Metalworking in Bronze Age China: The Lost-Wax Process By Peng Pe ...

Chapter 4

Further Confirmed Lost-wax Castings I

The Xiasi Jin

Beyond the Zeng zun-pan,¹ castings that demonstrate the use of lost-wax also include vessels from the Xichuan Xiasi cemetery of the sixth century BCE, an especially exquisite example being the bronze jin (altar table, fig. 26), which has multiple levels of highly intricate openwork structure on its four profiles and along the peripheries of its top and bottom. In addition, twelve each of two types of precast beast-shaped figurines with a less complex openwork decoration are appended around and underneath the jin body in a symmetrical manner.² The entire bronze jin consists of the table body, twelve laterally appended beasts, and twelve supporting beasts (see fig. 26c).³ This particular jin, the largest one known,⁴ measures 131 centimeters long, 67.6 centimeters wide, and 28.8 centimeters high and weighs 94.2 kilograms.⁵ The jin body alone is 103 centimeters long, 46 centimeters wide, and 14 centimeters high.⁶ The sheer size, elegant shape, superb decorations, and unusual fabrication process make this artifact unique and remarkable.