LATE EASTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 3RD CENTURY BC

Until relatively recently, the precise function of tuning keys remained enigmatic and they were variously described as figurines, seals or key holders. Our understanding of ancient Chinese music was greatly enhanced by the excavation of the 5th century tomb of the Marquis of Zeng in 1977-78, when a horde of musical instruments was unearthed, including a ten-string zither with tuning pegs requiring the use of a tuning key. See J. So, 'Different Tunes, Different Strings: Court and Chamber Music in Ancient China', Orientations, May 2000, pp. 26-34. The author notes that the first factual indication of the use of these objects was the excavation of tuning keys together with matching tuning pegs from a Han dynasty tomb in 1983.

A variety of tuning keys are illustrated by B. Lawergren in his essay 'Strings' included in the catalogue, Music in the Age of Confucius, J. So (ed.), Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 2000, pp. 65-85. All of the tuning keys illustrated by Lawergren, p. 78, have various zoomorphic forms adorning their ends. The subject of two sexually involved monkeys on the present tuning key is an unusual subject. However, as E. Bunker notes in Ancient Bronzes of the Eastern Eurasian Steppes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, New York, 1997, p. 166, copulating wild animals often appear on the artifacts of peoples from northern China and Inner Mongolia, areas where hunting still dominated the local economies.