Gu (Ku) (Ritual Wine Beaker)

Some historians have argued that a religious ceremony is not merely the imitation of sacred events, but an “eternal return” to the event itself, uniting the mythic time of the past with the historic time of the present. In essence, a funerary rite provides a tangible connection between the living and the dead, the sacred and the worldly, the ephemeral and the eternal. Used to make offerings of wine to ancestors, this Shang dynasty ritual beaker (gu) made the spiritual world manifest for the living in remembrance of the dead. Of cast bronze, the beaker’s decoration emphasizes its funerary function. The long, leaf-like forms on the upper portion of the vessel are actually cicadas, which symbolized transformation and rebirth in ancient China. While scholars still debate their precise meaning, the ferocious ogre-like animal masks ornamenting the beaker’s foot, known as taotie, probably served as tomb guardian spirits.