Li Gui (bronze)

The Li ''gui'' () is an ancient Chinese bronze sacrificial ''gui'' vessel cast by an early Zhou dynasty official.

Description

It is one of the earliest Zhou bronze vessel to be discovered,Shaughnessy (1989), p 51 the earliest record of metal being given as a gift by the king, one of only two vessels dateable to the reign of King Wu of Zhou to record personal names, and the only epigraphic evidence of the day of the Zhou conquest of Shang. This makes the Li ''gui'' important to the periodisation of the Shang and Zhou dynasties.

Appearance

A round vessel on a square pedestal, the Li ''gui'' measures 28 centimeters high; the mouth of the vessel has a diameter of 22 centimeters. It has two bird-shaped handles and is covered with a high-relief taotie motif similar to earlier Shang ritual objects. It was excavated in 1976 in Lintong district, Shaanxi, and was kept for a time at the Lintong County Museum, before being transferred to the National Museum of China in Beijing, where it now resides. In 2002, it was listed among the cultural artefacts prohibited from leaving Chinese soil.

Inscription

The Li ''gui'' is inscribed with thirty-two characters commemorating King Wu of Zhou's conquest of Shang. Transcribed into modern-day regular script, with archaic phonetic loans and digraphs given in parentheses, the full inscription reads:

珷（武王）征商隹（唯）甲子朝歲

鼎（貞）克昏（聞）夙又（有）商辛未

王才（在）管師易（賜）又（右）吏利

金用乍（作）旜公寶尊彝

The most important feature of the inscription is the record of the cyclical signs of the day of the decisive Battle of Muye. The inscription accords with the date carried by the ''Shi Fu'' (世俘, "capture of the world") chapter of the ''Yi Zhou Shu'', and the ''Mu Shi'' (牧誓, "Oath at Muye") chapter of the '' Book of Documents''. The inscription begins: "King Wu attacked Shang. It was the morning of the ''jiazi'' day." King Wu's name thus recorded on a contemporary vessel supports the theory that the early Zhou kings were called by the same titles in life as they were after their deaths, unlike later Chinese monarchs.

The next several graphs are the subject of much dispute in interpretation, most saliently over whether to read the word ''sui'' (歲, the bottom-rightmost graph in the inscription) as the name of a ritual or as a reference to the planet Jupiter. There is no scholarly consensus on the meaning of this portion of the inscription, with renderings ranging from "Jupiter was in the correct position, letting the King know he would conquer, and soon he controlled Shang" to "The King performed the ''sui'' and ''ding'' sacrifices, letting it be known that he could rout the ruler of Shang."

Following the problematic passage, the inscription concludes: "On the ''xinwei'' day .e. seven days later the King was at Jian encampment. He granted his ''youshi'' Li metal, with which he makes this treasured ritual vessel for his esteemed ancestor Zhan."Zhan / Chan (旜) may be Li's family name, or it may be his home state. The two interpretations are not exclusive, but if it is a toponym, 旜公 may also be rendered "the Lord of Zhan". Zhan may also be identical to 檀 (''tan''), as suggested by Tang Lan. See Shaughnessy (1991), p 91 This indicates that the caster of the vessel may have been a participant in the Battle of Muye.See Shirakawa, p 325, citing Tang Lan; Cook, p 267 n 104

Notes

References

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{{Chinese bronzeware

Zhou dynasty bronzeware
Collection of the National Museum of China
11th century BC in China
1976 archaeological discoveries