Cloudy Wine Table of The Spring and Autumn Period
Another attribute of the antique bar: a bronze wine table Jin (禁).
The name of this piece of furniture involves social advertising. Jin means “forbidden”. The name is aimed at potential consumers, encouraging them to be moderate in drinking.
It was believed that the Shang and Xia dynasties fell into decline due to alcohol abuse. The term itself has been in use since the Zhou Dynasty, when the first Dry Law was proclaimed. Wine was allowed only in rituals, in other cases, drinking it entailed the death penalty. For the same reason, it could be assumed that the table also had a religious purpose.
The wine table belonged to the Grand Chancellor Zi Geng during the reign of King Kang of Chu (楚康王).
It was manufactured with a lost-wax casting, a technology that is more often used in jewelry. The wine table rests on twelve dragons that serve as its legs. Twelve more surround it, trying to climb onto the tabletop from all sides.
Sophisticated clouds are not just for decoration. It is an allegory of the primordial forces, accumulated between Heaven and Earth, in action. The very pictograph for Qi, invented just in the Spring and Autumn period, refers to the clouds.
Finely crafted, the table was unearthed in fragments. It was a feat on the part of the restorers to bring it together. Rebuilding under the guidance of the bronze ware expert Wang Changqing took more than two years.
On display in Henan Museum (河南博物院).
