SOUTHEAST CHINA, SPRING AND AUTUMN PERIOD (770-476 BC)

The unusual decoration and style of casting of this vessel are similar to those of a you of early Eastern Zhou date from Hunan Xiangtan illustrated by J. Rawson and E. Bunker, Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, p. 42, fig. 31, where the authors discuss the provincial bronze casting industry, and continuation of zun and you vessel shapes in southern China, after they had been eliminated at the capital near Xi'an in the mid-9th century. See, also, the similar zun excavated in 1971 at Gongcheng, Guangxi province, dated to the Spring and Autumn period and illustrated in Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji - 11 - Eastern Zhou (5), Beijing 1997, p. 109, no. 116.