It is popular in the late Shang Dynasty to the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period of large-scale wine vessels and ceremonial vessels, mostly cast in bronze, with two types of shapes: round and square.
The vessel fangyi, which is exhibited in the "Why China" exhibition, has an eight-character inscription on the lid of the vessel that reads "The vessel tianquan has been honored by the father has honored yi", which is in the shape of the top of the temple; the vessel is a six-character inscription of "the vessel is the father has honored the Yi", hence the name. Excavated from Taoyuan, Hunan in 1919, the lid is 28.9 cm high and the height of the vessel is 63.6 cm. It is the largest and most exquisite embroidery ever seen, so it is called the "King of Fang".
The body is decorated with cloud thunder pattern as the ground, decorated with animal face pattern, dragon pattern, phoenix pattern, the shoulder sides are decorated with double ear rings, the front abdomen is placed under a beast head, and the four corners and the center of each face are decorated with protruding long hook-shaped edges, which set vertical carving, relief carving, and line carving in one. The vessel is huge, majestic, exquisitely carved and magnificent, and is a representative work of the heyday of Bronze Ware in the Late Shang Dynasty of China.
According to historical records, the mound was found and dug up by Ai Qingyan's father and son in Maoshanyu Village, Shuitian Township, Taoyuan County, and was excavated with a good cover. Five years later, in 1924, the body was bought at a heavy price by Shi Yuzhang, the owner of the Yiyang Bailezhai antique shop; the lid was mortgaged by Ai Qingyan to Xinmin School as the tuition fee for his son Ai Xinzhai. from now on. The vessel body separated from the lid and began their fate of nearly a hundred years of displacement.
Zhong Fengyu, the principal of Xinmin School, graduated from hunan law and politics school, sold his property in 1922, and single-handedly founded a new-style education school on the ruins of the original Yongquan Temple in the local area, advocating the "five educations" of morality, wisdom, qun, beauty and body, and was a person with high local reputation and the best learning.
Zhong Fengyu recognized the vessel fangyi as a Shang Dynasty artifact and began to trace the body. This also attracted the attention of the authorities, and some warlords went to the Zhong family to search for the cover of the device. In order to avoid the disaster of killing, Zhong Fengyu found Zhou Pan, commander of the Sixth Regiment of the Third Brigade of the Second Division of the Hunan Army garrison in the town of Qihe in Taoyuan County, and expressed his willingness to donate the Vessel Fangwei Cover to the state, but asked for funds to revitalize the university. Zhou Pan paid my grandfather 5,000 silver dollars, and issued another 5,000 yuan promissory note, telling my grandfather not to make a noise. In this way, the dish fell into the hands of Zhou Pan. Zhong Fengyu used the money to renovate and expand the school, hire teachers, and make Xinmin School a famous local school.
After the founding of New China, in 1952, Zhou Pan handed over the lid of the vessel, and in April of the same year, Jin Ming, vice governor of the Hunan Provincial People's Government, handed the lid to the Provincial Cultural Administration for proper preservation. The Hunan Provincial Cultural Management Commission merged with the Provincial Museum in 1956, and the lid was also handed over to the Hunan Provincial Museum and has been preserved to this day.
The experience of the body can be full of strangeness. After Shi Yuzhang bought it, he didn't know where he was going. In 1928, it was confirmed to be the collection of Lu Qinzhai and later collected by the Japanese Asano Maggie and Nitta Dongichi. In the 1990s, Shinda Dongyi contacted the Hunan Provincial Museum several times to make the artifacts close, but in the end they failed to achieve it. In 2001, the Xintian Dong family sold the vessel to Christie's in New York, USA, and was bought by an anonymous European buyer for $9.246 million, setting a record for the highest sale of Chinese bronzes and Chinese artworks at that time.
In 2013, the vessel was once again an auction item, and was seen by the famous Hunan collector Tan Guobin in the VIP exhibition hall of Christie's in Hong Kong, with the help of all parties, the provincial radio and television station, the provincial museum sent leaders and experts and Tan Guobin and other people to new York to participate in the auction in an appropriate capacity. The leaders of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage are also highly concerned and inform Christie's through various channels, hoping to help promote the negotiation of Hunan.
In the end, after 3 days and 3 nights of negotiations, the parties facilitated the purchase agreement with the seller and Christie's at a price of about half of the expected auction price. The purchaser promised in the agreement that the artifact would never appear at auction again and would be permanently collected by the Hunan Provincial Museum, eventually enabling the vessel to "unite the body and cover and return to Xiang".