Elizabeth Carney Gu Bronzes

Jue Ritual Wine Vessel

Chinese; Shang dynasty, circa 1300-1100 BCE

Cast bronze

Gift of Elizabeth D. Moyer Ph.D. and Michael C. Powanda Ph.D., from the KMP Collection, 2023:32.47

Jue Ritual Wine Vessel-Shaped Vase

Chinese; Shang dynasty (circa 16th-11th century BCE) or later

Cast bronze

Gift of the Estate of Anne Kutka McCosh, 2020:31.1

Jue vessels originated during China’s Bronze Age under the Shang (circa 1600-circa 1050 BCE) and Zhou (circa 1050-221 BCE) dynasties. This period was marked by elaborate rituals creating connections between the visible and invisible worlds. Scholars argue that the piece-mold bronze casting technology that developed at the time was motivated by a desire to create multiple vessels, illustrating the importance of ancient rituals. Jue vessels were made using a technique in which separate sections of ceramic were joined to create a mold into which artisans poured molten bronze. The shape may have been modeled after Neolithic pottery, an idea cited as evidence of both design and ritual continuity from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. Early Chinese practiced ritual in several ways—sacrifice and feasting to honor a primeval ancestor-god as well as the spirits of former kings. Scholars believe that jue likely evolved to remedy the limitations of ceramic vessels in ritual.

The word jue means to “raise” or “lift up” as the vessel would be when wine is offered during a ritual. One could heat wine in a bronze vessel and the small volume of the jue was well suited to holding liquids that had to be preserved in a non-permeable vessel.

As technology developed, jue eventually took on more complex forms. The Sanli tu, a tenth-century illustrated description of ritual objects, discusses the jue as a “lacquer or jade cup on the back of a sparrow.” Contemporaries argued instead for a “spouted bronze tripod,” similar to those on display.

The zoomorphic design of these jue vessels is subtle. The “beak” and “tail” that protrude from the front and back might suggest a bird shape. One also features a zoomorphic taotie design, a motif common in Bronze Age ritual vessels. Because such vessels were used in rituals intended to nourish

ancestral spirits, they were decorated in the language of the spirit world. As religion and myth developed during the Shang, the taotie design became increasingly complex to fit changes in ritual.

A steady feature of Bronze Age ritual, jue reflect dynamic trends in Chinese ritual and were therefore recreated during periods of antiquarian interest in the Song (960-1279) through Qing (1644-1912) dynasties. A fanciful tripod cup in the form of a Jue is on view in the Treasure Wall in the center of the gallery).

— Elizabeth Carney