LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 13TH-11TH CENTURY BC

The clan signs cast inside the vessel and cover, each depicting a ding vessel with two prominent square handles and three legs, represent an important clan of the late Shang and early Western Zhou dynasties. The same clan sign can be found on a few other bronzes including a zun vessel and two you vessels in the famous Duan Fang altar set now in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, published by Chen Zhaorong ed., Baoji daijiawan yu shigushan chutu shangzhou qingtongqi (Bronzes Unearthed from the Daijiawan and Shigushan in Baoji City), Taipei, 2015, pp. 94-95, no. 4, pp. 122-129, nos. 15 and 16, respectively. (Figs. 1-3) Discovered in 1901 in Baoji city, Shaanxi province, the Duan Fang altar set comprises a bronze ritual altar table, jin and twelve bronze ritual wine vessels. According to scholars, ibid, p. 95, “eleven bronzes (from the Duan Fang altar set) are inscribed with six different clan signs and six different ancestor names to whom sacrifices were offered. The only grouping which shares identical inscriptions are the zun vessel and two you vessels, which were originally displayed on the altar.” Therefore, a member of the Ding clan was most likely to own the Duan Fang altar set, and the Ding clan was possibly native to the Zhou land of modern day Baoji city, Shaanxi province.

Fangyi appear to have been one of the most prized of ritual vessels, as they have been found in fewer and more sumptuous tombs than more common shapes such as gu, jue, and ding. In Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, p. 92, J. Rawson and E. Bunker, in their discussion of the fangyi, note that during the Shang dynasty rare vessels of this type were used in pairs, as seen in the tomb of Fu Hao, illustrated in Tomb of Lady Hao at Yinxu in Anyang, Beijing, 1980, pls. XVIII (2) and XIX (1 and 2.) They are thought to have been used to store wine, and the heavy malachite encrustation in the base of the interior of the Sze Yuan Tang fangyi, sold at Christie’s New York, 16 September 2010, lot 822, is most likely the remains of some kind of wine made from grain.

R. Bagley discusses the evolution of the fangyi form in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1987, pp. 428-44. The earliest fangyi, as represented by those in figs. 77.7-77.9, p. 433, have a distinctly defined foot with larger arched openings, the body does not have flanged corners, and the covers, seen in figs. 77.7 and 77.9, have a straight cant. What may be considered a slightly later group is represented by no. 77, pp. 428-435, which does not have a distinct demarcation between the foot and the body, but instead a straight tapering profile, and the covers have a slightly convex profile. The last group, represented by no. 79, pp. 440-44, and the Sze Yuan Tang fangyi, have a more robust, more sharply tapering shape, and prominent flanges, but seem to have reverted to the more distinctly defined foot and the straight canted cover of the earliest type.

As with the Sackler fangyi no. 77, the present fangyi can be dated to the period of Fu Hao’s tomb thereafter, circa 13th century BC. Another fangyi of similar form and decoration is illustrated ibid, fig. 77.10. Compare, also, a fangyi of this type cast with high-relief decoration, illustrated ibid, fig. 77.11. According to R. W. Bagley, ibid, p. 432, “the nearest relatives of no. 77 are with few exceptions decorated in Style V. I know of only a single Style IV vessel resembling no. 77 (fig. 77.10) but six or seven fangyi that represent its design in a very subdued high relief.” The present fangyi therefore counts as the third known Style IV example resembling the Sackler fangyi no. 77. It is also interesting to note that the present fangyi is the only one of its type to eliminate completely any hint of flange. The other examples all have notched corners which allude to flanges.