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THE
GREAT BRONZE AGE OF CHINA An
Exhibition from the People's Republic of China Essay
by Dr. Emily Sano China today is one of the largest
countries in the world, possessing one quarter of the world's population. It
also possesses the world's oldest living civilization. For centuries, however,
ancient Chinese civilization has been known only through written records. Now
modern archaeology is revealing the secrets of this ancient world through
dramatic discoveries of bronzes and other treasures from the past. The development of bronze metallurgy in
ancient civilizations meant a settled and organized society, for bronze-making
required locating, protecting, mining, and smelting the ores that contain
copper and tin, the two metals that are alloyed to produce bronze. Bronze was
customarily used to make better tools for agriculture and better weapons for
waging war. In ancient China, the talents of bronze workers were put to a
third, very special use: the casting of drinking vessels and food containers
which played central roles in ancestor worship and state rituals. Chinese civilization in the early Bronze
Age was a highly stratified slave society ruled by an all-powerful king and his
nobles. According to the religion of the Shang dynasty (1600-1100 BC), the king
derived his power from his divine ancestors, whose spirits could influence the
course of events if they were propitiated with offerings and sacrifices. Bronze
vessels were used to contain the wine and food which were offered up in
ceremonies performed at the altar of the ancestral shrine. Their possession and
use seems to have been restricted to the king, the royal family, and the
aristocracy. Bronze thus was related to power and
divinity. According to legend, King Yu, founder of China's first dynasty, the
Xia, around 2200 BC, had nine monumental food cauldrons cast to symbolize the
nine provinces of his realm. when the Xia dynasty fell, the nine vessels, the
"Auspicious Bronzes of the State," passed to the victorious Shang
dynasty and then, in the 11th century BC, to the Zhou. In 1976 a bronze vessel
was discovered whose inscription records that it was commissioned only eight
days after the defeat of the Shang and the capture of the Auspicious Bronzes.
These bronzes, however, have not yet been discovered. The oldest vessels
discovered thus far are dated to 1800 BC. While retaining their significance as
symbols of power, the bronze vessels changed in form, purpose, and decorative
style during each succeeding dynasty. The Shang are reputed to have made much
use of wine in their rituals, and they had many wine vessels created. The Zhou,
who felt that overindulgence in wine offended Heaven, made fewer wine vessels
and produced new types of food cauldrons and containers. The decorations on vessels from the Shang
seem rich with meaning, yet they resist our attempts to identify their
inspiration or meaning. Often the emphasis is on a protruding eye, which seems
to animate the vessel. The most frequently used decoration is the "animal
mask," which actually is composed of two creatures shown head-to-head in
profile. Each contributes an eye, an ear or horn, and a jaw to the frontal
presentation of a mysterious, awe-inspiring "animal." In succeeding
ages, this powerful form became increasingly abstract, sometimes dissolving
into elaborate ornamentation. Gradually the religious significance of bronze
artifacts decreased, and they were used as symbols of personal wealth and
prestige--as homage to the living. By 210 BC, bronze craftsmanship was turned
to making luxury items in complex shapes that were inlaid with silver and gold. A second great art form of Bronze Age
China was that of carved jade, which actually was shaped by the use of
abrasives, the pieces being sawed, drilled, and then laboriously ground down.
Jade was already a valuable substance at the begining of the Bronze Age,
reserved for purely ceremonial functions in rituals and burials, as sacrificial
gifts to spirits for as funerary offerings. Later pieces, which were made into
jewelry, ceremonial plaques, or even human or animal figurines, continued to
possess almost magical properties when used in rituals or as tomb furnishings. The bronze and jade pieces from ancient
China have been preserved because they were buried, sometimes in storage pits,
but more often in tombs. During the Shang dynasty (1600-1100 BC), members of
the royalty were buried not only with their bronzes, ceramics, weapons, and
amulets, but also with their servants, bodyguard, horses, chariot, and
charioteer. Fu Hao, the wife of a Shang king, who led armies in battle and represented
him on state occasions, was buried with more than two hundred bronze pieces,
sixteen sacrificial victims, and six dogs. In the succeeding Zhou and Han
dynasties, burials continued to be sumptuous, but human sacrifice seems to have
been rarely practiced. Instead, figurines of wood or clay--representations of
the human retinue--were buried with the dead. An imperial version of this practice was
unearthed in 1974 by Chinese farmers who were digging a well for their commune.
To their surprise, they uncovered part of a vast subterranean vault strewn with
a host of life-size clay warriors and horses. The figures, buried less than a
mile from the tomb of the First Emperor of Qin (221-210 BC), are part of one of
the most astonishing discoveries in the whole history of archaeology. The First
Emperor went to his grave escorted by more than 7,000 terracotta figures of
men, horses, and chariots. They were not stamped from molds but were
individually modeled, fired, painted, and equipped with actual weapons and gear
to represent the Emperor's earthly army. The awesome bronzes, jades, and
terracotta figures in the Great Bronze Age of China exhibition from the
People’s Republic of China represent the most brilliant discoveries made in
recent Chinese Bronze Age archaeology. In many instances, they confirm the
truth of ancient legends, as they shed light on a civilization long eclipsed
and obscure. Their discovery is a great contribution to Western understanding
of the splendor and greatness of ancient Chinese civilization. Chronology
of Bronze Age China
Suggestions
for Reading Bagley, Robert
W. "Masterworks of China's Bronze Age Begin a Tour of the U.S." Smithsonian,
Vol. 11, no. 1 (April 1980), 62-71. Chang,
Kwang-chih. The Archaeology of Ancient China. New Haven: Yale Univ.
Press, 1977. Chelminiski,
Rudolph. "China Unveils a Breathtaking Show of Its Archaeological
Treasures." Smithsonian, Vol. 4, no. 6 (Sept. 1973), 24-35. Cook, Stanton R.
"China: A Photographic Portfolio." Field Museum of Natural History
Bulletin, Vol. 50, no. 3 (March 1979), 12-19. Fung, Yu-lan. A
Short History of Chinese Philosophy, ed. Derk Bedde. New York: Free Press,
1966. Goodrich, L. Carrington.
A Short History of Chinese People. 4th ed. New York: Harper & Row,
1969. Hall, Alice J.
"A Lady from China's Past." National Geographic, 145
(May1974), 660-681. Hearn, Maxwell
K. "An Ancient Chinese Army Rises from Underground Sentinel Duty." Smithsonian,
Vol. 10, no. 8 (Nov. 1979), 38-51. Hiller, Audrey.
"China-Watchers of Yesteryear." Field Museum of Natural History
Bulletin, Vol. 49, no. 10 (Nov. 1978), 10-15. Li, Xueqin. The
Wonder of Chinese Bronzes. Beijin, China: Foreign Languages Press, 1980. Montebello,
Philippe de. "The Great Bronze Age of China." Field Museum of
Natural History Bulletin, Vol. 51, no. 7 (July/Aug. 1980), 11-17. Sickman,
Laurence, and Alexander Soper. The Art and Archaeology of China.
Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1974. Topping, Audrey.
"China's Incredible Find." National Geographic, 153 (April
1978), 440-459. Watson, William.
Early Civilization in China. London: Thames & Hudson, 1966. Wen Fong, ed. The
Great Bronze Age of China. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art and Alfred
A. Knopf, 1980. _______, ed. Treasures
from the Bronze Age of China. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art and
Ballantine Books, 1980. For Younger Readers Fawdry,
Marguerite. Chinese Childhood. New York: Barron's, 1977. Fitzgerald,
Patrick. Ancient China: The Making of the Past. New York: E.P. Dutton,
1979. Glubok, Shirley.
The Art of China. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1973. Kublin, Hyman. China.
Rev. ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1976. Moore, Janet
Gaylord. The Eastern Gate: An Invitation to the Arts of China and Japan.
Cleveland: William Collins Publishers, 1979. Nancarrow, Peter.
Early China and the Wall. Cambridge Introduction to the History of Mankind.
Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1978. About
the Exhibition: The Great Bronze Age of China exhibition which toured the United States in
1980-1981 featured a dazzling array of bronzes, jade pieces, and eight
terracotta sculptures that were created to accompany the First Emperor of Qin
to his grave. The items in the exhibition presented a comprehensive picture of
the brilliant artistic achievements of Chinese Bronze Age culture from its
beginnings, sometime around 2000 BC to its final flowering in the second
century BC. Besides revealing the superb skills of ancient artists, they
enabled us to reconstruct the religious, political, economic, and cultural
aspects of civilization which developed at about the same time that Stonehenge
was being built in England and the principles of Judaism were being framed. For The Great Bronze Age of China: An
Exhibition from the People's Republic of China, the Texas Humanities
Resource Center organized a special selection of resources for general public
programs. These were designed to introduce audiences to the Bronze Age
exhibition, but they may be used at any time in programs that explore our
cultural heritage and our relation with the past. They can help to expand our
knowledge of the culture and peoples of China. We gratefully acknowledge the
assistance of the Kimbell Art Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in
developing these resources. This project is made possible by a grant
from the National Endowment for the Humanities. |