A gu is a type of ancient Chinese ritual bronze vessel from the Shang and Zhou dynasties (1600–256 BC). It was used to drink wine or to offer ritual libations.

A gu is tall and slender, with a slightly flared base that tapers to a slim center section before widening again into a trumpet-like mouth, wider than the base. Its surface is often decorated with taotie.

The gu vessel was known for its use as a wine-drinking vessel. It is said to have developed from other elaborate cups that also had high stems and were found in Neolithic cultures. Inscriptions have been found on ancient vessels stating that it was common to drink wine in Chinese cultures. The creation of a vessel such as the gu makes sense in modern times because of its shape. The long stem made it easy to hold and sip from, while still allowing it to take on unique and elegant features. The drinking of wine was made from this cup.

Throughout the hundreds of Neolithic to early dynastic sites discovered in China, ritual vessels ranging from clay to bronze are often found in the tombs of these sites. The form, shapes, and décor, provide hints to every vessel's function as well as the early beliefs that inspired them. Early Chinese religion has been difficult for scholars to understand due to a lack of extensive archaeological evidence on Neolithic religious philosophies and ritual practices. The early Shang dynasty, however, had a much more concrete religion in regards to beliefs and practices ranging from ancestor worship to funerary rituals, and a developed system to perform sacrifices. As these beliefs could have extended back into earlier periods in China, a common center of worship included such elements such as ancestors, fertility concerns as well as other spirits or gods of the natural elements.

The ritual vessels of early China are an extension of the spiritual or religious world, in which the powers that seemed to exist in nature may have carried a high influence in the inspiration of the vessels. The powers of nature included those that could have resided in animals, plants, water, sickness, death, and eventually the afterlife, all of which coexisted with people as having a high influence on one's life. In some cases, ritual vessels provided a way to maintain harmony between the spirit world and the earthly realm through vessels holding sacrifices, or vessels like the gu being drunk by humans in ritual ceremonies.

The gu was a common wine vessel to be found in high class areas. This wine vessel has been found in places such as meeting areas were high class Chinese members would gather for wine with one another. The gu vessel can be unique in a number of ways. The more elegant styled vessels with more relief and design would be found more commonly in the high class surroundings. The simpler, tall and narrow, gu vessels would be found throughout the family's households. According to the Tsun family, the gu vessel was found to be listed under the "Wine Containers" list of artifacts that have been found in the Shang civilizations. This allows archaeologists to focus on locations of gu vessels to help indicate the class status of the site.

In Book 6, verse 25, of the Confucian Analects, a gu is referred to. It was a cup to be drunk from specifically in religious sites but first by the rulers of the Shang dynasty. Its functional use for a human rather than a spirit is also noted based on the construction of the gu vessel for its design is logical in that it can hold liquid and can be easily held in one's hand unlike other wine vessels.

The only evidence we have of ritual use of this vessel is its strong association with wine, spirits, and high class rulers. Later engraved vessels help support the significance of ritual wine drinking as part of ritual ceremony. The gu vessel appears in an engraving of a ritual scene found on a yi vessel discovered in a tomb in Shaanxi in which the gu being used in the engraving highly resembles the gu of the Shang.