Bronze He Zun

详情

 He Zun was a drink container in early Western Zhou Dynasty.  *8.8cm in height, *9.8 cm in bottom length, *0.2 cm in bottom width and *4.6kg in weight, the vessel has an open mouth, a round neck and a round foot. With four ridges running all the way down, it bears such designs as animals and plant leaves. On the inner of bottom, is an inscription of **2 Chinese characters in *2 lines. Theprobably means is that the father of He was a faithful follower of Emperor Zhou Wen Wang who was ordained by heaven to rule the state. This is an important admonition written by Emperor Zhou Cheng wang which verifies the fact that Zhou Wu Wang, after conquering the Shang Dynasty, moved his capital east to luoyi. Therefore it is an essential datum for the study of Western Zhou history. It is now in Baoji Municipal Museum.It unearthed fromBaoji county, Shaanxi province in ***5.

 Inscription on its inner bottom is the earliest known source of the word "China".