A Recently Excavated Inscribed Bronze of Western Chou Date

Abstract

Archaeological discovery in China during the last few years has progressed remarkably and accounts of the more important finds are gradually being published and are now becoming available to foreign students. Scientifically excavated inscriptions are slowly growing in numbers with the result that systematic research based on dependable documents will soon lead to a better understanding of ancient China while the sometimes fanciful accounts of forgers concealed amongst unattested materials will soon no longer be able to distort the picture. Hitherto, scholars have had to work with inscribed vessels the majority of which lack any record of provenance ; the few with some sort of testimony are vaguely and insubstantially authenticated. With material of this kind reliable research has not been possible, while those who have studied the inscriptions have seldom considered the possibility that a serious proportion of the bronze texts they have consulted are merely the products of unscrupulous craftsmen of recent centuries.1