Rubbings from the Inscribed Bronze Wine Bucket "Ya 'Qi' Fu" Jia You

Shang dynasty (ca. 1600�ca. 1100 b.c.e.), undated

Hanging scroll, ink rubbed on paper, with inscribed colophons, ink on paper, 90.9 x 41.9 cm; sheet with rubbing: approx. 64.5 x 41.9 cm; sheet with colophons: approx. 26.3 x 41.9 cm; dimensions of vessel on rubbing: 36.0 x 27.0 cm; dimensions of rubbing of text on vessel: 7.0 x 4.0 cm; dimensions of rubbings of text on cover: 8.0 x 5.0 cm

Qing dynasty (1644�1911) rubbing, dated by inscription to 1887

Inventory number: Biaozhou 521

The you, a wine bucket or container, first appeared in the later part of the Shang dynasty and remained popular during the early period of the Western Zhou (ca. 1100�771 b.c.e.).� It is shaped like a large oval-bodied hu vessel and has a swing handle and a lid.� Its lower body is usually bellied and stands on a high, slightly spreading foot or on four bird feet.

It has long been noted that bronze inscriptions of the Shang dynasty are routinely dedicated to ancestors identified by a generational tag, for instance zu (grandfather) or fu (father) and by one of the ten tiangan (Heavenly Stems) used to designate the days in the Chinese week (i.e. jia, yi, bing, ding, and so forth).� The vessel shown on the rubbing bears a four-character dedicatory inscription; the first is in the shape of the character ya, but the second does not correspond to any known character and is given in approximation to the glyph for qi.� This is followed by the generational tag fu and the prime sequential character jia.