Ritual wine vessel (lihe)

Catalogue information for both B60B53 and B60B1078
A tripod obviously derived from the pottery li of Neolithic ancestry, the Middle Shang he is a somewhat ungainly vessel. Its frail, uncertain, unsophisticated appearance is typical of a period when casters were experimenting with translations of ceramic prototypes into metallic shapes. The bulky, udder-like, hollow legs communicate directly with a short neck covered by a domed, immovable cover, with a large aperture on one side and a long, cone-shaped spout on the other. To complete this curious profile, a skinny, elbowed handle stands on the side opposite to the spout. The upper part of this handle projects from the thin lip of the neck.

On all Middle Shang he- and very few such vessels have been discovered so far - the body decoration is restricted to a narrow band girdling the neck. In the two vessels illustrated here, this band is divided into three panels. The center of each panel is occupied by a taotie mask which can be interpreted as the terminal parts of two confronted kui dragons seen in profile. In one case this motif is rendered in flat relief, in the other it appears in raised lines and is framed by rows of dots which are variants of the circles mentioned in connection with the jia of the preceding plate.

Both covers display a human mask with eyes in relief and wide-open mouth in one case (B60 B53) the spout also serves as a disproportionately elongated nose.