Food Zun

"Shi" Zun, bronze, early Western Zhou cultural relic, 28.3 cm in height and 21.8 cm in diameter, unearthed in Daling Village, Jiyuan City, Henan Province in 1983.

In 1983, Lu Tongjing, a villager from Xiaye Village, Jiyuan City, found the Zun while repairing the road in Daling Village, and later sent it to the Jiyuan County Cultural Relics Management Office. In 1997, as the new building of Henan Museum was about to open to the public, it was necessary to expand the exhibits, so the "Shi" Zun was transferred from the original collection unit to Henan Museum.

"Shi" Zun, wide mouth, arc neck, slightly bulging belly, round bottom, high ring foot outward, with vertical folded edge at the bottom. From the outside, the body can be divided into three parts: mouth neck, belly and ring foot. There are obvious folded edges at the connection between the neck and belly and the belly and foot; from the inside, it is an arc-shaped continuous structure that expands upward and contracts downward, without folded edges (Figure 1).

Figure 1 Inside the "Shi" Zun

The body decoration can be divided into three parts: the mouth and neck, the abdomen and the ring foot. All of them adopt the three-layer flower craft: the lower layer is the cloud and thunder ground pattern; the middle layer uses thick lines to outline the theme frame decoration; the upper layer uses intaglio lines to carve the details of the theme decoration. The mouth and neck decoration is composed of four groups of banana leaf patterns distributed at equal distances. The banana leaf pattern is composed of two triangles with two dragons facing each other in the upper part and an inverted animal face in the lower part. The animal face is composed of eyes, ears, horns, nose, mouth and teeth; the abdomen decoration is composed of four protruding lines. The door ridges of the foot divide the decoration into two groups and four parts (Figure 2), each group is a complete animal face pattern, which is composed of eyes, eyebrows, ears, nose, mouth, teeth, body, feet and other parts; the ring foot decoration is also divided into two groups and four parts by four door ridges corresponding to the door ridges of the abdomen (Figure 3), each part is a complete dragon pattern, and the two parts of dragon patterns corresponding to each group of animal faces on the abdomen form a group of dragon pattern belts. There is an inscription on the inner wall of the ring foot: Food. (Figure 4)

Figure 2 Two groups of animal faces on the left and right sides of the abdomen

Figure 3 Two groups of dragon patterns on the left and right sides of the ring foot

Figure 4 Inscription on the “Shi” Zun

The “Shi” Zun uses a three-layer flower technique to apply patterns on the body of the vessel, with clear layers and staggered arrangements. First, from its appearance, there is a narrow concave belt on the upper and lower parts of the abdomen, which divides the vessel's decoration into three parts: the mouth and neck, the abdomen, and the ring foot, and decorates different patterns according to the specific characteristics of each part. The concave belt not only divides the decoration into sections, thus avoiding the problem of the center not being prominent due to excessive length, but also makes the three sections of decoration stand out from the surface of the vessel, increasing the sense of heaviness of the vessel. In addition, although it is also a concave belt, the concave belt at the junction of the abdomen and the ring foot is decorated with a circle of narrow convex string patterns to avoid duplication. Second, the vessel has added four corresponding door edges on the abdomen and the ring foot, and on the outside The width of the abdomen and foot is increased, so that the overall center of gravity of the vessel is moved downward, avoiding the top-heavy situation caused by the excessive size of the mouth and neck of the vessel. Thirdly, the eyes, ears and eyebrows of the beast face on the abdomen are prominent, especially the thick eyebrows, which make the belly decoration stand out from the whole body decoration, and then play the role of attracting people's sight to the belly. From these aspects, the shape and decoration of the food zun not only show the superb skills of the maker, but also show the meticulous layout conception of the maker.

There are obvious traces of misalignment on the door edge of the "food" zun, and there are also obvious traces of mold seams in the banana leaf pattern on the mouth and neck of the vessel corresponding to the vertical line of the door edge (Figure 5), which is of great value to the study of the mold casting logic of bronze zun in the Shang and Zhou dynasties. Judging from the traces of mold seams in various places, the outer mold of the zun should be divided into four pieces vertically from the center of each door edge, and the inner mold is divided into two pieces, the upper and lower. As for whether the outer mold of the vessel is divided again in the horizontal direction, it is difficult to judge because there are no obvious traces of mold seams. However, when casting objects, the model should be with the mouth of the object facing downward, and the casting mouth should be above the bottom of the object or the ring foot.

Figure 5 Traces of the mold seam on the food zun

The excavation of the "food" zun is of great value to the study of the history of the Shang and Zhou dynasties. The "food" zun was unearthed in Jiyuan. There were sayings that there were fiefdoms such as Yuan, Shan, Fan, and Xiang in the Western Zhou Dynasty. However, from the discovered ruins of Yuancheng in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the author is more inclined to the saying that Jiyuan was the fiefdom of Yuan State in the Western Zhou Dynasty. The "food" zun has exquisite and delicate patterns, and the objects are symmetrical and coordinated. It is quite grand. It is definitely not owned by ordinary nobles. It is very likely to be owned by princes or their important ministers. Therefore, the excavation of the "food" zun is of great significance to the study of the history of Jiyuan's early Western Zhou feudal states and its smelting technology and casting level. The inscription "food" inside the vessel should be the name of the maker or his tribe. With the gradual increase of archaeological data from the Shang and Zhou dynasties in the region in the future, it is very likely to play a more important role in the study of the feudal states and their history in the Jiyuan area during the Shang and Zhou dynasties.

The whole body of the "Shi" Zun is black and shiny, like a black lacquer ancient, which is relatively rare in Shang and Zhou bronzes, especially in the northern region. Its excavation is of great value for studying the black lacquer ancient bronze phenomenon. Most black lacquer ancient bronzes were unearthed in southern Henan, Anhui, and the two lakes, where the climate is humid, while the "Shi" Zun was unearthed in the relatively dry northern region, indicating that the dryness and wetness of the burial environment are not necessarily the key factors for the formation of the black lacquer ancient artifacts, but it is very likely due to the alloy ratio or other reasons. As to whether this is the case, further research is needed.