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Lot Essay
The present li bears a 39-character inscription cast in seven vertical columns along the rim and extending to the interior. It reads '唯六月初吉，師湯父有司，仲枏父作寶鬲，用敢饗孝于皇祖考用祈眉壽其萬年，子子孫孫其永寶用', which may be translated as: 'On the first auspicious day of the sixth month, the respected official Shi Tangfu oversaw the work; Zhong Nanfu commissioned this precious li vessel to make offerings in filial honor to the ancestors and to his grand great ancestor, and to pray for long life. [May it] endure for ten thousand years; [may his] descendants treasure and use it forever.' The sequence of subjects and offices is explicit: the authoritative official Shi Tangfu supervised Zhong Nanfu, the named maker and commissioner of the li, the ritual vessel, which was cast for use in ancestral sacrifice and petitions for longevity. The closing formulae—'may it endure for ten thousand years' and 'may sons and grandsons treasure and use it'—are conventional Western Zhou wishes of perpetuity that project the efficacy of the offering across generations.
The name Shi Tangfu identifies an official whose title, shi, is among the most common and consequential offices cited in Western Zhou inscriptions. The shi could serve as a senior military commander close to the king that could accompany and transmit royal orders on royal progresses, perform roles in courtly investiture and ritual, function in judicial and personnel capacities as well as oversee household, banner, and even educational functions. Current scholars have observed that epigraphic occurrences of 'Shi X' are often recorded in Shang and Western Zhou bronzes but diminished sharply in the Eastern Zhou. The name Shi Tangfu also appears in the inscription of a Shi Tangfu ding currently in the Palace Museum, Taipei. (Fig. 1) The inscription on the Taipei ding opens with a court setting—'The king was at the New Palace of the Zhou dynasty, at Shelu; the king called the steward to prepare the bow… Shi Tangfu bowed, knocking his head to the ground, and made a sacrificial vessel for the cultured father Mao Shu.' His name appears again on a ding excavated in 1991 from Tomb 1 at Qijia Village, Famen Town, Fufeng County, Shaanxi, the inscription on which reads, 'Shi Tang[fu] made a ding for travels; may sons and grandsons treasure and use it for ten thousand years.' Whether these references denote the same individual or a succession of office-holders bearing an identical name continues to be a scholarly investigation.
The administrative noun yousi, interpreted here as 'functionary' or 'subordinate,' is a collective designation for subordinate officials charged with 'holding' or 'managing' an affair. In documented ritual texts and their later commentaries, si is defined as 'to preside over,' 'to be responsible for,' or 'to coordinate.' In bronze inscriptions the term frequently marks the presence of the bureaucratic link between an office and an act: the yousi of a senior officer certifies, witnesses, or supervises a commission, gift, or ritual performance. In this inscription, the yousi serves as the formal bridge between the authority of Shi Tangfu and the practical agency of the donor-maker, Zhong Nanfu.
Zhong Nanfu, who commissioned the current li vessel, is known from a small but coherent group of vessels found in the Shan’xi region. At least nine li, two gui, and one bi (knife) connected with the name Zhong Nanfu are recorded, with examples in the Xi’an Municipal Cultural Relics Management Committee, the Wugong County Cultural Center, the Shaanxi History Museum, and the Shanghai Museum. (Fig. 2) A Zhong Nanfu yan is recorded in Nothern Song-period Kaogu Tu (Illustrated Antiques) and is described as 'Zhong Xinfu square travel yan,' and is reported as bring from Haochou near Qianzhou.
Typologically and stylistically, the present li conforms to mid–Western Zhou period. The shape of the body and legs as well as the decorations align with examples dated to the mid-Western Zhou period. This stylistic placement is also supported by the historical vocabulary embedded in related inscriptions. The Qijia Village Shi Tangfu ding, on typological grounds also mid-Western Zhou, contains the phrases 'the king was at the New Palace of Zhou' and 'at Shelu' which also appear in the inscription of the Que Cao ding in the Shanghai Museum—'On the fifth month of the fifteenth year…King Gong at the New Palace of Zhou dynasty; at dawn, the king shot at Shelu.' That both bronzes cite the Zhou New Palace at Shelu has led scholars to agree that the Shi Tangfu bronzes can be dated to the reign of King Gong.
Read as a whole, the inscription interlocks an administrative chain of oversight with an explicit familial purpose. Zhong Nanfu, as the yousi of Shi Tangfu, enacts the commission; the li’s purpose is for filial offerings to the ancestors and the late father, and to pray for long life. The combination of bureaucratic vocabulary, lineage piety, and formal style makes this li a particularly clear document of how royal administration and ancestral practice were braided together in the mid-Western Zhou era.
The name Shi Tangfu identifies an official whose title, shi, is among the most common and consequential offices cited in Western Zhou inscriptions. The shi could serve as a senior military commander close to the king that could accompany and transmit royal orders on royal progresses, perform roles in courtly investiture and ritual, function in judicial and personnel capacities as well as oversee household, banner, and even educational functions. Current scholars have observed that epigraphic occurrences of 'Shi X' are often recorded in Shang and Western Zhou bronzes but diminished sharply in the Eastern Zhou. The name Shi Tangfu also appears in the inscription of a Shi Tangfu ding currently in the Palace Museum, Taipei. (Fig. 1) The inscription on the Taipei ding opens with a court setting—'The king was at the New Palace of the Zhou dynasty, at Shelu; the king called the steward to prepare the bow… Shi Tangfu bowed, knocking his head to the ground, and made a sacrificial vessel for the cultured father Mao Shu.' His name appears again on a ding excavated in 1991 from Tomb 1 at Qijia Village, Famen Town, Fufeng County, Shaanxi, the inscription on which reads, 'Shi Tang[fu] made a ding for travels; may sons and grandsons treasure and use it for ten thousand years.' Whether these references denote the same individual or a succession of office-holders bearing an identical name continues to be a scholarly investigation.
The administrative noun yousi, interpreted here as 'functionary' or 'subordinate,' is a collective designation for subordinate officials charged with 'holding' or 'managing' an affair. In documented ritual texts and their later commentaries, si is defined as 'to preside over,' 'to be responsible for,' or 'to coordinate.' In bronze inscriptions the term frequently marks the presence of the bureaucratic link between an office and an act: the yousi of a senior officer certifies, witnesses, or supervises a commission, gift, or ritual performance. In this inscription, the yousi serves as the formal bridge between the authority of Shi Tangfu and the practical agency of the donor-maker, Zhong Nanfu.
Zhong Nanfu, who commissioned the current li vessel, is known from a small but coherent group of vessels found in the Shan’xi region. At least nine li, two gui, and one bi (knife) connected with the name Zhong Nanfu are recorded, with examples in the Xi’an Municipal Cultural Relics Management Committee, the Wugong County Cultural Center, the Shaanxi History Museum, and the Shanghai Museum. (Fig. 2) A Zhong Nanfu yan is recorded in Nothern Song-period Kaogu Tu (Illustrated Antiques) and is described as 'Zhong Xinfu square travel yan,' and is reported as bring from Haochou near Qianzhou.
Typologically and stylistically, the present li conforms to mid–Western Zhou period. The shape of the body and legs as well as the decorations align with examples dated to the mid-Western Zhou period. This stylistic placement is also supported by the historical vocabulary embedded in related inscriptions. The Qijia Village Shi Tangfu ding, on typological grounds also mid-Western Zhou, contains the phrases 'the king was at the New Palace of Zhou' and 'at Shelu' which also appear in the inscription of the Que Cao ding in the Shanghai Museum—'On the fifth month of the fifteenth year…King Gong at the New Palace of Zhou dynasty; at dawn, the king shot at Shelu.' That both bronzes cite the Zhou New Palace at Shelu has led scholars to agree that the Shi Tangfu bronzes can be dated to the reign of King Gong.
Read as a whole, the inscription interlocks an administrative chain of oversight with an explicit familial purpose. Zhong Nanfu, as the yousi of Shi Tangfu, enacts the commission; the li’s purpose is for filial offerings to the ancestors and the late father, and to pray for long life. The combination of bureaucratic vocabulary, lineage piety, and formal style makes this li a particularly clear document of how royal administration and ancestral practice were braided together in the mid-Western Zhou era.