Fu for food and wine of King of Chu

Fu for food and wine of King of Chu, also called Chu Wang Yan Fei Fu 楚王酓朏簠, is from the late Warring States period. It is 12 cm in height, 31.9 cm in length, and 5 kg in weight. This vessel is rectangular, with hollow square feet and cloud patterns on the belly.

Generally, Fu 簠 is a square utensil used to hold rice, millet, sorghum and some other foods, later served as a kind of ritual objects during sacrificial ceremonies and feasts in ancient China. The basic shape of Fu is rectangular, which is symmetrical from top to bottom. Two separated components of the lid part and body part are combined into a whole. Historically, containers like Fu appeared in the early Western Zhou Dynasty, being prevalent in the Spring and Autumn period of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, and fading after the late Warring States period. Among different kinds of Fu, especially the bronze Fu is used as one of the main sacrificial vessels, which played an important role in the bronze ritual vessel set.

As for Fu for food and wine of King of Chu, there are 12 characters of inscription on the mouth of this vessel. Its general idea exactly is that the King of Chu, Yanqian 酓歬 who reigned from 262 BC to 238 BC cast this Fu for the purpose of sacrificing every year.