
jue craftsmanship of the Late-Shang, in both the quirky
throwback to earlier decorative style (lot 18), as well as an
exquisite example of a classic Shang jue (lot 19); both with
behind the ritualistic ceremonies linking Shang rulers with
the ancestral spirits.