What did Chinese people in the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) use when dining?
Here is a bronze tableware set from the Qi State, including 10 flat plates, 10 handled cups, 10 saucers, 10 bowls, six handled plates, four deep bowls, nine plates with folded edges, and one large tableware container. All of the tableware can be tidily stored in the container according to their size. They reflect the ten-person banquet custom that is still followed up till this day by Chinese people, and the superb bronze casting crafts of that period.
Excavated from a tomb in Linzi city, Shandong province, in 1992, the bronze tableware set is now part of the permanent collection of the Shandong Museum.