It has two bird-shaped handles and is covered with a high-relief taotie motif similar to earlier Shang ritual objects.

[7] The Li gui is inscribed with thirty-two characters commemorating King Wu of Zhou's conquest of Shang.

Transcribed into modern-day regular script, with archaic phonetic loans and digraphs given in parentheses, the full inscription reads: 珷(武王)征商隹(唯)甲子朝歲 鼎(貞)克昏(聞)夙又(有)商辛未 王才(在)管師易(賜)又(右)吏利 金用乍(作)旜公寶尊彝 The inscription begins: King Wu attacked Shang.

[10] There is no scholarly consensus on the meaning of the next seven graphs, beginning with sui (歲, at the end of the first line), which is variously interpreted as the name of a ritual or as a reference to the planet Jupiter.

He granted his youshi[15] Li metal, with which he makes this treasured ritual vessel for his esteemed ancestor Zhan.