Niu Shoujue

Ox-headed jue, bronze, late Shang Dynasty. Total height 23.5 cm, tail length 19.3 cm, spout width 3.6 cm. Belly diameter 7.8 cm, belly depth 10.5 cm, foot height 10.2 cm, weight 1095 g. Unearthed in Chuqiu, Huixian, Xinxiang in 1952. Now in the collection of Xinxiang Museum.

In 1952, during the Pingyuan Province period, a group of seven bronzes with the same inscription "聑妇" were unearthed in Chuqiu, Huixian, including one tripod, one you, one zun, one gui, and three jue (Figure 1). This group of objects has elegant shapes and exquisite patterns, and was praised as a "rare treasure" by the famous ancient calligrapher Mr. Tang Lan. One of the bronze jue is particularly eye-catching. It is very rare to have a lid with an ox head on the lid. The shape of the vessel is unique and the casting is exquisite. Because it has the inscription "妇", it is named Fujue, also known as Niu Shoujue. It is now the treasure of the bronze ware of Xinxiang Museum.

Figure 1 Bronze set of "聑妇"

Fujue, with wide spout and pointed tail, slightly narrowed mouth, deep belly and round bottom, narrowed lower belly, dragon head handle, slightly outward-slanting triangular pyramid foot, lid but no pillar, and a semicircular button in the middle of the lid. The front end of the lid is in the shape of a buffalo head, with its head raised and forward, big eyes protruding, and mouth and nose protruding forward. The leaf-shaped ears stand upright, and there are two horns on the top of the forehead, which bend backward and inward in a half-moon shape, which is huge and eye-catching. On the foot on the side perpendicular to the spout and horns, there is a semi-circular handle, the cross section of the handle is rectangular, and a dragon head is decorated at the junction of the top of the handle and the belly wall, making it look like holding something. The handle and foot are simple, adding to the fluidity of the shape of the Jue. (Figure 2, Figure 3)

Figure 2 Side view of the bull head on the lid of Fujue

Figure 3 Front view of the bull head on the lid of Fujue

The decoration of Fujue is exquisite and gorgeous. The top of the lid is decorated with Kuilong pattern with cloud and thunder pattern as the base. The center line of the lid is slightly convex like the ridge of an ox. The ridge is decorated with "human" shaped pattern, and with this as the center, the symmetrical composite animal face pattern of Kuilong is decorated. The abdomen is divided into four groups of wide band animal face patterns with four shallow door edges, which are also based on cloud and thunder pattern. However, there is no ground pattern on the semi-relief animal face pattern, but a simple ridge-like protrusion is made to emphasize the main body of the animal face pattern. The surface of the whole vessel is uniform in color, mostly yellow-green, and some parts may have green-blue rust spots. The whole vessel has a unique shape, symmetrical proportions, exquisite decoration, clear outline, and a strong sense of strength. The relationship between the surface of the vessel and the shape and decoration is coordinated, forming a delicate, generous, elegant and beautiful style. (Figure 4, Figure 5, Figure 6)

Figure 4 A bird's-eye view of a Fujue

Figure 5 Decoration on the lid of a Fujue Figure 6 The inside of the lid of a Fujue

The inscription "Fu" is cast inside the lid, and the inscription "Fu" is cast on the inner wall of the Jue. The "" are arranged in an up-and-down pattern, which should be a clan emblem or clan inscription. From the figure, it looks like a person with long hair and a beard, with two ears facing each other on his head, symbolizing the ears (trophies) cut off from captured enemies. Shi Zhilian of the former National Museum believes that this is "the symbol of a clan that is good at fighting" [1]. Married women in the Shang Dynasty were generally called "Fu Mou", such as "Fu Hao" and "Fu Jing". "" is the "name" of the woman. The inscription may mean that this group of utensils belonged to the "" clan and was used or cast by "Fu". (Figures 7 and 8)

Figure 7 Inscription inside the lid of a Fujue
Figure 8 Rubbing of the inscription inside the lid of a Fujue

The discovery process of these seven bronze vessels is rather complicated: one theory is that they were found by local farmers after deep plowing the land, and the seven vessels were handed over to the cultural relics department. [2] Another theory is that they were "collected successively from Anyang and Huixian" [3]. There are also theories of "buried in a cellar" and "found in a tomb". According to the archives of the Xinxiang Museum, it is recorded that "they were unearthed in Chuqiu, Huixian, Xinxiang City, Henan Province in 1952, collected by the Cultural Relics Management Committee of Pingyuan Province, and transferred to the Xinxiang Museum after the abolition of Pingyuan Province".

The seven bronze vessels with the same inscription "聑妇" are extremely rare among the unearthed Shang Dynasty bronze vessels. "Such a set of Shang Dynasty bronze vessels made by one person is the only one with the inscription "Fuhao" unearthed from the tomb of Fuhao of the Shang Dynasty in Yinxu, Anyang, Henan Province." [4] Jue usually has no lid, and jue with lid is very rare. The largest group of bronze jue unearthed so far is from the tomb of Fu Hao, where there are 40 jue of various types, none of which has a lid. Therefore, the famous scholar and oracle bone expert Xu Jinxiong said that "less than one percent of jue have lids." [5] According to the research data on cultural relics published so far, the jue with an ox head lid collected by Xinxiang Museum is the only one in Henan, rare in China, and rare in the world, so it is extremely precious.