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Gu (vessel)[edit]

A gu (Chinese: 觚; pinyin: gū) is type of ancient Chinese ritual bronze goblet from the Shang and Zhou dynasties. It was used to drink wine or to offer ritual libations.

A gu is tall and slender, with a slightly flared base that tapers to a slim center section before widening again into a trumpet-like mouth, wider than the base. Its surface is often decorated with taotie .

A gu from the Shang dynasty was among the 13 works of art stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum on 18 March 1990, along with paintings by Rembrandt and Vermeer.[1]

Historical developments and examples[edit]

Gu was mentioned as a vessel form in numbers of Chinese texts in ancient times.[2] However, none of these texts provides a thorough and precise description or an image of the vessel. Lv Dalin (呂大臨), an antiquarian in the Northern Song Dynasty, first offered an image of gu in his book, Kaogu Tu(考古圖, Illustrated Catalogue of Examined Antiquity.[3] Most antiquarians, art historians and archaeologists adopted Lv's definition, though there have been some objections saying gu was used to refer another vessel form.[4]

Hence, gu is better known as a bronze vessel form, with a slim waist and its mouth always wider than its base. However, similar vessels have been made of clay and wood long before the Bronze Age.

Bronze gu[edit]

Based on archaeological discoveries, Gu is one of the most common bronze vessel in the Shang Dynasty(around 16th century to 11th century B.C.).[5] It became less popular in the Western Zhou Dynasty around 11th century to 8th century B. C.), but the style of the late Shang period, or rather Anyang Style, survived and the style of the early Shang period also revived.[6] It is believed that gu disappeared in the reign of King Mu of Zhou in the 10th century B.C.E.[7]

Zhengzhou phase of the Shang Dynasty[edit]

One bronze gu has been discovered at the north corner of the upper level of the Tomb M2 in Erligang, Zhengzhou, an early Shang Dynasty site.[8] Decors on this vessel are concentrated on a band at the lower part of its body, which, according to Max Loehr, is a characteristic of Early Shang bronzes.[9]

There are a few cross-shape holes on the foot of this gu, which is a common feature among some Shang bronzes. For example, all the gu vessels and some other bronze vessels from Chenggu, Shaanxi have this kind of cross-shape holes, though their diverse decors and shapes suggest they might have been made in different time periods in the Shang Dynasty.[10]

Anyang phase of the Shang Dynasty[edit]

Huge change had taken place before the capital of Shang was settled down at Yin, its last capital.[11]

Some developments also happed on gu. First, gu at this time was usually higher than 20 centimeters and even slimer, and its mouth got even wider. A gu with Fu Hao's name incised on the interior of its bottom is 25.5-centimeter-high and its mouth is 14.2-centimeter-wide, which significantly surpasses its bottom.[12] Chü gu, found from a tomb in the Ruin of Yin, is about 31-centimeter-high and its mouth is almost twice as wide as its bottom.[13] Second, from this time onward, the base of gu raised up slightly with a short round foot. The gu displayed in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington D. C. and the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai both possess this feature. Third, some gu also have decors in triagle registers that extend from the waist of gu to the rim of its mouth.[14] In fact, bronze vessels made in Anyang phase are usually fully decorated with decors.[15]

Early Western Zhou Dynasty[edit]

Imitations or revivals of former styles appear in the late Shang period and early Western Zhou period. Jessica Rawson has pointed out a gu that is 28.5-centimeter-high with a taotie motif on its waist celebrates the early Shang styles by locating its decors on one band.[16] Another example is the Lü Fu Yi gu (image) found in the Hoard of the Wei Family. This vessel is 25.2-centimeter-high and its mouth is about 13.2-centimeter-wide.[17] Its neck is long and slim without any decorations. Low ribbon-like relief appears at the lower section of the vessel and it does not have a round foot.

Middle Western Zhou Dynasty[edit]

In the middle Western Zhou period, the shape of gu changed and it also gradually disappeared. It became shorter and squatting. Wan Qi gu can be dated bake to the mid-Western Zhou Dynasty.[18] This gu is about 14.5 centimeter high with a 14.7-centimeter-wide mouth and a 10.1 cm-wide-base. Meanwhile, this gu's waist is only slightly narrower than its month and base. Another gu discovered in a hoard in Zhangjiapo, Shaanxi, is similar in shape, but a little bit smaller.[19]

Ceramic gu[edit]

Chinese archaeologists have identified numbers of neolithic pottery wine drinking vessels as gu or "gu-shape vessel". Besides, Ceramic gu continued to exist even after it transformed into a bronze vessel.

The Neolithic Age[edit]

Numbers of pottery vessels unearthed from Neolithic sites are named as gu by archaeologists. Some of these pottery gu look very different from the form of bronze gu, while some appear similar and might be the ancestors of bronze gu.

A gray pottery beaker (image) discovered at a Dawenkou culture site in Tai'an, Shandong is categorized as a "gu-shape vessel".[20] It is 29.2-centimeter-high and can be roughly divided into 3 sections. The top section is a funnel shape container. Nonetheless, the other two sections distinguish this vessel form a bronze gu. The middle section is a long stem, decorated with engraved grooves and a high rising band. The lower section is its stand with three square shape legs.

Some pottery drinking vessels excavated in the late Dawenkou sites appear more similar to the bronze gu. [21] A pottery gu that looks striking similar to bronze gu has been excavated at Shilipu 十里鋪, Henan.[22] This gu is 13.6-centimeter-high with four rising bands as decorations. Its body is almost like a column , but it gets wider at the mouth. Similar pottery objects have been found in other areas as well and these objects are suggested to be the predecessors of bronze gu.[23]

The Bronze Age[edit]

A pottery gu discovered in 1960 at the Erlitou sites

Pottery gu discovered from Erlitou and Erligang suggest they might have direct relation with the bronze gu.[24] As mentioned above, pottery gu coexisted with bronze gu in the Bronze Age, but their shapes are not entirely identical.

Erlitou culture is considered as a part of the Bronze Age, although scholars still have disputes in identifying it as the capital of the Xia Dynasty, China's first dynasty recorded by historical texts, or an early Shang sites.[25] A pottery gu （Image) discovered in Erlitou has become a collection of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.[26] This vessel is a funnel-shape cup, which becomes narrow at the bottom. Meanwhile, it has a raised-up foot that gets wider at the bottom, which make it similar to some bronze gu.

Pottery gu are found in Anyang and some other Shang sites in the heyday of the Bronze Age.[27] A pottery gu from a tomb that can be dated to the reign of Zugeng (祖庚) or Zu Jia (祖甲) in Anyang. The shape of this gu is very similar to bronze gu at the same period, though its waist is thicker.[28] Furthermore, this gu is less ornate than the bronze ones. It have some long scratched slashes covered its surface.

Later time period[edit]

Gu continues to exist after the Bronze Age, but it was used as vase instead of wine drinking vessels. A gu with tubular handles, gazed in light greyish-blue in the National Palace Museum imitates the shape of bronze gu, but it functions as a vase.[29]

Lacquered gu[edit]

Archaeological sites at Bianjiashan 卞家山, Zhejiang yield numbers of lacquered vessels and Gu is a major vessel type.[30] The shape of these lacquered gu (image)is closed to that of bronze gu. They have slim waist and wide-opened mouth and they are coated with black and red lacquer with some rising bands on their feet and upper-middle area.[31] Archaeologists date Bianjiashan back to the late Liangzhu Culture period and suggest these gu may have certain connections with bronze gu in the Shang Dynasty.[32]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Fact Sheet: Stolen Artworks." Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  2. ^ Lv Qichang 呂琪昌, Qingtong Jue & Jia de Mimi: Cong Shiqian Taigui dao Xiashang Wenhua Qiyuan bing Duandai Wenti Yanjiu 青銅爵、斝的秘密：從史前陶鬶到夏商文化起源並斷代問題研究 (Hangzhou: Zhejiang University Press, 2007), 206 - 207. ISBN: 9787308056113
  3. ^ Guo li gu gong bo wu yuan 國立故宮博物院, Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Shang and Chou Dynasty Bronze Wine Vessels 商周青銅酒器特展圖錄(Taibei: Zhonghua min guo Taibei Shi Shilin qu Weishuangxi & Guo li gu gong bo wu yuan, 1989),19.
  4. ^ Ibid.
  5. ^ Jessica Rawson, Chinese Bronzes: Art and Rituals (London : British Museum Publications, 1987), 65 - 66.
  6. ^ Xiaoneng Yang, ed., The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People's Republic of China (Washington, D. C.: National Gallery of Art, 1999), 238.
  7. ^ Ibid.
  8. ^ Jessica Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections (Washington D.C.: Sackler Foundation/Cambridge: Sackler Museum, 1990), 14 - 15. Robert Bagley, "Shang Archaeology", in The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 B.C., edited by Michael Loewe and Edward L. Shaughnessy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 169 - 170.[1]
  9. ^ Hung Wu, Monumentality in Early Chinese Art and Architecture (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995), 48.
  10. ^ Wang Shouzhi 王壽芝, "Shanxi Chenggu Chutu de Shangdai Qingtong Qi 陝西城固出土的商代青銅器", Wenbo文博 6 (1988), 3 - 9.
  11. ^ Bagley, "The Zhengzhou Phase (the Erligang Period", in The Great Bronze Age of China: An Exhibition from the People’s Republic of China, edited by Wen Fong (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980), 98 - 99.
  12. ^ Zhongguo Qingtong Qi Quanji Bianji Weiyuanhui 中國青銅器全集編輯委員會, ed., Zhouguo Qingtong Qi Quanji 中國青銅器全集, Vol. 2 （Beijing : Wen wu chu ban she， 1997）， 51.
  13. ^ Robert L. Thorp, Spirit and Ritual: The Morse Collection of Ancient Chinese Art (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1982), 24.
  14. ^ Rawson, Chinese Bronzes: Art and Rituals, 65 - 66. Beijing Tushuguan 北京圖書館, ed., Beijing Tushuguan Cang Qingtong Qi Quanxing Tapian Ji 北京圖書館藏青銅器全形拓片集, Vol. 3 (Beijing: Beijing Tushuguan Chubanshe, 1997), 74 - 108. ISBN: 7501312850 :
  15. ^ Wu, Monumentality in Early Chinese Art and Architecture, 52 - 53.
  16. ^ Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, 60.
  17. ^ Yang, ed., The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology, 238.
  18. ^ Guo li gu gong bo wu yuan 國立故宮博物院, Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Shang and Chou Dynasty Bronze Wine Vessels 商周青銅酒器特展圖錄,125.
  19. ^ Ibid.
  20. ^ "Gray Pottery Gu-beaker," Shandong Museum, accessed Nov. 6, 2012, http://www.sdmuseum.com/english/Collections-Pottery-29.html.
  21. ^ Lv Qichang 呂琪昌, Qingtong Jue & Jia de Mimi 青銅爵、斝的秘密, 222 - 223.
  22. ^ Ibid., 214.
  23. ^ Ibid, 222 - 223.
  24. ^ Lv Qichang 呂琪昌, Qingtong Jue & Jia de Mimi 青銅爵、斝的秘密, 208 - 209, & 215 - 216.
  25. ^ Kuang-Chih Chang, "The Chinese Bronze Age: A Modern Synthesis," in The Great Bronze Age of China: An Exhibition from the People’s Republic of China, ed. Wen Fong (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980), 35 - 38.
  26. ^ "Tao Gu 陶觚", Zaoqi Zhongguo: Zhonghua Wenming Qiyuan Zhan 早期中國：中華文明起源展, last modified Oct. 11, 2009, http://www.sach.gov.cn/tabid/1094/InfoID/21682/Default.aspx.
  27. ^ Guo li gu gong bo wu yuan 國立故宮博物院, Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Shang and Chou Dynasty Bronze Wine Vessels 商周青銅酒器特展圖錄, appendix.
  28. ^ Kwang-Chih Chang, Shang Civilization (New Heaven and London: Yale University Press, 1980), 106 - 107.
  29. ^ Guoli Gugong Bowuyuan, Guan Ware of the Southen Song Dynasty, Vol. 1 (Hong Kong: Cafa, 1962), 72-73.
  30. ^ Zhao Ye 趙曄, "Tanmi Bianjiashan 探秘卞家山," Dongfang Bowu 東方博物, 24 (2006), 43 & 45.
  31. ^ Ibid., 45.
  32. ^ Ibid., 41 & 43.

Bibliography[edit]

  • Beijing Tushuguan 北京圖書館, ed. Beijing Tushuguan Cang Qingtong Qi Quanxing Tapian Ji 北京圖書館藏青銅器全形拓片集. Beijing: Beijing Tushuguan Chubanshe, 1997. ISBN: 7501312850
  • Chang, Kwang-Chih. Shang Civilization. New Heaven and London: Yale University Press, 1980.
  • Fong, Wen, ed. The Great Bronze Age of China: An Exhibition from the People’s Republic of China. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980.
  • Guo li gu gong bo wu yuan 國立故宮博物院. Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Shang and Chou Dynasty Bronze Wine Vessels 商周青銅酒器特展圖錄. Taibei: Zhonghua min guo Taibei Shi Shilin qu Weishuangxi & Guo li gu gong bo wu yuan, 1989.
  • Guoli Gugong Bowuyuan. Guan Ware of the Southen Song Dynasty. Hong Kong: Cafa, 1962.
  • Loewe, Michael and Edward L. Shaughnessy, eds. The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 B.C. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
  • Lv呂, Qichang琪昌. Qingtong Jue & Jia de Mimi: Cong Shiqian Taigui dao Xiashang Wenhua Qiyuan bing Duandai Wenti Yanjiu 青銅爵、斝的秘密：從史前陶鬶到夏商文化起源並斷代問題研究. Hangzhou: Zhejiang University Press, 2007. ISBN: 9787308056113
  • Rawson, Jessica. Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections. Washington D.C.: Sackler Foundation/Cambridge: Sackler Museum, 1990.
  • Rawson, Jessica. Chinese Bronzes: Art and Rituals. London : British Museum Publications, 1987.
  • Thorp, Robert L. Spirit and Ritual: The Morse Collection of Ancient Chinese Art. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1982.
  • Wu, Hung. Monumentality in Early Chinese Art and Architecture. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995.
  • Yang, Xiaoneng, ed. The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People's Republic of China. Washington, D. C.: National Gallery of Art, 1999.
  • Zhongguo Qingtong Qi Quanji Bianji Weiyuanhui 中國青銅器全集編輯委員會, ed. Zhouguo Qingtong Qi Quanji 中國青銅器全集, Vol. 2. Beijing : Wen wu chu ban she， 1997.


  • Wang王, Shouzhi 壽芝. "Shanxi Chenggu Chutu de Shangdai Qingtong Qi 陝西城固出土的商代青銅器", Wenbo文博 6 (1988): 3 - 9.
  • Bagley, Robert. "Shang Archaeology." In The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 B.C., edited by Michael Loewe and Edward L. Shaughnessy, 124-291. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
  • Zhao趙, Ye 曄. "Tanmi Bianjiashan 探秘卞家山." Dongfang Bowu 東方博物, 24 (2006): 38-45.


Further Reading[edit]

  • Allan,Sarah. The Shape of the Turtle: Myth, Art, and Cosmos in Early China. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991.
  • Bagley, Rober W. “Meaning and Explanation.” Archives of Asian Art 46 (1993): 6 – 26.


  • Loewe, Michael and Edward L. Shaughnessy, eds. The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 B.C. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
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