Zeng Marquis Yi Zun Pan

Zeng Hou Yi Zun has a height of 33.1 centimeters, a caliber of 25 centimeters, and a weight of approximately 9 kilograms; Zeng Hou Yi Pan has a height of 24 centimeters, a caliber of 57.6 centimeters, and a weight of approximately 19.2 kilograms. The entire set of utensils has a height of 42 centimeters, a caliber of 58 centimeters, and a weight of approximately 30 kilograms. The decoration of the statue plate of Marquis Yi of Zeng is complex and intricate. The copper statue is composed of 34 components, which are cast and welded in 56 places to form a whole. The statue body is decorated with 28 dragon coils and 32 dragon coils, and the neck is engraved with the seven character inscription "Marquis Yi of Zeng used as the holding end". The copper plate is adorned with 56 coiled dragons and 48 coiled dragons, and the bottom of the plate is engraved with the seven character inscription "Zeng Hou Yi as the Holding End".


The entire body of the Zun Pan is cast from pottery, and the accessories such as the Zun Foot are separately cast, and then welded together with the Zun Body using lead-tin alloy. The neck accessory is composed of complex and orderly hollow patterns, and belongs to investment casting.


When it was unearthed, it was placed on a plate and disassembled into two pieces, which are extremely unique. The mouth is open and shaped like a trumpet, with a wide outer edge folded and drooping. It is adorned with exquisite and transparent patterns of coiled cobras, resembling clouds stacked up and down. The neck of the statue is decorated with banana leaf shaped coiled patterns, and the banana leaves stretch upwards, matching with the slightly outward curved line of the neck top, creating harmony and unity. Add four round carved leopard shaped beasts between the neck and abdomen of the statue, with a body composed of carved dragon patterns. The beasts climb up along the statue's neck and release their tongues, with their long tongues hanging like hooks. Both the abdomen and high feet are adorned with delicate patterns of coiled cobs, with four high relief dragon stripes added, with rich layers and clear priorities. The plate has a straight wall and a flat bottom, with four square ears attached to the edge of the four dragon shaped hooves and feet, all decorated with coiled cobra patterns, which are the same style as the Zun Kou. There are two flat hollow Kui dragons under each of the four ears, with a drooping dragon head. Between the four dragons, there is a circular carved dragon, with its head resting on the edge of its mouth, echoing the coiled dragon pattern on its belly, thus breaking through the stagnation and stiffness often found in the decorated coiled dragon pattern. Both the Zun and the Pan have inscriptions indicating that they were used before the birth of Marquis Yi. Therefore, experts named them the Zeng Marquis Yi Zun and Zeng Marquis Yi Pan, collectively known as the Zeng Marquis Yi Zun Pan. It is the most complicated and exquisite bronze ware in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States period.

The expert identified that this was cast by the Lost-wax casting, because the ornamentation was fine and complex, and the accessories had no traces of forging and casting. The Lost-wax casting is also called wax removal method and wax extraction method. The basic method is to mold the wax, pour it repeatedly with fine slurry after molding, coat the wax mold with slurry, and then bake it with refractory materials to make a mold. The wax melts out and forms a cavity, which can be used to cast copper juice into a vessel.


The casting process of circular feet


The circle foot is divided into two layers: upper and lower. The lower layer is a facade, with a dragon shaped pattern cast on it. The upper layer is a sloping surface, and there are hollow patterns on it. The specific casting technology belongs to the common technology of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. For example, the flat dragon pattern on the facade uses the combination technology of unit patterns, while the hollow pattern on the slope is similar to the hollow copper fumigation in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States period. The unit pattern is made on the plane fan pattern pattern, and the cavity on the pattern is the hollow pattern.


Casting process of abdomen and neck


The abdomen is relatively simple, with only a decorative band with a winding dragon pattern around it. The upper mouth of the neck is large, the lower mouth is small, and the bottom is relatively short. It is a decorative band with a circumference, and the upper part is very long. There are four banana leaf shapes covered with coiled dragon patterns, with a plain surface between them. The casting process of the abdomen and neck also adopted the pattern matching technique, which was popular in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States period.


The production process of lip edges


The decorative ring of the lip is composed of many individual small decorations. These small patterns should have several shapes. Specifically, 16 small decorative units are first formed into a small group decorative unit, and every 4 of these same group decorative units form a large group decorative unit. Then, these 4 large group decorative units are enclosed into the entire rim decorative ring. Most individual small decorative patterns are supported by copper stems below, and the small decorative patterns are welded to the copper stems. The individual small patterns that make up several shapes of the lip pattern circle are all cast in a single mold. The so-called single combined fan is actually a fan package composed of two fan pieces. Among them, the concave cavity of one fan has the same geometric shape as the entire object, while the opposite fan is a flat plate without a cavity.


The small decorative patterns on the Zun Pan are produced in bulk using a single and multi chamber single mold process.


The production process of raising one end of a small decorative pattern


A single composite model with batch casting of small patterns, with one side being a flat model, meaning there is no shape on the surface. It is not difficult to understand that when this flat panel model is combined with the cavity model, the small decorative patterns cast can have one end of the string pattern surface raised, but the bottom surface must be flat. The small decorative patterns on the Zun Pan were cast into a blank with a flat bottom and a raised string pattern at one end using a single die mold. The bottom surface of the raised part was also ground.


Assembly of individual small patterns


After grinding, the bottom surface of the raised corners of the small decorative pattern is all loose parts and still needs to be assembled into a whole. The volume of small decorative patterns is too small, and riveting and casting are impossible, let alone the conditions for tenoning and riveting. Therefore, welding has become the only choice. Similarly, these welding marks are quite irregular, and there are even gaps left by incomplete welding. It should be emphasized again that such weld marks are distributed throughout the entire decorative ring of the Zun Pan mouth, especially at the corners of the small decorative string surface. The non-standard nature of manual welding results in different shapes of welding marks and staggered welding positions.


The production process of the Zun and Pan mouth edges is already very clear, that is, the small decorative patterns are individually cast, processed, and welded to form four major groups of small decorative units, which are then welded to the top of the inner bracket with copper stems. In this way, the production process steps of the entire Zun and Pan rim decorative rings are as follows: first, a large number of small decorative patterns are cast using a single mold with multiple cavities. Then, according to the design requirements, the protruding sides of the small decorative patterns are polished, and using cutting, welding, and other techniques, the small decorative patterns are welded to different copper stems. The other end of the copper stem is directly welded to the copper frame, or several copper stems are welded together, and then welded to the rim of the Zun disc. Finally, weld the legs, abdomen, and neck together. As for the eight attached beasts mentioned above, they are all cast separately and then respectively connected to the surface of the statue. This piecemeal casting method significantly simplifies the process difficulty and effectively avoids the waste of the entire machine. The assembly of hundreds of components into a complete device is crucial for the support of welding technology and reasonable overall process arrangement. The process combination of parting mold making, parting mold making, parting casting, processing and assembly is the mainstream technology of bronze casting in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States period. There are hundreds of parts for the Zun Pan of Marquis Yi of Zeng, and the number and complexity of its assembly are still amazing. It should be said that this may be the main reason for mistaking Zun Pan for Lost-wax casting casting for a long time.


During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States period, bronze casting technology was significantly improved, and many new processes appeared at this time, including the Lost-wax casting process. The Lost-wax casting is used to cast artifacts. Since the whole mold will not produce casting marks caused by mold fitting, the surface is smooth and fine, and it can cast quite complicated patterns. However, sand holes of different sizes often appear on the surface of artifacts, because there is no air hole, there is no place to pour copper liquid. Later generations of counterfeiters mistakenly believed that the smoother, smoother, and without any trace, the more successful a tool is, and instead, they made a fool of themselves. Because the Lost-wax casting is easy to learn, it is the main technique of imitating ancient times and counterfeiting in later generations. Most of the ancient bronze wares were cast by the pottery pattern method, and even if the joints were tight, there would be gaps. Therefore, there were many casting marks and warts in the ears, feet, lower abdomen and other concealed places of such wares. The Lost-wax casting imitation cast wares had no casting marks but sand holes. There were many sand holes in the belly of a Song imitated Xi Zhou He in the Forbidden City, and the subtle differences in these concealed places were often the key to identify authenticity.


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