LATE WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 8TH CENTURY BC

The pan and yi were used in conjunction to form a set of vessels for the ritual washing of hands. Such vessels would have been included in the ritual vessel sets "required by an individual or family of a given period to perform the customary ritual food and wine offerings to the ancestors." See J. Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIA, Washington, DC and Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1990, p. 98. Such a set, of middle Western Zhou date, from Shaanxi Fufeng Qijiacun M19, is illustrated in a line drawing, ibid., p. 99, fig. 142d.

Not only is it very rare to find a set of these vessels still together, but also to find a set with this unusual simple decoration of horizontal grooves. For the more typical three-legged yi, see J. So, Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, New York, 1995, p. 340, no. 68, for an example dated to the early Spring and Autumn period, 8th century BC, which has a band of S-shaped dragons below the rim and a more prominant dragon-headed handle. Also illustrated, pp. 342-3, figs. 68.1 and 68.3, are two further three-legged yi, one in the Honolulu Academy of Arts and one in the Sen'oku Hakkokan, Kyoto, which feature bands of stylized dragon scroll below the rim.