Erlitou culture of the bronze jue, has been found a number of pieces, the National Museum of China collection of this piece, was unearthed in the 80s of the last century.
The Erlitou culture is an archaeological culture. Archaeological culture, in essence, is a classification, which refers to a group of material remains found in the same era, distributed in a certain geographical range, and with common characteristics. Archaeological cultures tend to be named after small sites where the culture's first discovered, or most important and representative sites are located. For example, the name of the famous Yangshao culture is derived from Yangshao Village, Mianchi County, Henan Province, where this type of culture was first discovered; The Erlitou culture is named after the most important and representative Erlitou site. After years of research, the Erlitou culture has basically been identified as the Xia culture, that is, the material remains left by the Xia people during the Xia Dynasty. The main spatio-temporal evidence is: in terms of era, the Erlitou culture was earlier than the Shang culture; As we all know, the Shang Dynasty was preceded by the Xia Dynasty. Geographically, the Erlitou culture was mainly distributed in the western part of present-day Henan Province and the southern part of Shanxi Province, which according to historical records was the scope of the Xia Dynasty's activities. The ruins of Erlitou are now also considered to be the capital of the Xia Dynasty, and it is likely to be the last capital, that is, the royal court of the famous tyrant Xia Wei. The types of bronze ritual vessels that have been found in the Erlitou site include Ding, Jue, and Zhu, all of which should be bronzes of the Xia Dynasty, among which the number of Jue found is the largest.
Tongjue is one of the most important bronze sprinklers in the pre-Qin period, it was first found in the Erlitou culture, that is, the Xia Dynasty, the Shang Dynasty reached its peak, and basically disappeared after the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty. The shape characteristics of the bronze jue are relatively special, there is a groove-like long flow mouth in front of the mouth, a pointed "tail" in the back, and there are generally two small "pillars" on the edge of the mouth; There is a handle on one side of the body; There are three slender feet at the bottom of the vessel. The bronze jue of the Erlitou culture is the earliest known bronze jue, representing the earliest form of the copper jue, compared with the later copper jue, its mouth and pointed "tail" are longer, the body is thinner, and it is waist-shaped. Jue is a wine vessel, which has been recognized, but how to use it is very controversial. Many people think that Jue is a drinking vessel used to drink alcohol, but this is a misunderstanding. Jue has a long mouth, three thin feet, and a small column on the edge of the mouth, all of which are not the shape that a drinking vessel should have. In particular, Jue's mouth is suitable for pouring slurry, but it is too inconvenient to drink it into the mouth. Generally, utensils with spouts (tubular flow or trough flow) are not used as drinking utensils, such as the ancient cups and cups, and the teapots and kettles that we commonly use today. The real utensils used as drinking vessels are basically flat and round mouth utensils, such as ancient cups and modern cups (the goose of the Shang and Zhou dynasties was also considered to be a drinking vessel). In some of today's works of art, Jue not only appears as a drinking vessel, but is also used by people after the Han Dynasty, not only for the wrong purpose, but also completely wrong for the times. Some people speculate that it is a wine warmer based on some soot marks on the bottom of the jue, which seems to make some sense; But for such an important utensil to function only for warm wine, it is not reasonable. The naming of Jue began in the Song Dynasty, and the Naming of many bronze objects by the Song people later proved to be wrong, but the naming of Jue was correct. Because it can now be seen that the pictographs of the oracle bone inscription and the golden inscription have an obvious relationship with the word "jue" in the later small seal. Accurate naming helps to determine the purpose of the knight. "Shuo Wen Jie Zi": "Jue, the ritual vessel is also, like the shape of a sparrow, there is wine, and it is also persistent." "Explain that Jue is used to hold wine, the Palace Museum collection of the early Western Zhou Dynasty Marquis Lu, cast with inscriptions, although the meaning of the text is not completely clear, but it mentions "Hu", which can prove the ancient book. It is a kind of co-brewed fragrant wine, and according to ancient books, it is mostly used for naked ceremonies. The main responsibility of the position of "Yu Ren" recorded in the "Zhou Li" is to "hold the naked vessel, all the naked things of the sacrifices and guests, and the Yu Hu to show it with real Yi". "Filling (naked) with stench" ("The Book of Rites: Suburban Special Sacrifice") also shows that the naked ceremony is mainly used with wine. In the eyes of the ancients, he has a special ability, "the root of a hundred herbs is also, the upper is smooth, the lower is smooth on the ground, and everything is smooth" ("Shuo Yuan"), no wonder it has received such attention. Since Jue "has wine", then it is likely to be applied to the naked ceremony, and when performing the naked ceremony, it is necessary to "drink the wine first, and pour the ground to pray to God", and the mouth of the Jue should be used to pour the wine to "pour the ground".
Erlitou culture bronze jue is the earliest wine vessel that can be identified at present. It is not clear whether there were wine vessels in the Neolithic Age earlier than the Erlitou culture, because the relics of this period cannot be connected with the clear wine vessels after the Xia Dynasty in terms of shape, and the source relationship can be found, so even if there are wine vessels, they cannot be identified. It is worth noting that there are often sayings about artificial wine in the Xia Dynasty in ancient books, such as Dayu's courtier Yi Di "the beginning of the wine mash, change the five flavors", "Du Kang makes wine", "Shaokang makes wine" ("Shiben") and so on, which may explain some problems.
Erlitou culture bronze jue is the earliest bronze vessel that can be determined. Bronzes have appeared in the Neolithic period on the mainland, but they are few in number, mainly simple tools, and these bronzes are easier to cast. The copper container is different, its casting, need to have an outer fan and an inner core, and the technical requirements for the model and the group model are also very high. There may have been a bronze vessel in the Neolithic Age, and a copper sheet with a curvature was unearthed in the Longshan cultural period site of Wangchenggang in Dengfeng, Henan, and the excavator speculated that it was a fragment of a bronze container; During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the "Western Qing Gujian" recorded a bronze skull, and the shape of the vessel is basically the same as the pottery skull of Shandong Longshan culture, and some people believe that bronze containers have appeared in Shandong Longshan culture. However, none of these findings can be conclusively evidenced at present, and their findings are relatively accidental and not universal. Only the copper vessels of the Erlitou culture have both definite shapes and uses, as well as a considerable number, reflecting the new height that the bronze casting process has reached at this time.
Article source: "100 Stories in the Exhibits of the National Museum of China" (Editor-in-Chief Lu Zhangshen)
"Longyuan Tiandi" edited by Xiao Jun