in the imperial palace, was located on the east side, the direction symbolized by the dragon. In later times, the dragon became associated with the emperor, whose throne was called the "dragon throne."
Although designs on these vessels commonly represent animals, the animals are seldom portrayed naturalistically. Rather of a magical nature, they are often composite in character or completely fantastic. The common domestic animals used for sacrifice—pigs, cows, and sheep—were not represented; nor were dogs. Even the horse, which played such a prominent role in Shang civilization, was seldom portrayed in Shang art. Plants were never shown in the decorative designs. On the rare occasions when human figures were used, deities were no doubt intended rather than ordinary men.
A vessel on the functional order of the kuang, but shaped quite differently, is the bronze in the form of a naturalistic water buffalo in the Fogg Museum (Plate 4). Even though the entire vessel forms a single, realistic animal figure, the spiral thunder symbols on the horns and the handle shaped like a phallic-horned dragon indicate something more than an ordinary beast of burden. The lunar symbolism in the single crescent formed by the two horns further denotes the magical nature of this representation. Shapes so simple and plastic with minimum decoration are extremely rare among Shang bronzes.
Among vessels used for wine offerings, the most beautiful is the ku. These tall, slender goblets have hollow bases, cylindrical middle sections, and upper sections which flare into wide, trumpetlike mouths. The ku in the Doris Duke collection in New York is an excellent example (Plate 5). Miniature dragons and t'ao t'ieh masks comprising fangs, eyes, eyebrows, and ears appear in low relief on both the base and central sections. All design is executed in very flat relief, entirely subordinate to the goblet itself. Being a vessel of great elegance, the ku became a model for flower vases in later times.
The tsun is closely related to the ku. Broader and heavier, it is otherwise similar in both design and purpose. The Earl Morse collection in New York contains a tsun notable for its beautiful green patina (Plate 14). The tiger mask is the main motif. Between the two tiger masks, on both sides of the tsun, are two dragon figures. Executed in bold relief, these figures appear against a low relief background of repeated squared spirals, the thunder pattern called lei wen. The base and upper sections are plain, contrasting strongly with the animated design of the central section.
The yu is a covered, pot-shaped wine container with a rather bucketlike appearance. The yu in the Morse collection (Plate 6) has a ram's-head motif. The ends of the handle terminate in rams' heads, which also appear in relief on the decorated rim band along with stylized dragons. The precise import of the ram symbol is not known.
The chia and chüeh are vessels designed for heating wine. They stood over the fire on their three pointed legs. A typical chia (Plate 7), also in the Morse collection, has a decorative band similar to that on the Morse yu but with t'ao t'ieh and abstract bird designs. The handle is decorated with a water-buffalo head with protruding eyes and flattened, crescent-shaped horns. The two capped uprights standing just inside the rim, a characteristic feature, were probably used to lift the heated vessel from the fire.
The chüeh is smaller and more graceful than the chia. On one side the rim extends into a pointed beak. The other is formed into a spoutlike lip. Otherwise the chüeh is similar to the chia.
In addition to the foregoing liquid-offering vessels, others were designed to contain the various food offerings. The hsien, designed for steaming food; the li, a tripod form; and the ting were all ancient and ubiquitous forms whose prototypes are found among prehistoric ceramics.
The most impressive food-offering container, however, is the fang-i, a rectangular box-shaped container equipped with a base piece and a cover shaped like a roof with a four-way pitch. The fang-i in the Winthrop collection at the Fogg Museum is a splendid example (Plate 8). The chief decorative motif is the tiger mask, very forcefully rendered in bold relief on each side of the vessel and, inverted for viewing from above, on each slope of the cover. On the vessel sides, above the masks, two stylized dragons face each other. On the sides of the base piece, two stylized birds face away from each other. Stylized dragon forms are also blended into the tiger masks. The knob at the top of the cover repeats the shape of the cover and resembles the roof of a shrine. It may well represent a miniature ancestral temple. Carl Hentze, the foremost authority on the symbolism of these ancient bronzes, believes that all aspects of the fang-i form represent the ancestral temple with its typical roof, projecting beam tips, and supporting base. This hypothesis seems quite supportable by the evidence. Quite probably the very shape of some vessels, in addition to their symbolic decoration, embodied religious meanings connected with specific cults. Certainly these bronzes, cast in dimensions as great as fifty-one inches, were major cult objects serving the rituals both in veneration of the spirits of the ancestors and in propitiation of the forces of nature upon which the very survival of these agricultural people depended.
Jade, called yii in China, ranked next in importance to bronze as a medium for the Shang artisans. However, while bronzeworking was an innovation by the Shang culture, the use of jade continued traditions stemming from prehistoric times. A stone of great hardness and of even texture, jade lends itself especially to the demands of carving on a miniature scale. While universally valued for its color and texture, jade is not only aesthetically prized in China but also venerated as an auspicious substance.
Among the many jade shapes used in sacred rites, the most important are probably the ts'ung, a square tube which has a round perforation running through it, and the disc-shaped with a hole in its center. According to tradition, they represent Earth and Heaven and are often found in ancient Chinese graves. The pi, a good example of which may be found in the Singer collection in Summit, New Jersey (Plate 9), resembles the ancient pictograph for the sun, and may have been a solar disc before becoming associated with the deity Heaven. The ts'ung is believed to represent the deity Earth and may have been derived from the cover for the ancestral tablet, as Dr. Karlgren has suggested. The two shapes together certainly stand for the yang and the yin, the male forces associated with light, sun, and heaven, and the female associated with darkness and earth— the "above and below" which are mentioned in Shang inscriptions.
Shang jades also include other ceremonial objects; insignia of rank; weapons such as daggers, knives, spears, and arrowheads; utilitarian objects such as axes and hoes; and animal and human figures. Actual usage of these weapons and tools seems most unlikely, considering the time and effort required to produce such exquisite carving in a medium both precious and difficult to work. The Shang craftsmen had only primitive tools with which to deal with a medium that challenges even modern carvers. Also, the same variety in color appears in both objects of the utilitarian type and in objects of ritual art. Ranging from pure white to near black, colors include yellow, brown, gr jen, and shades in between tending toward blue and red. The unique appeal of Shang jades lies in a combination of simple beauty of shape and subtle variation in color.
The animal figures from Shang times include sensitive portrayals of the familiar symbolical creatures: tigers, dragons, birds, water buffaloes, bulls, bears, snakes, fish, cicadas and other insects, and the t'ao t'ieh.
The human figures are distinctly Mongoloid, having broad noses and narrow eyes. We do not know just whom they represent nor do we know what their functions were. The late Alfred Salmony, the foremost Western authority on ancient Chinese jades, did not believe that these Shang figures represented gods or demons because of the absence of supernatural features. However, since no other element of Shang art seems other than magical in character, these most likely represent either the supreme ancestors or nature deities such as the great god Shang Ti, who presided over the Shang pantheon. Naturalistic representations of specific historical personages seem to have come only later in Han times.
Shang carvers worked also with bone, ivory, and turquoise. The spatula
