The Ju Fu Xin Pan, Early Western Zhou dynasty | 西周初 舉父辛盤

Sotheby's London, 9th June 1992, lot 3.

倫敦蘇富比1992年6月9日，編號3

Y.P. Lee, Important Inscribed Ancient Chinese Bronze Vessels from the Li Yingshuan Collection in the Shanghai Museum, vol. 2, Shanghai, 1996, pl. 39.

李爾白，《李蔭軒所藏中國青銅器》，卷2，上海，1996年，圖版39

Cast with pictograms reading Ju Fu Xin, this bronze pan of the early Western Zhou dynasty (c. 1046-771 BC) has an elegant, smoothly curved profile. The two characters Fu Xin indicate that the vessel belonged to Father Xin, while Ju would be his clan. Shallow basins, pan, were used for holding water in ritual ceremonies, probably used together with water ewers, he, as a set. They appear to have formed an integral part of ritual vessel groups. See, for example, an early Western Zhou group found in a tomb at Gaojiabu, Jingyang county, Shaanxi province, comprising in addition to pan, vessels such as he, gui, and zun. They are illustrated in a line drawing in Jessica Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIA, Washington D.C., 1990, p. 98, fig. 142b, where the author suggests that the pan in the group might have served as the basin for the similarly ornamented he.

A pan closely related to the present piece, the Tian Min Fu Yi Pan 天黽父乙盤, in the San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego (accession no. 1968.101), formerly in the collection of Mrs Irving T. Snyder, included in the museum's exhibition Art of East Asia, San Diego, 2013, is illustrated in Rawson, op.cit., vol. IIB, p. 719, fig. 121.2. Another similar vessel, the Tai Bao Du Pan 大保都盤, lacking the high-relief masks, formerly in the Wessen Collection, now in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, is also illustrated in Rawson, op.cit., vol. IIB, p. 718, fig. 121.1. Compare also a bronze basin with more rounded sides, the body similarly cast with animal masks in high relief between narrow borders of rings, but decorated with cicada blades instead of confronting kui dragons, sold in our London rooms, 10th November 2010, lot 210.

In the late Shang dynasty, Ju was a powerful clan residing mostly in Henan and Shandong provinces. Members of the clan held important official positions under the Shang king. One such official was Xiaozi X, the owner of a bronze gui, sold in these rooms, 17th March 2021, lot 193. The inscription of the gui documents the famous historical event of the military campaign against Yifang launched by Di Xin, the last king of the Shang empire. Xiaozi X was one of the military generals who directly participated in this campaign. The Ju clan was active until at least the middle Western Zhou dynasty, and members of the clan continued to serve at the Zhou court. According to archeological findings, the residing regions of the Ju clan in the Western Zhou period was concentrated at Liulihe 琉璃河 near Beijing, which is likely a consequence of the relocation policy for the Shang aristocrats introduced by the early Zhou rulers (see He Jingcheng, Shangzhou qingtongqi zushi mingwen yanjiu [Study of the clan pictograms on the bronzes from the Shang and Zhou dynasties], Jinan, 2009, pp 90-99).

A few bronzes of different forms inscribed with the same name as the present piece are recorded. Compare the lid of the Ju Fu Xin You 舉父辛卣 in the Palace Museum, Beijing, cast with patterns closely related to this pan, but lacking the high-relief animal masks, included in Yan Yiping, Jinwen Zongji / Corpus of Bronze Inscriptions, Taipei, 1983, no. 5171.