A pair of silver-inlaid bronze crossbow fittings, Eastern Zhou dynasty, Warring States period | 東周戰國時期 銅錯銀龍首雲氣紋承弓器一對

Fittings of this type have been excavated in pairs in association with chariots, and their function has long been a research topic of scholars. A similar pair of silver-inlaid bronze crossbow fittings were discovered from a Warring States tomb in Luoyang, Henan province, published in Luoyang Museum, 'Luoyang Zhongzhoulu Zhanguo chemakeng [The Chariot Pit Found at Zhongzhou Road, Luoyang]', Kaogu, vol. 3, 1974, p. 174, pl. 3:4. According to the archaeological report, this pair of fittings were unearthed in front of the wooden shaft of a crossbow, near the left side of a chariot. Based on this finding, the report theorized that they were fitted to the front of a crossbow shaft to support the bow, and the upcurved terminals were meant to be the aiming mechanism. See a reconstruction drawing illustrated in ibid., p. 177, fig. 7. Other scholars have developed a different theory and propose that these fittings in fact functioned as crossbow supports on a chariot. Both fittings were attached horizontally to the front left panel of a chariot, adjacent to the occupants. The crossbow was placed facing down, with its bow resting on the curved shafts and its handle positioned obliquely upward, ready at hand for a quick draw.

Compare a similar pair of fittings included in the exhibition Early Chinese Art from Tombs and Temples, Eskenazi Ltd, London, 1993, cat. no. 10; another one from the Avery Brundage Collection is now on display in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (object no.: B60B702); and a third example was unearthed in 1954 in Xuejiaya Village, Yongji City, Shanxi Province, and now preserved in Shanxi Museum. For detailed discussions on the construction and development of crossbow fittings, see Thomas Lawton, Chinese Art of the Warring States Period: Change and Continuity, 480-222 B.C., Freer Gallery of Art, Washington DC, 1982, pp. 65-7; and Liu Zhancheng, ‘Chenggongqi ji qi yongfa [Crossbow Fitting and its Functions]’, Wenbo, vol. 3, 1988, pp. 75-6.