WESTERN HAN DYNASTY (206 BC-AD 9)

A similarly decorated lacquer ritual spoon of closely related form but without a rock crystal insert was discovered at the Qin State cemetery in Shuihudi, Yunmeng, Hubei province, and is illustrated in Yunmeng Shuihudi Qin mu (Qin Tombs in Shuihudi, Yunmeng County), Beijing, 1981, pl. 17, no. 2 and in a line drawing on p. 33, pl. 34.

Archaeologists and scholars today refer to this form of long-handled spoon as a bi. According to the Eastern Han dynasty historian Zheng Xuan (AD 127-200) in his commentary on ancient rituals, the bi was used to handle and divide food during ceremonies.