Li

Li, Chinese bronze, wide-mouthed cooking vessel that was supported by three legs shaped like pointed lobes. These legs were well articulated on the body of the vessel and formed an extension of the interior volume. A coarse pottery, li was made in the Neolithic Period (c. 3000–2000 bc); this shape appeared in the bronze art of the Shang dynasty (18th–12th century bc) and was continued into the Zhou (c. 1111–255 bc) and beyond. It also...