Specification
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Design: Drinking Vessel
- Material: Bronze
- Size: 22.5 cm * 20 cm * 10 cm
The Four-goat Square Zun (Chinese: 四羊方尊) is an ancient Chinese ritual bronze zun vessel. It is more than 3,000 years old from the era of the late Shang dynasty (11th – 10th century BC), and is famous for its shape, each of the four sides of the belly has a big horn-curled goat. It was unearthed in Huangcai Town, Ningxiang County in Hunan Province, and is exhibited at the National Museum of China.
The Four-goat Square Zun is 58.3-centimeter (23.0 in) high and weighs 34.5-kilogram (76 lb), the biggest square zun from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC) so far. The mouth of its vessel extends outwards forming an extremely big square mouth. The bottom is supported by ring feet (圈足支座) and the middle part was skillfully engraved with four goats with big curly horns. The four goats stand facing in four directions, looking serene and calm. Four high-relief entwining dragons are on the shoulders of the square zun. A pair of horns and heads of the dragons respectively extend out of the surface of the square zun. [1]