Ritual food vessel (fangding)

A purely metallic shape, the square four-legged ding was thought until quite recently to be an innovation of the late Shang but excavations conducted at the middle Shang site of Zhengzhou in 1974 yielded several such vessels, including two of imposing dimensions.

Better proportioned and more integrated [than B60B965 and B60B954], this vessel combines avant-garde elements with archaic ones and as such illustrates what is probably the first wave of conscious archaism in the development of ancient Chinese bronzes. The massive hooked flanges, the taotie masks and bowstrings of the legs, and the division of each side of the body into three horizontal panels of decoration are all relatively new features. Conversely, the decorative motifs of the body are all derived from Middle Shang prototypes. They consist of variants of the motif known as "eye band with diagonals" in raised lines bordered by rows of circles for the top and bottom panels, and flat bands of confronted and highly abstracted dragons forming taotie masks in the intermediate panels.

The two-character inscription cast inside the vessel is generally read gui zhu. Gui being here a posthumous appellation whereas Zhu functions probably as a clan name.