WARRING STATES PERIOD, 4TH-3RD CENTURY BC

AN IMPORTANT WARRING STATES BRONZE NARRATIVE FANGHU

By Robert D. Mowry
Alan J. Dworsky Curator of Chinese Art Emeritus,
Harvard Art Museums, and
Senior Consultant, Christie’s

Embellished with narrative scenes and with ring handles on opposing sides, this bronze fanghu, or square wine jar, dates to the Warring States period (475–256 BC), probably to the fourth to third century BC. This elegantly shaped jar and its virtually identical mate, now in the Museum Reitberg, Zurich (museum no. RCH 9A),1 are two wine jars from a small, cohesive group of five closely related fanghu vessels; they epitomize the Warring States period’s taste for luxury items, and they demonstrate its exploration of new decorative techniques; moreover, these jars’ narrative scenes convey a wealth of information about life during the Warring States period, just as they give insight into the painting style of the period, an exceptionally valuable contribution as virtually no contemporaneous paintings survive.

A jar for storing and possibly presenting wine, the hu was among the earliest bronze ritual vessels produced in the Shang dynasty (c. 1600 BC–c. 1046 BC), at which time the pear-shaped vessel typically claimed a footring, often sported surface embellishment (usually a taotie mask), and sometimes boasted a cover. Although some wine-vessel types disappeared following the fall of the Shang and the establishment of the Zhou in c. 1046 BC, the hu not only persisted through the Zhou and into the Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 220) but remained among the most popular vessel types, even as it saw a continuing evolution of its shape. Although hu jars of standard shape—i.e., with circular, bulbous body and cylindrical neck—continued to be produced during the Western Zhou period (c. 1046 BC–771 BC), that era also witnessed the growth in popularity of the fanghu, or square hu, which would become ever more prominent in the Warring States and Han periods. Fanghu vessels from the Western Zhou and Spring and Autumn periods (771–476 BC) typically have rounded corners, while, in a new innovation, those from the Warring States period have crisp, square corners, the sides meeting at ninety-degree angles.

Bronze ritual vessels from the Shang dynasty were intended for use in ceremonies honoring the spirits of deceased ancestors. By the Western Zhou period, bronzes often were cast for commemorative as well as sacral purposes, their longer inscriptions recording victory in battle, for example, or the bestowal of land or other benefaction by the emperor. As vessels came to serve everyday functions in royal and aristocratic households during the Warring States period, sumptuous surface decoration became more pronounced, often with inlays of gold, silver, copper, turquoise, and malachite, or, in the case of this fanghu, inlays of a glass-frit-based paste in the design’s sunken background areas to showcase the raised, flat-surfaced, pictorial motifs. The embellishment of bronzes with inlays of precious metals found its tentative beginnings in the mid-sixth century BC and then occurred with increasing frequency through the Warring States period. Although a few Shang-dynasty bronzes were inlayed with a black, carbonaceous material in the narrow, intaglio lines of the cast decorative elements, presumably to contrast with and thus accentuate the principal decorative motifs, this practice it not believed to anticipate the inlaid bronzes of the Warring States period.

Whereas most Warring States-period bronzes with inlaid decoration were cast with intaglio decorative elements—whether humans, animals, or abstract designs—the sunken design elements to be inset with metal or stone, this fanghu and its congeners were cast with the design elements in flat relief and the background in intaglio, demonstrating yet another remarkable, very innovative experiment on the part of the period’s bronze foundrymen. Scientific analysis of the material set into the sunken background areas has determined it to be paste consisting of a mixture of at least five different minerals, including quartz, in addition to a binder, suggesting that it was a type of glass-frit paste. The minerals were probably ground down from stones. Once it had dried and hardened, the paste in the sunken background areas was polished, as microscopic examination also showed that the minerals at the surface have near-perfect, flat, horizontal surfaces. It remains unknown whether or not the cast bronze was fired in a kiln to mature the paste, but scientific opinion holds that it likely was not fired, relying instead on the unidentified binder to hold the paste together and to bond it to the vessel surface. That the matured paste could withstand the rigors of polishing suggests that it must originally have had the hardness of cement, even though the remaining elements are now soft and fragile. Although its original color cannot be determined, the now-tan paste must have contrasted pleasingly with the color of the raised bronze design elements (now oxidized red and green).

This rare fanghu reveals the Warring States period to have been one of exceptional creativity, not only in introducing new techniques of decoration but also in creating new types and styles of decoration. Whereas vessels from earlier periods featured taotie masks and other stylized animals or abstract motifs without a particular location or identifiable setting, this fanghu and its congeners feature pictorial décor with human figures in architectural and other settings. And, not only is it pictorial, the decoration is narrative and thus tells stories, even if the theme of any particular story remains unclear. Moreover, as the depictions are based on contemporaneous paintings—of which virtually none survive—such pictorial vessels convey insight into the rapidly developing painting styles of the day.

Each side of this vessel is fully decorated with complex pictorial scenes arranged in horizontal registers, or friezes, the bronze decorative motifs raised in flat-surfaced relief and silhouetted against a sunken background bearing extensive remains of an inlaid paste, most likely a glass-frit-based paste. Two distinct pictorial programs occur on contiguous sides of the vessel; the front and back sides thus have different designs, and the designs on the sides with handles differ from each other.

As noted by the authors of the catalogue entry published in the inaugural issue of the Kaikodo Journal (no. 1, Spring 1996), this vessel’s two decorative programs can be characterized as:

Program 1 (on two contiguous sides, reading from top to bottom)

- a three-story architectural structure (in open-faced, elevation view), the sun and moon above at left and right, the interior with human figures and with various vessels for food and beverages, the figures on the first floor filling cups with a beverage ladled from hu vessels set on stands, the figures on the second floor raising cups in salutation

- a concert with musicians playing sets of shiqing stone chimes and of bianzhong bells mounted on stands supported by large chimera, and a drummer striking a large jiangu drum (i.e., a drum mounted on a vertical pole)

- a row of eight female dancers wearing long robes and holding fuchen whisks and assorted other objects

- a hunting scene with archers wielding bows, arrows, and spears, some riding in four-horse chariots with streaming banners, some on foot, and all pursuing birds, deer, hares, boars, and tigers

- a palace hall (in open-faced, elevation view) with a bird perched on each of the roof’s end-slopes, with guards standing at attention outside, and with two male figures inside ceremoniously exchanging (or holding between them) a circular disc, with a row of four bridled horses and their grooms immediately below, and, beneath that, with a row of four restrained tigers being bled into cauldrons

- and, at the very bottom, a one-story architectural structure (in open-faced, elevation view), possibly a kitchen, with large cauldrons and workers pounding the contents of the cauldrons with poles

Program 2 (on two contiguous sides, reading from top to bottom)

- a rank of tall warriors holding spears and ge halberds

- a fierce battle with figures fighting in hand-to-hand combat with spears, ge halberds, and shields and with one central figure being beheaded

- the battle continues with an episode enacted by two figures in the center, perhaps a surrender, guarded by warriors, their shields at rest on the right and left

- three four-horse-drawn chariots with charioteers and streaming banners, their armed escorts on foot, all in battle with the opponent

- a two-story boat with warriors on the upper deck and oarsmen on the lower deck, with one figure on the upper deck pounding a jiangu drum to embolden the warriors and spur them on while keeping the oarsmen at pace

- a mulberry orchard with numerous workers in long robes, perhaps women, engaged in picking and gathering mulberry leaves (to feed silkworms)

- a one-story architectural structure (in open-faced, elevation view) with figures and vessels inside, and with figures in long robes, perhaps women, working outside, said to be at looms weaving silk

Though the exact subjects of the stories remain unknown, the scenes clearly distinguish the various activities in which the individuals are engaged—fighting in battle, dancing, preparing food and drink, raising cups in salutation, and more—just as they differentiate the individuals themselves through varied stances and modes of dress. In addition, the scenes present the figures in settings, whether in chariots, on a battlefield, on a boat, in a mulberry grove, or in buildings of post-and-lintel construction (and with differing numbers of stories). The scenes also offer a wealth of pictorial details, from spears and ge halberds to chariots and boats, from tigers, hares, deer, and birds to vessels for storing, preparing, and serving food and beverage; they also offer glimpses of such ancient, if now forgotten, practices as bleeding tigers.2 Moreover, with birds in flight, animals fleeing the hunters, oarsmen rowing the boat, horses pulling chariots, women dancing, and musicians beating drums and striking bells, the scenes project a sense of movement unseen in the decoration on bronzes of earlier periods.

As Gisèle Croës has noted,3 the scene set in a palace hall that shows two male figures holding or exchanging a circular object perhaps represents the famous historical anecdote of “Returning the Jade Bi to Zhao”, which dates to the Warring States period. If so, the circular object that the two male figures hold or exchange would be the Heshibi, or Mr. He’s bi disc, a famous jade disc named after one Bian He, who, tradition asserts, found a small boulder of fine white jade in the eighth century BC and shaped it into a perfect bi disc. By the Warring States period, the celebrated Heshibi had become an object of contention amongst the various kingdoms of the day. Stolen from the Chu state in the fourth century BC, it fell into the possession of the king of Zhao. Coveting the disc and desirous of owing it, the king of Qin offered the king of Zhao fifteen of his cities in exchange for the bi disc. Fearful of offending the powerful Qin king, King Huiwen of Zhao (310–266 BC; r. 298–266 BC) sent his clever Minister Lin Xiangru to Qin with the jade but pleaded with him to find a way to bring it safely back to Zhao, if, on speaking with him, he found the notoriously untrustworthy king of Qin unlikely to keep his promise of fifteen cities in exchange for the bi. Sensing treachery, the honorable but wily Minister Lin convinced the King of Qin that a tiny flaw in the jade made the bi disc unsuitable for so powerful a ruler as he. Under that guise, Minister Lin successfully returned the jade disc to King Huiwen of Zhao.4

The present fanghu and its virtually identical mate now in the Museum Rietberg Museum, Zurich, are members of a small, cohesive group of five known pictorial fanghu vessels of similar form, with closely related narrative scenes, and with remains of glass-frit paste in their sunken background areas. (Fig. 1) One of those related vessels was exhibited and published by J.J. Lally & Co., New York, in 2006,5 and the two others were exhibited and published by Gisèle Croës, one in 20026 and the other in 2006.7

Though without paste in their sunken background areas, two fanghu vessels of slightly different form feature narrative scenes akin to those on this small group represented by the present vessel: a fanghu in the National Palace Museum, Taipei,8 (Fig. 2) and a covered fanghu on a tall pedestal stand in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (B60 B773.a-.b).9

This superb fanghu vessel stands as a remarkable testament to the artistic and technical creativity of the foundrymen of the Warring States period. Moreover, its successful translation of paintings of the day into bronze decoration not only conveys a wealth of information about life in the Warring States period but gives insight into the challenges painters of the period were addressing. With a record of publication and with scientific analyses that document its authenticity and demonstrate its great age, this rare fanghu rightfully takes its place among the important and very innovative bronzes of the Warring States period.


1 For an image of the Rietberg fanghu, see: https://rietberg.ch/en/collection/online-collection
2 For information on the bleeding of animals in ancient China, see: Liu Dunyuan, “Xuzhou Han huaxiangshi ‘ji ma’ tu” [‘Horse Beating’ in the Han Engraved Pictorial Stones from Xuzhou], Wenwu Tiandi, vol. 4, 1992, pp. 10-11.
3 Gisèle Croës, ed., Treasures of Ancient China / Splendor of Yongle Painting, Portraits of Nine Luohan, Brussels March 6–8, 2002 – New York March 18–30, 2002 (Brussels: Gisèle Croës), 2002, p. 34.
4 The story of “Returning the Jade Bi to Zhao” is recounted in chapter 81 of Shiji, often translated as Records of the Grand Historian of China, which was written by Sima Qian (c. 145 or 135–c. 86 BC). See: William H. Nienhauser Jr., ed., Ssu-ma Ch’ien: The Grand Scribe’s Records, vol. VII The Memoirs of Pre-Han China (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press), 1994, pp. 263-273.
5 See: J.J. Lally & Co., ed., Arts of Ancient China, March 27 – April 12, 2006 (New York: J.J. Lally & Co.), 2006, no. 11.
6 See: Gisèle Croës, ed., Treasures of Ancient China / Splendor of Yongle Painting, Portraits of Nine Luohan, Brussels March 6–8, 2002 – New York March 18–30, 2002 (Brussels: Gisèle Croës), 2002, pp. 30-37.
7 See: Gisèle Croës, ed., Inspired Metalwork Part II – Precious Metal Objects in Early Chinese Art, Brussels March 8–11, 2006 – New York March 28–April 6, 2002 (Brussels: Gisèle Croës), 2006, pp. 36-45.
8 National Palace Museum, ed., Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Shang and Chou Dynasty Bronze Wine Vessels (Taipei: National Palace Museum), 1989, pp. 216-217, pl. 77.
9 See: Charles D. Weber, Chinese Pictorial Bronze Vessels of the Late Chou Period (Ascona, Switzerland: Artibus Asiae Publishers), 1968, fig. 45:d (line drawing of the vessel in the Asian Art Museum).