Random Notes on Bronze Age China

Shang Ritual Bronzes by Robert W. Bagley

(see if there's an equivalent appendix dating all the bronzes)

Muhly 1976 - Copper and Tin, The Distribtuion of Mineral Resources and the Nature of the Metals Trade in the Bronze Age

info on Qijia hammering vs casting -> Bylin Althin 1946 - The Sites of Ch'i Chia P'ing and Lo Han T'ang in Kansu

Watson 1971 - "Cultural Frontiers in Ancient East Asia"

Piggott 1974 - "Chariots in the Caucasus and in China"

Piggott 1975 - "Bronze Age Chariot Burials in the Urals"

Piggott 1979 - "Chinese Chariotry: An Outsiders's View"

Franklin 1983a - "The Beginnings of Metallurgy in China: A Comparative Appproach"

Franklin 1983b - "On Bronze and Other Metals in Early China"

# Glossary notes

- inscriptions, on late Anyang bronzes, 29, 55 n. 102, 521-31

- inscriptions, on Erligang-phase bronzes, 150, 177, 210 n. 1, 285; Figs. 24.1, 80.2

- inscriptions, casting of, 40, 61 nn. 192 & 194, 232 n. 5

- inscriptions, generally, 40, 55 n. 102, 56 n. 121, 57 n. 125

- human sacrifice, 433 n. 6, 454, 531, 536 nn. 47 & 55

- human faces or heads 19, 36, 48 n. 40; Figs. 21, 118, 133-4, 187, 103.16

- invented motifs, 21-2, 23, 24, 30-32, 34, 50 n. 47, 51 n. 55

- iron, 40, 47 n. 16, 53 n. 82, 61 n. 191, 62 n. 209, 327 n. 10, 335, 548 n. 4; Fig. 17

- ivory, 41, 61 n. 190, 62 n. 208, 261, 296; Figs. 203, 49.7

- jades

- carved with faces or eye motifs, 19, 48 nn. 39-40, 49 n. 47; Figs. 18-21

- found inside you, 373-4

- from Erlitou, 19, 48 n. 40; Fig. 21

- from Fu Hao's tomb, see under Tomb No. 5

- Liangzhu, 19, 48 nn. 39-40, 49 n. 47; Figs. 18-20

- Neolithic? provincial Shang? 48 n. 40

- 19th century replica of bronze vessel, 411 n. 6

- resembling graph long "dragon", 50 n. 50

- as royal gifts, 526

- Shang, 309 n. 7, 402 n. 4, 535 n. 38; Figs. 49.6, 61.7

- Shang from Yangzi region, 373-4, 550 n. 19; Figs. 64.2, 64.5

- Zhou, 48 n. 40, 58 n. 140

- casting,

- compared with hammering, 17, 45

- debt to ceramic technology, 47 n. 31

- preferred to other techniques techniques in China 16, 42, 43

- copper, sources of, in China, 47 n. 27

- craft process, 47 n. 30

# Origin and Development of the Shang Bronze-Casting Industry

clay "skeuomorphs" of bronze vessels are used to determine the hypothetical shape; Qijia skeuomorphs show that 2000 BC bronzes must have involved smithing as opposted to casting.

"The role of cost in determining the choice of technique is illustrated particularly clearly by metal animal heads mounted on the sound boxes of harps from the Royal Cemetary [Mesopotamia]. Gold heads were shaped over wooden cores by hammering, but bronze heads serving the same function, and usually silver ones as well, were cast. Casting allowed fluent modelling of the cheaper (and less malleable) metals, but for the gold heads casting as prohibitively expensive. These had to be made by hammering in order to conserve metal" Pg. 9

there's excessive debate about lost-wax casting and why the Shang never adopted it (as opposed to section molds). "The same scholars who assume that the lost-wax process would revolutionize the habits of section-mold casters [in the Shang dynasty, who they assume were just ignorant about it] have found it exceedingly difficult to discover when this revolution actually took place" Pg. 44. No shit, economic revolutions don't happen under dynasties or cartels with excessive rent-seeking.

"Whatever the date of its arrival, the lost-wax process is likely to have come to China by way of the northern steppes, and highly sophisticated technological transfer along this route is attested as early as the first century of the Anyang period [the last period of the Shang dynasty, close to its collapse] by the horse-drawn chariot, a West Asian invention which figures in the Anyang burials" pg. 64

Ursula Franklin contrasts smelting and hammering as industrial and craft processes respectively (see book above)

no solid evidence yet of mining activity or excavations in Shang, only Zou.

Western Zhou bronzes Volumes IIA and IIB

# Glossary notes

- Shang period, generally, 30, 347-48 382&^{n.3}, 393, 398, 402, 409

- Shang, Zhou conquest of, 15-16, 20, 25, 30, 48, 145

- Shang vessels, 21, 26-30, 37, 57

- Shange vessels, inscriptions, generally, 107, 217, 219&^{n.12}, 226, 455, 531, 606^{n.1}, 621

- flanges, Shang style, 27, 29, 35, 37, 47-50, 53, 55, 57, 62, 92, 128^{ns.67,73}, 219, 242, 313, 512

- eyes, Shang style, 26, 27, 39, 236, 318, 388, 391-93, 602^{n.3}, No. 39

- excavation sites, 15, 130^{n.156}, 136-43, 602^{n.6}

- fang lei, Shang period, generally, 29, 49, 606; Fig. 20

- fang yi, end of use, 96

- Yu (state), 15, 30, 126^{n.4}, 137

- Shi Qiang Pan, 428, 594^{n.1}, 649; Fig. 3

- Shi Qiang Pan, inscription, 19, 83, 126^{ns.13,22}, 146, 149, 150, 217, 443^{n.12}, 512

- Zhuangbai (Fufeng Xian), 126^{n.14}, 138, 144, 149

- Zhuangbai, inscriptions, 149, 151

- Zhuangbai, Feng Bronzes from, 19, 21, 74, 374, 429^{n.14}, 528, 551, 649; Figs. 7, 8, 108.2

- Zhaungbai, Wei Bo Xing vessels from, 21, 74, 89, 100, 111, 118, 151, 152, 331, 443^{n.14}; Figs. 135, 143a, 144, 149, 150a, 168, 29.2, 29.3, 55.4, 55.5, 95.5, 108.6, 124.6; see also Wei Bo Xing bronzes; Xing bronzes

- Zhaungbai, Zhe Vessels from, 19, 21, 63-64, 67, 74, 84, 146, 149, 372, 426, 505-506, 512, 656, 657^{n.7}; Figs 4-6, 110.5; see also Zhe Bronzes

- inscriptions, social changes revealed by 95-96

- campaign inscriptions

- clan signs 98, 146, 395, 480, 481^{n.4}, 665^{n.6}, Nos. 6, 32, 44, 46, 56, 59, 62, 68, 71, 73, 90, 97, 99

- clan signs, ge graph, 341&^{n.1}; Nos. 32, 46, 59, 104

# Difference between Zhou and Shang

"As noted above the most striking feature feature of the late Western Zhou... is... its almost complete lack of whine cups and containers, which had been popular from the Shang down to the end of middle Western Zhou... fang yi, fang zun, and gong all disappeared" pg. 96

"Textual records [that date the Zhou conquest of the Shang dynasty] are presented in [Pankenier, David W. "Astronomical Dates in Shang and Western Zhou" Early China 7 (1981-82), pp. 2-37]. Note 5 to this paper lists additional discussions on the chronology of Western Zhou" pg. 126

"Chen Mengjia's political division of Western Zhou into early, middle, and late reigns coincides approximately with this proposed stylistic subdivision:

| Early Western Zhou (c. 1050-975 BC) | Middle Western Zhou (c. 975-875 BC) | Late Western Zhou (c. 875-771 BC) |

|-------------------------------------|-------------------------------------|-----------------------------------|

| Wu Wang | Mu Wang | Yi Wang |

| Cheng Wang | Gong Wang | Li Wang |

| Kang Wang | Yih Wang | Gong He (regency) |

| Zhao Wang | Xiao Wang | Xuan Wang |

| | | You Wang |

" pg. 20-21

"The Shang inheritance is conspicuous in the first phase of Western Zhou casting and still influential in the second" pg. 21

"...elimination, partly deliberate, of some of the most important elements of the Shang inheritance" pg. 21

"Bird motifs... signal the middle period of Wester Zhou... the Feng bronzes (Figs. 7, 8) reveal this... in advanced form." pg. 21

"In the last three centuries of Shang rule... marked a clear change of direction and established a late Shang style. Vessel shapes were... articulated by sharp angles... accented by flanges... flanges were a decorative device... emphasized the surface divisions created by section-mould casting.[32]" pg. 27

"...a sustained attempt to differentiate images from their backgrounds--to silhoutte the zoomorphs, in effect, against a frieze of abstract scrolls and quills... is in striking contrast to the designs of the Erligang phase, in which no element is stressed... and... most elements can be read equally as zoomorphic motif and as abstract background." pg. 27-29

"taotie... became more animal-like as they became better defined. The later Shang history of these motifs, however, does not show a simple progression toward ever more concrete depiction of creatures real or fantastic." pg. 29

"The best-known Early Western Zhou bronzes are strident, often eccentric... strking in their contrast with the products of Shang casting... have often been explained as products of a preconquest industry located in western strongholds of the Zhou... But though the style is associated with the west rather than with Henan, the scant epigraphic evidence suggests a post- rather than pre-conquest date, and a more widspread use (and perhaps manufacture) of these vessels.[45]" pg. 35

"...the use of large, hooked flanges [Figures 33 and 34]; these differ conspicuously from the smaller flanges... used by the artisans of late Shang." pg. 35

"Crouching buffalo figures are known from Shang marble carvings... but are not found on Bronzes from Anyang. Anyang vessels did feature birds and tigers, and these were also common on early Zhou bronzes..." pg. 37

"..when the Erligang culture penetrated northward, its design repertory was varied by the addition of realistic creatures... In due course this... approach to bronze decoration modified the Henan tradition... realistic animal heads appeared at Anyang... stimulated Anyang casters to incorporate realistic creatures into their decorative schemes and to develop animal-shaped vessels. Toward the end of Shang animal-shaped vessels and realistic zoomorphs seem once again to have diminished in importance, but they were taken up with enthusiasm in the south... perhaps via Sichuan, became another source of realistic zoomorphic designs for Zhou casters." pg. 39

Zhou casters were influenced by ram and buffalo motifs from the northwest and elephant motifs from the south [pg. 39]

"Shang preference for basins [i.e. gui] without handles" pg. 347

"On early Western Zhou vessels that are narrow bodied... the buffalo horns project from the surface of the container. These horns are also stepped and lacking the intaglio lines of the Shang versions... Shang casters aimed to fill units of a decorative scheme with overall pattern, and therefore added intaglio lines to many motifs (Fig. 34.1)... early Western Zhou, on the other hand, seem to have cared more for realistic representations of creatures, and therrefore the casters made more use of three-dimesnional figures and less use of intaglio lines..." pg. 348-349

"...preconquest examples can be distinguished from those made in the Zhou period by the shape of their ringed feet, those with a smooth profile (like gui No. 42) dating from before the conquest and those with a modelled foot (like No. 43) dating from the Zhou period." pg. 382

# Zhuangbai hoard

"...in the hoard were vessels dedicated by Zhe and Feng, individuals who antedated the Shi Qiang by two generations and one generation." pg. 19

"The Zhe, Feng, Shi Qiang, and Wei Bo Xing vessels thus form a reliable chronological series that illumines the development of vessel shapes and decorative styles" pg. 19

"...the bronzes dedicated by Wei Bo Xing, the son of Shi Qiang, belong to the end of middle Western Zhou" pg. 19

"Some of the shapes, such as the jue (Fig. 108.6), the lobed he (Fig. 115.4) or the ding that narrows toward the lip (Fig. 17.6) were very ancient and soon to become obselete. Other vessel types, such as the xu, were comparatively new inventions (Fig. 149). In this cataloge middle Western Zhou is taken to end when the older styles have vanished and the new vessel shapes and ornaments are fully established" pg. 19

## Shi Qiang Pan

"...gives a brief history of the reigns of the Zhou kings... and recounts the history of Shi Qiang's clan over the same period" pg. 19