¹ In delineating the history of discovery of Zeng-related bronzes, Jay Xu mentions the 1933 discovery at Lisangudui (Zhujiaji) in Anhui of a group of Chu bronzes that included a pair of hu vessels cast for Zengji Wuxu 曾姬無卹, consort to an early Warring States Chu king (21). It may be interesting to add the more famous Zengbo Qi fu 曾伯簠, a bronze cast by a head of a Zeng elite lineage. The cover of the bronze was in the collection of Chen Jieqi 陳介琪 by 1884 at the latest, and it gave the famous scholar and collector his studio name “Fuzhai” 簠齋; the vessel itself was known as early as 1804. Multiple bronzes cast for the same Zengbo Qi 曾伯 were found in tomb no. 79 at Sujialong in 2016, identifying him as the occupant of the tomb, and Sujialong the base of his lineage.

² Another bell cast by the same Chugong Ni 楚公逆 was found in Jiayu 嘉魚 County in Hubei in the Zhenghe 政和 Era (1111–1118 CE), or probably even earlier. For an analysis of this bell, no longer extant, and its inscription, see Cook, Constance A., “Myth and Authenticity: Deciphering the Chu Gong Ni Bell Inscription,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 113.4 (1993), 539–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

³ Certainly, the inclusion of good photos of the inscription (for example, p. 134) could have offset this problem, but such photos are rare in contrast to the many bronzes with important inscriptions.

⁴ See Pankenier, David, “The Cosmo-Political Background of Heaven’s Mandate,” Early China 20 (1995), 121–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁵ According to this tradition, King Cheng of Zhou awarded the hereditary title viscount (zi) to Xiong Yi, the great-grandson of Yu Xiong, the Chu ancestor. The Chu ruler was indeed referred to as zi in the oracle bone inscriptions from Zhouyuan, but later studies suggest that this was a way the Zhou elites referred to foreign leaders, usually those who were in hostile relationship. Probably the very tradition about Chu receiving a title from Zhou was generated from the Central-Plains-centered historiography that emphasized Zhou hegemony. On the title zi, See Feng, Li, “Transmitting Antiquity: The Origin and Paradigmization of the ‘Five Ranks,’” in Perceptions of Antiquity in Chinese Civilization, edited by Kuhn, Dieter and Stahl, Helga (Heidelberg: Edition Forum, 2008), 103–34Google Scholar.

⁶ See Blakeley, Barry B., “In Search of Danyang I: Historical Geography and Archaeological Site,” Early China 13 (1988), 116–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar; “On the Location of the Chu Capital in Early Chunqiu Times in Light of the Handong Incident of 701 B.C.,” Early China 15 (1990), 49–70. On the geopolitics of middle Yangzi and the location of Chu during the Western Zhou, see Feng, Li, Landscape and Power in Early China: The Crisis and Fall of the Western Zhou, 1045–771 BC (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 328–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁷ See note 2 above.

⁸ For late Western Zhou and early Spring and Autumn period fashions in bronze art, see von Falkenhausen, Lothar, “Late Western Zhou Taste,” Études chinoises 18 (1999), 143–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rawson, Jessica, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections (Washington, DC: Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1990), 93–132 Google Scholar.

⁹ For a discussion of the indigenous features of E bronzes, see Feng, Li, “Literacy Crossing Cultural Borders: Evidence from the Bronze Inscriptions of the Western Zhou Period (1045–771 B.C.),” Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquity 74 (2002), 222–31Google Scholar.

¹⁰ See, for instance, Wu Dongming 吳冬明, “Mi Jia bianzhong mingwen bushi bing shilun jinwen suojian Zeng Chu jiaowang de zhengzhi ciling” 嬭加編鐘銘文補釋並試論金文所見曾楚交往的政治辭令 [Supplemental commentary on the inscription of the Mi Jia bell-set and discussions of the political rhetoric in Zeng–Chu diplomacy as seen in bronze inscriptions], Jianghan kaogu 2020.3, 115–20.