A guang or gong is a particular shape used in Chinese art for vessels, originally made as Chinese ritual bronzes in the Shang dynasty (c. 1600 – c. 1046 BC), and sometimes later in Chinese porcelain. They are a type of ewer which was used for pouring rice wine at ritual banquets, and often deposited as grave goods in high-status burial. Examples of the shape may be described as ewers, ritual wine vessels, wine pourers and similar terms, though all of these terms are also used of a number of other shapes, especially the smaller tripod jue and the larger zun. The guang has a single thick foot, and a thick hollow body that represents one or more stylized animals (some have a head at both ends). Guangs have a vertical handle at one end and a spout at the other, both zoomorphic, and were often highly decorated with taotie. The handle of the guang is of often in the shape of the neck and head of an animal with stylized horns, and the spout of the vessel is in the form of the head of a creature whose mouth constitutes the end of the spout. The back and animal head at the pouring end usually are a removable lid, lifted off for pouring. Their main period of use was during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, from around 1700 to 900 BCE; thereafter the shape was sometimes used in a revivalist spirit. The Ritual wine server (guang), Indianapolis Museum of Art, 60.43 is a fine example from about 1100 BC. Function and use The guang bronze ritual vessels of Early China were primarily used to house and serve wine during ancestor worship rituals in which the wine vapors were to be consumed by the deceased spirits and the actual physical contents to be enjoyed by the living. This use, for storage and serving, is suggested through the form of the vessel. It is typically supported by one oval-shaped foot (supported more rarely by four legs), while the bronze itself takes the form of several animals and fantastical creatures metamorphosed. Each guang also has a neck and head, which serve as the pouring channel for the wine. A lid accompanies the vessel to complete the form. According to Robert Bagley, this lid is the chief idiosyncrasy, or characteristic, of the guang, for it is where the largest relief and decoration often