Ritual wine cup (jue) with archaic-style motifs

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This cup is a rare and important example of a Yuan dynasty dated ritual bronze for an official Confucian temple. Its inscription states that it was cast in 1294 for the Confucian school of Wu County (now Suzhou, Jiangsu Province). Based on historical texts, this project was completed between 1293 and 1295 and was supervised by two scholar officials: Li Gan and Fang Wenbao. Both names appear in the inscription cast onto this vessel to commemorate their sponsorship. The Wu County vessels are the earliest group of ritual bronzes that bear dated inscriptions from the Yuan dynasty. The practice of producing vessels for official Confucian schools with dated dedications set a precedent that continued for the next seven hundred years.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art