EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 11TH-10TH CENTURY BC

A bronze you vessel dated to the early Western Zhou period, bearing a nearly identical inscription is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (accession no. 14.84), (https://collections.mfa.org/objects/28243/ritual-wine-vessel-you?ctx=b1808bbe-c861-46e6-898c-dc644aaf70f7&idx=0). (Fig. 1) The rubbing of the inscription is illustrated by N. Barnard and Cheung Kwong-yue in Rubbings and Hand Copies of Bronze Inscriptions in Chinese, Japanese, European, American and Australasian Collections, Taipei, 1978, vol. 6, no. 622. Both the present zun and the Boston you are decorated on the body with very similar bands of stylized kui dragons outlined in thread relief.

An early Western Zhou zun of similar size and proportions to the current vessel, and similarly decorated on the body with two narrow bands of reticulated kui dragons outlined in thread relief, from Beijing Fangshan Liulihe, is illustrated by Jessica Rawson in Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, Washington, DC and Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1990, p. 464, fig. 60.8. On p. 465, Rawson notes, that in addition to the Bei Bo you in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the unusual style of decoration can also be seen on the Er zun in the Palace Museum, Beijing.