Wrapped gold leopard-shaped vessel base

December 4, 2024

The inlaid gold leopard-shaped base is a bronze artifact from the Warring States Period. The base is 11.2 cm high and 24 cm wide. The mouth of the base is 6.5 cm long and 4 cm wide. It was unearthed in Guanyintang Village, Shan County, Sanmenxia City, Henan Province in 1958.

From the shape of the artifact, the inlaid gold leopard-shaped base looks like a leopard lying on its side. The leopard lies on its side with its head resting on its hind legs. The nose is raised, revealing two nostrils; the big eyes are slightly convex and slightly looking upward; the thick eyebrows are raised; the nearly round ears are concave in the middle. The neck wears a flat belt-shaped collar. The front left leg is supported on the ground, the foot is bent, and the four claws are distinct. One of the claws protrudes and extends to the ear, as if scratching the ear (Figure 1); the front right leg is bent, and the four claws hold a vertical rectangular tube; the thigh of the back left leg is slightly convex, and the claws are invisible, hidden under the tube and under the buttocks. The long leopard tail is bent and coiled on the abdomen and back. The leopard body is hollow, and the left side of the leopard body lies in a coil to form the bottom of the base. The bottom cavity has a concave folded edge about 3 cm wide. The rectangular tube held by the leopard was cast twice. The upper mouth of the tube was formed by the second casting, with obvious mold seam marks, and smaller than the first casting tube; the lower side of the tube is placed in a "well"-shaped frame, and the traces of the second casting are very clear. The "well"-shaped frame is connected to the concave folded edge at the bottom. (Figure 2)

Figure 1 Part of the inlaid gold leopard base

Figure 2 The "well"-shaped frame at the bottom of the inlaid gold leopard base

From the perspective of the decoration, the leopard body is decorated with orange petal-shaped leopard spots. The layout of the decoration is orderly, with the orange petal-shaped pattern on the head opening forward; the orange petal-shaped pattern on the limbs opening toward the feet; the orange petal-shaped pattern on the neck, abdomen and tail is centered on the leopard's spine line, and the openings are facing both sides. Each orange-petal pattern has a gold-thread border, which makes the orange-petal pattern stand out. When observed from a close distance, the orange-petal pattern has a slightly convex feeling, but judging from the gold foil remaining in some parts of the leopard's body, the gaps between the orange-petal patterns should have been inlaid with gold foil, but most of them have fallen off and lost, so the orange-petal pattern has a slightly convex feeling.

The base has a beautiful shape, a reasonable layout, and a vivid image, with a strong sense of realism. The shape is almost the same as the current leopard. The yellow color of the leopard's body is expressed by the yellow of the gold foil, and the orange-petal pattern inlaid with gold wire is used to express the leopard's spots. Although most of the gold foil has fallen off and lost its original color, it is not difficult to imagine the exquisiteness when it was first made. There are many animal decorations on bronze ware in the Shang and Zhou dynasties. Most of them appear as decorative patterns, or appear in animal form in a certain part of the ware, assuming certain functions, such as ears, feet or handles, etc. These animals are either flat and lack a sense of three-dimensionality, or some of their limbs are exaggerated, and the sense of realism is poor. Although there are some independent animal-shaped objects, most of them only express the shape of the animal. Realistic objects like this one that not only express the shape of the animal but also show the skin color or fur pattern of the animal are rare and have extremely high artistic value.

What is worth noting on this object is the collar on the leopard's neck (Figure 3). We know that in order to strengthen the control of subdued or domesticated animals, humans often put some devices on certain parts of the animal's body, such as putting a ring on the nose of a cow, a bit on the mouth of a horse, and a collar on the neck of a dog. The Xi Zun [1] discovered in Hunyuan, Shanxi in 1923 has a ring on the nose of the cow (Figure 4), which is "an important physical material for studying the history of livestock domestication in China" [2]. The leopard-shaped base inlaid with gold has a collar on its neck, which may have a similar function to the ring on the nose of the ox in the sacrificial urn. We cannot use this to prove that the leopard, which is now a wild animal, was domesticated by our ancestors, but at least it can prove that our ancestors in the Warring States Period had subdued the leopard, a ferocious beast. Moreover, from the posture and shape of the eyes of the leopard in this vessel, it can be seen that the leopard is quite submissive. Therefore, this vessel has important historical value for studying the social life in my country during the Shang and Zhou dynasties.

Figure 3 The collar on the leopard's neck

Figure 4 The shape of the ring on the nose of the ox in the sacrificial urn found in Hunyuan, Shanxi

In addition, the vertical rectangular shank tube of the leopard-shaped base inlaid with gold was cast twice (as shown in the "well" structure at the bottom of the vessel in Figure 2). The second casting made the shank tube higher than the first casting part and the cavity space smaller. (Figure 5) In a sense, the second casting may be a necessary practice to achieve the purpose of making the already formed parts included in the shank tube more stable. However, this just shows how proficient our ancestors were in the Warring States Period in the technology of casting a vessel multiple times. The technology of casting a vessel multiple times has been used in the Spring and Autumn Period or even earlier. It is mostly used to solve the problem of connecting the ears and feet of the vessel, which are not easy to separate, with the main part. Later, it became an important technical means for the large-scale production of bronze vessels. The gold-inlaid leopard-shaped base was cast again to change the size of the tongs just to make the included parts more suitable, which fully shows that our ancestors in the Warring States Period mastered this technology more proficiently than in the previous Spring and Autumn Period. Therefore, it is of great significance for the study of ancient Chinese metallurgical casting technology.