Yang Ji Pot

Bronze ware from the Western Zhou Dynasty
Height 35.8 cm, diameter 12.4 cm. Excavated from Tomb No. 63 of the Jinhou Cemetery in Beizhao Village, Quwo County in 1993. The tomb owner was the second wife of Jin Muhou. There are 2 pieces in total. The shape, decoration and inscription are all the same. Round pot, wide mouth, long neck, bulging belly, ring foot, trumpet-shaped handle on the lid, and animal head ring ears on both sides of the neck. The lid edge and ring foot are decorated with interlaced animal eye patterns, the neck is decorated with wavy patterns, and below is the decoration of interlaced animal eye patterns, scale patterns and corrugated patterns arranged alternately. There is an inscription of 9 characters cast on the outer wall of the lid and the inner wall of the pot neck: "Yang Ji made a Xiu Li pot for Yongbao use". Some scholars believe that it was a concubine vessel used as a dowry by a woman of the Yang State with the surname Ji who married to the Jin State, and the tomb owner was Yang Ji; others believe that it was a woman of the Yang State with the surname Ji who married to the Yang State and was called Yang Ji, and this pot was obtained when the Jin State destroyed the Yang State. The ancient Yang State was located in Hongdong County, Shanxi Province. Very few bronze artifacts from the Yang State have survived.