The style and characteristics of bronzes from various periods of the Shang and Zhou dynasties

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The bronzes of the Western Zhou Dynasty have more characteristics of the times, tending to be simple and long-term. The wine vessels, horns, sashes, goblets, fangyi, etc. have basically disappeared, and the pots, rongli, bowls, bottles, birds and beasts bottles still remain.

The bowls, bowls and water fillers of the food container are new types of utensils, which are generous and practical. 匜, a set of plates, need to be used, found often unearthed together. The "Book of Rites Internal Rules" records:

Enter, the young serve the plate, the elderly serve water, please wo, the pawn, and give the scarf. "The luxurious life of the aristocracy can be seen. The bronze bell has developed from a group of 3 pieces to a group of 8 pieces.

The Lieding system was particularly prevalent during this period. It also often appears in an even number, matching the tripod.

The instrument type is on the tripod, and the retort is mostly made of hoof-shaped feet, and the Mao Gong Ding can be used as a typical representative. Some of the tripods and plates have mouths, and some of the plates have abdominal ears. There are often 3 legs under the ring foot.

The mustache is mostly folded, the arc crotch, there is a special shape of the mustache with the stove, and a relief of the figurines who was tortured is also cast outside the door of the square stove. The pot generally has a collar double animal ear. The strikers are mostly triangular in shape.

In the late Western Zhou Dynasty, there were also ornaments with the artistic style of the times, such as ring belt pattern, plagiarism pattern, scale pattern, heavy ring pattern, and tile pattern. However, there are also many utensils with plain surfaces or only a few strings on the body.

Because the makers pay more attention to the inscriptions, the new ornamentation inevitably has a rough and sloppy feeling. The animal face pattern is generally no longer used as a theme decoration, but is often used as a decoration on the upper end of the foot. Bird prints continue to be popular.

Shang and Zhou bronze bai

The remarkable feature of the ware is that there are many decorative patterns on the surface. In the early and middle Shang dynasties, the common patterns were decorated with the pattern of the gluttonous pattern, the dragon pattern of the power kui, the cloud and thunder pattern, and the bead pattern. The gluttonous pattern, also known as the animal face pattern, is a monster facial image with horns, sharp teeth, and large eyes.

The dragon pattern is a dragon-like animal image on the side. In the later period of the Shang Dynasty, the phoenix bird pattern appeared, in addition to the human face pattern, deer pattern, tiger pattern, snake pattern, cicada pattern and silkworm pattern. The subject matter of the bronze pattern mainly expresses the worship of ghosts and gods.

Zuo Biography records: The Xia Dynasty "cast a statue of a tripod, and prepared a hundred things for it, so that the people knew the traitor". The purpose of bronze ornamentation was to allow people to distinguish between good and evil intellectually, so as to effectively promote the morality of a slave society.

The bronze decorative pattern is the totemic art of the primitive tribe that the craftsmen have sorted out and processed to make it more upright, harmonious, mysterious, and produce a majestic power. The main body of the bronze sculpture is supplemented by Yin line inscriptions, and the rest of the blank parts are carved into fine cloud and thunder patterns as a substrate, so as to create a multi-level decorative effect. There are also inscriptions cast on important bronzes of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and while decorating the utensils, the inscriptions have important calligraphic value and historical value.

1. The early Shang Dynasty: the Shang Dynasty from the 16th century BC to the 11th century BC was the period when bronze art was mature to its peak, the bronzes of the early Shang Dynasty were represented by the unearthed people of Zhengzhou Erligang and Duling in Henan Province and Panlongcheng in Huangpo, Hubei.

2. Late Shang Dynasty: The casting process of bronzes is more exquisite, the shape is rich, and the popular decoration is a variety of ornaments.

3. Western Zhou Dynasty: From the 11th century B.C. to the Western Zhou Dynasty in the 8th century B.C., the bronze craft followed the dignified and elegant style of the late Shang Dynasty, and the wine vessels were slightly excavated.

The bronze utensils of the Shang and Zhou dynasties in China are not only containers for holding things, but also ritual vessels in the temple. The number of bronzes can indicate the level of status, and the size of the bronze shape can also indicate the level of power of the dust. Among the bronzes, the most important type of ware is the tripod.

Ancient bronze ware can be divided into four categories: food vessels, wine vessels, water vessels, and musical instruments. Edible utensils include tripods, mustaches, and so on. Among them, the tripod is the most important ritual vessel.

In the middle and late Western Zhou Dynasty, China formed a Liding system, according to the "Spring and Autumn Ram Biography" records, the Son of Heaven used 9 tripods, the princes used 7 tripods, the princes used 5 tripods, and the scholars used 3 tripods or 1 tripods. With the development of the times, the shape of the bronze tripod is also changing. In the early Shang Dynasty, most of them were round-bellied and pointed-footed, and there were also square tripods.

In the middle period, there was a flat-footed tripod and so on. In the late Shang Dynasty, the number of pointed feet gradually decreased, and the round-bellied column-footed tripods began to dominate, and the number of mustaches gradually increased.

Shang Dynasty face pattern copper tripod: "high centimeter, mouth length centimeter, mouth width centimeter, 1959 Ningxiang yellow material unearthed.

Shang Dynasty pig-shaped bronze statue: 40 cm high, 72 cm long, unearthed in 1981 Xiangji Rantan boat-shaped mountain.

Shang Dynasty cow-shaped copper: 14 cm high, 19 cm long, unearthed in 1977 Hengyang Baojia platform.