"敔" Gui

"敔" Gui, bronze ware, late Western Zhou Dynasty, 25.8 cm in height and 22.7 cm in diameter, unearthed in M95 of Ying State Cemetery in Pingdingshan in 1990.

In 1979, a batch of bronze ware of Ying State and Deng State were found in the brick and tile factory of Beifu Village, Fuyang Town, Pingdingshan, Henan Province, and the Ying State Cemetery was discovered. Since the 1980s, the Provincial Cultural Relics Team and the Pingdingshan Cultural Relics Bureau have excavated more than 300 Ying State tombs on Fuyang Ridge in Beifu Village. "敔" Gui was unearthed in M95 of Ying State Cemetery, with a total of 4 pieces, of similar size, shape and decoration.

"敔" Gui is divided into two parts: the lid and the body. The lid is dome-shaped, with a round handle on the top and a small mouth on the edge of the lid; the body of the vessel has a slightly outward-turned mouth, a bulging belly that droops, and a nearly flat bottom. The ring foot is outward-turned and has a downward folded edge, and there are three feet attached to the ring foot. The belly of the vessel has two symmetrical animal-head-shaped ears, with hook-shaped pendants under the ears. The lid and the belly of the vessel are each decorated with a circle of embossed wave patterns; the lid near the mouth, the bottom of the mouth of the vessel, and the ring foot are each decorated with a circle of convex string patterns; the two animal-head-shaped ears are embossed, with wide horns standing on the head, protruding round eyes, a tall and long nose, and sharp teeth. The curved semi-circular animal body and pendants are simply outlined with negative lines; the three feet are also made in animal shapes, protruding outside the ring foot; the inner decoration of the ring foot on the outer bottom of the vessel is a diagonal square grid pattern outlined with positive lines. The bottom of the vessel and the lid have the same inscription of 27 characters: "Only in the first month of August, Ding Chou Gong Zha Zun, the use of Yi Mei Shou Yong Ming Zi Zi Sun Sun Yong Bao Yong Xiang". (Figure 1)

Figure 1 Inscription on the lid of the “敔” Gui

The decorations on the lid and body of the “敔” Gui are outlined with thick relief lines, and the patterns are carved with thin negative lines on the thick lines by bending and hooking. The wave patterns on the lid and body are both similar and different. The decoration between the two peaks of the wave curve of the lid is the same as the decoration on the belly of the vessel; the decoration between the two troughs of the lid is obviously different from the decoration between the peaks of the lid and the belly of the vessel, that is, the decoration between the troughs of the lid has an additional vertical strip decoration. Although only a simple vertical strip is added between the troughs, it shows the superb decoration design level and control ability of the maker of the 敔 Gui. The lid is dome-shaped. When arranging the decorations, if the same decoration is applied between the peaks and the troughs, it will inevitably lead to compact decoration between the peaks and sparse decoration between the troughs. In order to evenly distribute the gaps between the thick lines of the wave pattern, adding a vertical strip of appropriate width between the sparse wave valleys can not only solve the symmetry of the pattern layout, but also avoid the monotony of the pattern of the object, thereby increasing the beauty of the object.

The "敔" gui is divided into two parts, the lid and the body, indicating that the two were cast by different molds. There is an obvious gap at the intersection of the belly of the gui body and the two animal head ears (Figure 2), and the inside of the gui belly is smooth and flat at this position, and the external pattern is coherent and smooth without mold marks. Therefore, it is inferred that the body of the 敔 gui was not cast in one time, but was cast in multiple steps. First, the molds of the double animal head ears and the earless gui body were made separately, and then the earless gui body was cast first. After the earless gui body cooled and formed, the animal head ear mold that had been made was installed and fixed at the ear position, and the copper liquid was cast again to form the double ears. The ears and the gui belly are fixed by the mortise and tenon joints left in advance. Because the inner wall of the gui body is smooth and flat, it can be inferred that when casting the gui body, tenons were left at the ears corresponding to the belly of the gui, and mortise holes were left on the ears in the shape of animal heads. When casting the ears in the shape of animal heads, the molten copper flowed into the mortise holes and buckled with the tenons of the gui body, thus playing a fixing role. There are obvious traces of the casting mouth on the bottom of the three feet of the gui (Figure 2), indicating that the gui body was placed with the mouth of the vessel at the bottom and the three feet at the top when it was cast.

Figure 2 Schematic diagram of the seams of the ears, body, casting mouth and mesh

The lid and body of the "敔" gui have a pair of inscriptions of 27 characters: Only in the first month of the eighth month, the Duke of Dingchou, the Duke of Zha ... The inscription on the October Yu Gui during the reign of King Li also mentions "Yu", and also records that "Yu" was rewarded for his military exploits in pursuing the southern Huaiyi enemies who invaded Chengzhou. Since the production style of the "Yu" Gui is the same or similar to that of some bronze artifacts of this period, it is speculated that the "Yu" Gui is also a cultural relic from the reign of King Li or close to it. Therefore, the "Yu" recorded in the inscription on the "Yu" Gui and the "Yu" recorded in the October Yu Gui are most likely the same person, who was rewarded for pursuing the southern invaders ordered by the King of Zhou and later became the monarch of Ying State. The "gong" in the inscription on the "Yu" Gui may be the Ying Hou of his ancestor or father.

In short, the "敔" Gui has a thick and stable shape, rough and powerful patterns, very important inscriptions, and clear casting logic. It is a rare and excellent work in the late Western Zhou Dynasty and has important historical, artistic and scientific value.