What are the characteristics of bronze sculptures and ornamentation in different periods?

Modeling characteristics of ancient Chinese bronzes

Ancient Chinese bronzes have a long history, are gorgeous and brilliant, and have eternal historical and artistic value. A large number of bronzes handed down and discovered in recent years show that bronzes themselves have a complete development and evolution system. The whole development history of bronzes from Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin and Han dynasties can be divided into thirteen periods: Erlitou culture period in Xia, early, middle and late Shang, Western Zhou and Spring and Autumn, and early, middle and late Warring States. Qin and Han dynasties are the afterglow of the development history of bronzes. The characteristics of each question are as follows:

Dozens of Erlitou cultural sites have been discovered in western Henan. The excavated sites include Roda Temple in Zhengzhou, Qilipu in Shaanxi, Donggangou in Luoyang, Jingshan Park in Linru and Xiawanggang in Xichuan. More than 30 Erlitou cultural sites were found in the lower reaches of Fenhe River in Shanxi Province, and the Dongxiafeng site in Xiaxian County was excavated. The bronze ritual vessels of Erlitou culture excavated scientifically were mainly unearthed in Erlitou, Yanshi, and also found in wangjinglou, Xinzheng and Shangqiu.

The bronze ritual vessels discovered scientifically in Erlitou culture period are now limited to drinking fountains. The basic characteristics are narrow advection, short tail, no column, or flat-bottomed columnar prototype. The body is relatively flat and bears three feet. There are several body types: long body with waist, long body with sections and short body with waist. There are two types of feet, long and short. The long foot is a triangular cone and the short foot is a triangular segment. Some short feet may be caused by wear and tear. Some are hollow, which is the characteristic of Erlitou culture period.

Erlitou culture bronzes generally have no decorative patterns, but some Jue cups have one or two rows of round nail-shaped decorative patterns on the front. Some abdomen has a round cake-like protrusion, which is the origin of the grain in Erligang period. Although there are no animal patterns on the bronze ritual vessels of Erlitou culture, there are already abnormal animal patterns inside the bronze ge unearthed in Erlitou, so the possibility of animal patterns appearing on the bronze ritual vessels cannot be ruled out.

Early Shang dynasty BC16th century-BC15th century.

It is equivalent to the cultural period of Li Gang in Shang Dynasty. The determination of carbon content of rammed soil in Zhengzhou Mall 14 is BC 1620, which coincides with the establishment of Shang Tang, but the lower limit of Erligang culture is still unclear. Erligang site is divided into upper and lower floors. The difference between upper and lower bronzes lies not in style, but in the fact that the upper level is more developed than the lower level. Many bronzes from the early Shang Dynasty were unearthed in Zhengzhou, because Zhengzhou Mall was the capital of the early Shang Dynasty. There are important tombs or cellars in Erligang, Baijiazhuang, Zhangzhai South Street, Yangzhuang, Nanguanwai, Gong Ming Road and Erqi Road. Generally distributed in the south and southeast corner of shopping malls. In the northeast and west of the city, there are also cemeteries for burying bronzes. Many early Shang bronzes were found in northern Henan. Important discoveries have also been made in Panlongcheng, Huangpi, Hubei, Bogang, Jiashan, Anhui and Wucheng, Qingjiang, Jiangxi. Most of the early Shang bronzes found in the above sites and tombs are on the upper floor of Erligang.

Bronzes in the early Shang Dynasty had unique shapes. Ding, Wei and other food containers have three legs. There must be one foot perpendicular to one ear, which is visually unbalanced. Cylindrical feet such as tripod and tripod are conically connected with the belly of the vessel, which is because the casting technology of fan core was not mastered at that time. Fang Ding is huge, and the container part is square and deep, which is completely different from the rectangular trough-shaped Fang Ding in Yin Ruins. The form of Jue inherited Erlitou's cultural style, and the method was flat and flat. The process is very narrow and long. In addition to the flat-bottomed bronze coffins, there are also pocket coffins. Tapir, Zun, Bu, Yi, etc. have a+-shaped big hole, which is equivalent to the upper layer of Erligang, and+-deformed into a square hole. Some even left several gaps on the edge of the circle foot, such examples have been unearthed in Zhengzhou and Huangpi Panlongcheng. The half-lid bag with the pipe flow obliquely placed on it has a big handle on the back, which is quite unique in this issue. They are all narrow lips, high neck and high shoulders, and their bodies are also very tall. In the early Shang dynasty, there were two kinds of pots with hanging beams: long neck and small mouth, bulging belly and small mouth with hanging retort, and some small mouths without hanging beams. The main decorative pattern of bronzes in the early Shang Dynasty is animal face pattern, which is composed of rough curves. Except for the round and large animal eyes, the rest are deformed patterns.

Except for symbols, other stripes do not specifically represent all parts of the image. Most decorative patterns are flat carvings, and some main patterns have been embossed. The shoulders of the upper statues and jars in Erligang have been decorated with high-relief sacrificial heads. One of the characteristics of this period is that all animal prints or other animal prints are not based on thunder patterns. In the early Shang dynasty, the geometric patterns were extremely simple, including some rough thunder patterns, single-row or multi-row beading patterns, and breast nail patterns.

In the early Shang Dynasty, there were few inscriptions on bronzes. In the past, it was thought that individual turtle shapes were words, but in fact they were still ornamentation rather than words.

Middle Shang Dynasty, 65438 BC+Middle 5th century-65438 BC+3rd century.

Several batches of bronzes were unearthed from Khan Lee culture period to Yin Ruins culture period in Shang Dynasty. These artifacts have some characteristics of the early Shang dynasty, but they have evolved a lot; Bronzes in Yin Ruins also have some characteristics. Typical examples are a batch of bronzes unearthed from the lower tombs in the west of Gaochengtai, Hebei Province, bronzes unearthed from Shang tombs in Liu Jiahe and Pinggu, Beijing, and bronzes unearthed in Funan and Feixi, Anhui Province. Lingbao East Bridge in western Henan has also been unearthed. Such artifacts have been found in the first culture of Yin Ruins, such as a group of bronzes unearthed from tomb 232 in Xiaotun, and some bronzes unearthed from tombs 33 1 and 333 in Xiaotun. However, such artifacts are not found in Yin Ruins, and some in other areas are more typical and exquisite than those in Yin Ruins. At present, there is no Shang metropolis like Erligang or Yinxu that produces this bronze ware. Before Pan Geng moved to Yin, merchants were choosing, even earlier, in Pihe Township. But after Erligang period and before Yinxu period, these bronzes existed objectively. Because this kind of bronzes have the characteristics of transition from early to late, some of them were broken in Erligang period, and some were broken in early Yin ruins culture. These bronzes are widely distributed, and their production center was not in Yin at that time, so it is absolutely necessary to draw a stage called the middle Shang Dynasty after the Erligang cultural period and before the mature Yin Ruins cultural period. The upper limit in the middle period of Shang Dynasty is not easy to determine, and the lower limit is probably before Wuding.

In this period, the shapes close to the early stage were Jue, Yi and Mo. Although the Jue tail is similar to the previous period, the flow has been relaxed, and the appearance of a round Jue is unprecedented. T-shaped foot appears on the lateral side of hollow vertebral foot, with the bottom protruding downward and flat bottom rare. Although there was a statue with a wide shoulder and a big mouth in the early days, this kind of modeling developed greatly at this time. Such heavy and majestic shapes as the dragon and tiger statues and animal faces in Funan have never appeared in the early Shang Dynasty. This vase shape was also developed during this period, and the high-quality animal-faced vase is its typical example. The early high-profile retort developed into a style with low proportion and wide shoulders, and the giant beast-faced retort in the Palace Museum is a typical example. At this time, the+-shaped and square holes on the pedal are smaller than those in the early days. The outstanding change between tripod and tripod is that one ear is no longer opposite to one foot, forming an unbalanced shape, but the three feet are symmetrical with both ears, which will become the fixed format of all tripods in the future. However, the method of hanging the core during casting has not been completely solved, so the hollow tripod is still connected with the belly of the tripod.

There are two types of decorative patterns. The first is the improvement of deformed animal patterns in Erligang period. The original rough lines become thinner and denser, such as the beast-faced tripod in Pinggu, the beast-faced tripod and the knight in Feixi. However, the main animal faces of Longhuzun and Bogang in Funan have been refined, and the animal faces on the circle feet still maintain their early structure and style. The second category is the appearance of animal face patterns composed of dense thunder patterns and neatly arranged feather patterns. The pattern of this animal's face often highlights the eyes. If it is not a relief, there is no obvious difference between the head and the body. Examples in this regard, such as Bu in Gaocheng and Tai in the Palace Museum, use more high relief accessories, but the lines are rounded, which is different from the style of the later relief outlines.

In the middle of Shang dynasty, bronzes generally kept the habit of not casting inscriptions, but individual vessels were found to have the maker's own family emblem, but they were not found to be called Sun Zu.

Late Shang Dynasty BC13rd century to BC 1 1 century.

From Wuding to Di Xin. Generally speaking, Zou Heng's four-stage theory is applicable to the archaeological stages of Duan site culture, that is, the first stage is from Pan Geng to Xiaoyi, the second stage is from Wuding to Zujia, the third stage is from Xinzhi, and the fourth stage is from Diyi. Later discoveries, generally speaking, did not cross this boundary. The bronze wares in Yin Ruins can be divided into three stages, namely, the first stage from Pan Geng to Wuding, the second stage from Zu Geng to Kangding, and the third stage from Wuyi to Di Xin. In addition, there are some other sayings.

Historical Records of Yin Benji describes in detail the period from Pan Geng to Wuding and Yangjia, the decline of Yin, Pan Geng's five moves, the decline of Wu Dingde and the realization of "vaginal rejuvenation". The so-called Yin decline means that the Shang Dynasty lost control of the vassals, and the vassals did not go to court, that is, they did not belong to politics, did not pay tribute economically, and their national strength declined. However, the highly prosperous bronze culture in Yin Ruins was realized only after a considerable period of Wu Wenzheng in Wu Ding. Wuding can't develop the bronze culture of Yin Ruins immediately. Therefore, this era may be the alternation period of bronzes in the middle and late Shang Dynasty.

Important archaeological materials of bronzes in the late Shang Dynasty, represented by unearthed objects such as Tomb No.5 in Yin Ruins, Tomb No.8 in the north of Xiaotun Village in Yin Ruins, Tomb No.0/040 in Xibeigang and Tomb No.0/040 in Xiaotun Round Burial Pit. There are also bronzes unearthed from tombs in the western part of Yin Ruins. Other areas are equivalent to the unearthed areas of bronzes in the late Shang Dynasty, including tombs in Sufutun, Yidu, Yonghe, Liulin, Baode and Shilou in Shaanxi, and tombs in Qingjian, Suide and Wubao in Shaanxi. This area has a certain local color, mainly belonging to the bronze cultural area in the late Shang Dynasty. Bronzes in the late Shang Dynasty have been unearthed many times in Huangcai and Yueshan in Ningxiang, south of Dongting Lake in Hunan, and Liling, Changning, Xiangxiang, Hengyang, Xiangtan and Wuming in Guangxi. Bronze culture in Shang dynasty is widely distributed, and there are not a few places where bronze wares in the late Shang dynasty were unearthed.

From the late Shang Dynasty to the late Wuding period, it may be nearly 200 years or even shorter to Di Xin. In such a long period of time, according to the specific situation,

It can also be divided into two stages.

Early yin ruins

Represented by the bronzes unearthed from Tomb No.238 in Xiaotun, Tomb No.5 in Yinxu and Tomb No.8 in Xiaotun Village North/kloc-0, the bronzes unearthed in other areas include Taohuazhe in Erlangpo, Shilou, Shanxi, and Huangcai in Ningxiang, Hunan. The new shapes include Fang Yi, high-necked ellipsoid pot and open-necked ellipsoid fan.

Fang Yi was found in Tomb No.238 in Xiaotun and Tomb No.5 in Yinxu, and even unearthed in Fang Yi. The shape of Lian Fang Yi is like the combination of two Fang Yi, and there is a rectangular groove in it.

The high-neck ellipsoidal pot found in Tomb No.5 of Yin Ruins has an ellipsoidal mouth, a high neck and a large abdomen. Ears are pierced on both sides of the neck, and there are hoops and covers under it.

Stone floor peach flat pot with dragon beam. This kind of flat pot was very popular in the late Shang dynasty, but it soon disappeared in the later period.

An ellipsoid with an open beam neck was found in Tomb No.5 of Yin Ruins. Some are uncovered, and the neck contraction is not small. However, there are different ways to be wide and narrow. There are many small devices, some of which are medium-sized. During this period, another round, cup-shaped open belt appeared. The above two kinds of bamboo slips are rich in handed down products.

There are two kinds of birds and animals and circle feet, both of which are found in Duan Xu's tomb No.5. At this time, birds and animals are often combined. For example, a woman has a tiger in front and an owl in the back, and a strange bird in front of her mother and a monster in front, so her front feet and back feet are different. The Freer Art Museum in the United States also has a combination of birds and animals with a tiger head in front and a duck head behind. Fit modeling was one of the characteristics of modeling design at that time. It is a special case of water rafters unearthed by Taohua people in Shilou, Shanxi.

There are also new statues of birds and animals, such as a woman and a good bird unearthed in Xiangtan, Hunan Province, and a pig unearthed in Liling, Hunan Province, all of which are new forms, and it is unprecedented to make containers look like animals. There are also designs that are semi-container and semi-animal, such as the double sheep statue, a statue in the middle with sheep heads on both sides, which has a special shape. It is worth noting that Fang Qi has made great progress at this time. There are Fang Jue, Zhen Fang, Fang Zun, Qian Fang, Fang Hu and Li Fang. Unearthed from Tomb No.5 of Yin Ruins, handed down from generation to generation vessels are Qian Fangfang and Li Fang. Almost all major wine vessels are square. On the whole, although Fang Qi is small,

The types of musical instruments used in the middle period also changed more or less during this period, and some new styles appeared.

The early stage is equivalent to the early stage of Yin and Shang Dynasties.

Erbo Ancient Period, Late Shang Dynasty, Early Zhou Dynasty to Zhao Mu Period

3. Opening period: from Wang Gongyi to the mid-Spring and Autumn Period.

4. The new period from the mid-Spring and Autumn Period to the late Warring States Period.

After the end of the warring States period.

Decorative patterns of pre-Qin bronzes can be divided into three categories according to the theme: animal patterns, figure patterns and geometric patterns, and animal patterns can be divided into two categories. One is the god beast pattern, which is mainly composed of imagination, with strange deformation and full of magical colors, such as gluttony pattern (animal face pattern or mask pattern), dragon pattern and phoenix pattern. One is realism. There are animal patterns in nature, such as fish pattern, bird pattern, tortoise pattern, ox pattern, elephant pattern, rabbit pattern, tiger pattern, cicada pattern, silkworm pattern and snake pattern. (Gao Feng 2006, p80) The motif of bronze decoration in different dynasties is different, which is stated one by one below:

1, the decoration of primitive period (early Yin Shang Dynasty)

Bronzes in this period generally have rough lines and dense patterns, and adopt abstract patterns of left and right animals. In addition to the main patterns, there are abstract bird patterns and other patterns, such as dragon patterns and cicada patterns, as accessories, some of which are decorated with small animals on the bird patterns on both sides, which constitute the gluttonous patterns of articles (some people call them animal face patterns). Taotie pattern is the most distinctive representative of bronzes from Shang Dynasty to early Western Zhou Dynasty. This pattern is an exaggerated or imagined positive image of the animal's head, which is characterized by a horizontal eyebrow, a wide nose and an angry look. There are teeth in the mouth, a pair of ears or big chair corners on the forehead, and a pair of sharp claws. The theory of abstinence from greed, the theory of symbols and the theory of communication reflect people's concern and discussion about this mysterious model. In fact, these three statements are all.

2. Decorative patterns in Bo Gu (late Yin and Shang Dynasties and early Western Zhou Dynasty)

Most of the decorative items in Shang Dynasty are mainly animal images. In addition to the common animal images such as cattle and sheep, most of them are abstract images in fantasy, such as dragon dragon pattern, dung phoenix pattern, Yun Leiwen and so on. These decorative items with strange shapes and colors dominated the decorative items in Shang Dynasty. Most of the mothers of these decorative items are mysterious animals in ancient myths and legends, and they are combined with gluttonous patterns.