We are in the bronze gallery and I am with a water vessel called Yi. However, it is not just any ordinary water vessel. Around the 9th to 8th century BC in the late Western Zhou Dynasty, it played an important role in a hand-cleansing ritual before the aristocrats were engaged in ceremonies. A servant would pour water from the wide spout for his master to wash hands while another servant would hold a water pan below to catch the water.
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