Ch'ang-chih

Moving into eastern Shansi, the 129th division engaged the Japanese in October along the Cheng-t’ai Railroad (running from Shih-chia-chuang, Hopeh to Taiyuan, Shansi), and after the Japanese broke through the Communist lines, Liu’s division established its major base in the T’ai-hang Mountains north of Ch’ang-chih in southeastern Shansi.

1971, Donald W. Klein, Anne B. Clark, “Sun Jen-ch’iung”, in Biographic Dictionary of Chinese Communism 1921-1965, volume II, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 788, column 1

In vessels unearthed in 1923 at Li-yü, and more recently in the much more prosperous and important area of Ch‘ang-chih in Central Shansi, the décor of flat interlocking bands of dragons looks forward to the restless, intricate decoration of the mature Huai style; but in their robust forms, in the tiger masks which top their legs and the realistic birds and other creatures which adorn their lids, these vessels recall the vigour of an earlier age.

1973, Michael Sullivan, “The Period of the Warring States”, in The Arts of China, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 52

A Ho of this type, but not inlaid, was discovered in a Warring States tomb just outside the Ch'ang-chih shih, Shansi in 1955 (see Kaogu, 1964, no. 3, PI. 2, fig. 4 and p. 126, fig. 15.

1977, René Yvon Lefebvre d'Argencé, “Han”, in Bronze Vessels of Ancient China in the Avery Brundage Collection, Kodansha International, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 130

Further support for the Shansi provenance came in 1965, when a bronze quadruped with identical ornamentation and of approximately the same size as the Freer example was unearthed in tomb 126, at Fen-shui-ling, Ch'ang-chih, Shansi Province.² However, a bronze human figure holding a shallow rimmed basket mounted on the back of the quadruped from Ch'ang-chih indicates that the piece actually did serve as a container. There is no indication that the Freer quadruped ever supported such a figure or that it was meant to be used tor any related function.

1982, Thomas Lawton, “Bronze Vessels, Fittings, and Weapons”, in Chinese Art of the Warring States Period, Smithsonian Institution, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 79, column 1