Ritual Wine Vessel (Jue)

Bronze ritual vessels from the Shang-dynasty culture of ancient China (ca. 1600-1050 BC) rank among the most glorious achievements in the history of Chinese art and are essential to understanding the development of Chinese civilization as a whole. This rare bronze wine vessel from the middle of the Shang period was originally part of a larger set that was used in ancestor veneration ceremonies. The Shang believed that the spirits of their ancestors acted as intermediaries between the human world and the deities and other forces that controlled the natural world. As long as the ancestral spirits were properly remembered and honored with regular offerings of food and drink, the cosmic order could be maintained. Many Shang bronzes are inscribed with the names of particular ancestors or events that needed to be commemorated. The interior wall of this example is inscribed with two characters tian ding (天丁 in their modern forms), meaning "Ancestor Ding." (The second chracter is abraded and barely visible)

This vessel form (traditionally pronounced jué, although the character today is more commonly pronounced jiǎo) was used to heat and serve wine in religious rituals. Its tripod shape allowed it to be placed into hot embers to heat the wine, which then could be poured into bronze drinking vessels using either spout. Note the head of a bat-like creature in relief where the spouts meet on the front, an animal mask design just below, and an inverted triangular cicada motif on each spout.