Chinese Bronze Sculptures

Bronze Sculptures in Central Plains

As bronze casting techniques and the ritual culture of the central plains evolved, bronzes from the Shang and Zhou dynasties became more impressive in their technique. Those ferocious and unreal animal images embody the spiritual beliefs of the times. Elaborately decorated patterns fully display exquisite bronze casting techniques and unique shape expression. The sculptural techniques and the highly abstract and organized patterns of the bronzes also influenced jade sculpture.

China entered into the important Bronze Age during the Shang Dynasty, around the 16th century. Ancient formative arts changed very obviously at that time. The artistic shapes and tendencies of each stage are closely associated with the cultural features of the times.

Generally speaking, the Shang and Zhou period consists of three states including the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC), the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046-771 BC) and the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770-256 BC). The Eastern Zhou Dynasty is usually divided into the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC) and the Warring States Period (475-221 BC). Though similar, the cultural features of each stage have differences. The differences in the bronzes reflect the different cultural features. The Shang and Zhou dynasties exerted great influence in the ritual system.

Strictly speaking, the Shang and Zhou Period did not produce any independent bronze sculpture. Most sculptures combine vessels and various images. In spite of that, the bronze sculptures for a sacrificial purpose still make a strong impression and demonstrate the superior intelligence and aesthetic level in shapes, patterns, and functions.

Shang Dynasty - Magnificent ferocity

During the Shang Dynasty priority was given to religious concepts. People believed in ghosts and deities and had a respect for materialism. Drinking was very popular. In The Book of Rites, Biaoji said, "the Shang's people respect for deities and offer sacrifices to deities. People pay higher respect to ghosts than rituals, punishments than rewards.”

Under this social influence, the bronzes from the Zhou Dynasty gradually embody the mysterious and majestic. Most bronzes were made for religious rituals, as reflected by the shapes and patterns. The bronze casting techniques reached their peak during the mid and late Shang Dynasty. Many new works of sculpture emerged, and they paid little attention to practical functions. Most works are images of people or animals in myths and give a feeling of terror and intimidation due to their mysterious and eerie patterns.

The largest and best-preserved heavy bronze ware from the Shang Dynasty is the Simuwu Ding, which has a horrific pattern. Outside of its two ears, there is a pair of horrible relief tigers with human heads inside their opening mouths. This pattern is also found in other Shang bronzes. The Ehushiren You (a kind of wine container resembling a snarling tiger devouring a man) is on the verge of being a three-dimensional sculpture, but it is a vessel rather than a sculpture. It is made with typical bronze casting features from the Shang Dynasty and features a snarling tiger and fine patterns on the bodies of tiger and man. The use of complicated background patterns is one of the key features of Shang sculptures.

The main achievements of Shang bronze arts are mainly demonstrated by large numbers of bronze wares in imitation of various animals, including Zun, gong, you and other animal-shaped vessels for wine. The animals are mainly rhinoceros, elephant, sheep, tiger, and owl.

The most common animal image on bird and beast-shaped Zun is the owl. According to the Chou Rituals, bird and beast-shaped Zun were widely used for the different sacrificial activities in different seasons by the noble family. As altar wares, they are full of dignified and noble beauty. The casting techniques are exquisite and congruous with social functions. Therefore, such bird and beast-shaped Zun don't belong to ordinary sculpture, while animal images for imitation are not created for aesthetic purposes. The images and the wares are types of tools for communicating with ghosts and deities.

There were traditional rules on the creation of such animal images during the Shang Dynasty. Some patterns including taotie (gulosity), Kui dragon (Kui, one-legged monster), Phoenix, elephant, and tiger evolved from those three- dimensional images and had similar connotations.

There were two common bronze casting techniques for bird and beast-shaped Zun. The first is to combine the images of bird and beast with one piece of bronze ware, such as the four-foot Simuxin Hu from Tomb of Fuhao. The Simuxin Hu imitates a beast in the front, a bird in the end and Kui and tiger on both sides with a long dragon on the cover. The second is to integrate various animal images, such as a bird head animal horns or dragon or snake-shaped wings.

Two animal-shaped sculptures are most typical from the Shang period. One is the Elephant Zun (Xiang Zun) from Liling County, Hunan Province. The Xiang Zun is elegant. As a combination of an animal sculpture and aware, it is a perfect work of art. The body is full of relief patterns, including animal faces, a pair of dragons, tigers and phoenixes and takes cloud and thunder patterns as background. The pattern styles perfectly integrate with the shapes. The beak-shaped nose tip and the long nose form an S-shape, which produces a sense of rhythm and flexibility. A little tiger grovels on the beak-shaped nose tip and faces the elephant's head. Two phoenixes look at each other behind the elephant's ears. Elephant-shaped bronze wares were very common during the Shang Dynasty. The Xiang Zun is an important wine container on Shang's sacrificial activities. The common use of Xiang Zun is closely associated with Shang's ecological environment. According to Erya, during the Shang Dynasty, there were many elephants in today's Hubei and Hunan provinces. They were regarded as symbols of beauty and deity.

The other typical bronze ware is the famous Four-Ram Square Zun. A beautiful bronze ware embodied with noble features of such bronze ware. It is a fantastic work of art with four sheep heads on four sides. It is the masterpiece of Shang bronze animal sculptures.

The various shapes and decorations of Shang bronze wares give the idea of being controlled by an invisible power, a kind of devout belief in ghosts and deities. Under such spiritual power, Shang craftsmen created large numbers of images to communicate with ghosts and deities. So, the animal images integrated with bronze wares are embodied with the unique characteristics of the Shang Dynasty.

Western Zhou—Simple dignity

In contrast to the gorgeous decorations and eerie shapes from the Shang period, bronze wares from the Zhou changed alongside social development. Ferocious and horrific images were buried as the Shang Dynasty falls into decay, but the simple and majestic bronze wares became dominant.

A ritual and the musical system was the prominent cultural characteristic of the Zhou Dynasty. There was a defined social hierarchy, which is embodied by activities such as worship activity and the use of clothes, wares, houses, horses, and chariots. The shrouded mystery on the decorations and of Shang bronzes gradually faded.

In the early Western Zhou, Shang's characteristics still existed, and many aspects of Zhou styles had not been established. However, some bird and beast-shaped Zun display simple and dignified features. For example, the nDabaoniao Zun (Bird Zun)n from Xunxian County, Henan Province is the masterpiece. It is kept in the Hakutsuru Art Museum of Japan. As the styles of Zhou bronze arts were established, that bird and beast-shaped Zun changed and freed themselves from being part of wine containers. They started to develop the independent features of the sculptural arts.

Animal sculptures from the Western Zhou are a little simpler than Shang works of the same kind in decoration and shape. They have a friendly feeling and no sense of the majestic and solemn. Such a feeling makes the sculpture that of a man rather than a ghost or deity.

There were also changes on details, such as DabaoniaoZun (Bird Zun), early Western as the sculptural techniques of eyes. During the Shang Dynasty, the eyes of sculptures were mostly made by a kind of stylized technique, called “eye patterns.”

Shang's eyes patterns show a kind of ferocious or eerie deterrence rather than the description of the eyes forms. The Western Zhou's bronze sculptures begin to show the features of various animals. Though the majestic force becomes weak, the sculptures are more vivid.

Western Zhou bronze sculptures don't follow complicated patterns. Its relief patterns present a new style. Some Shang deterrent patterns—including sharp and Kui patterns—are replaced by round and gentle patterns in the Zhou, including a curled pattern, which is one of the major ones.

According to Master Lu’s Spring and Autumn Annals, Zhou's Ding has long curled patterns with curled ends. It means that a kind of long style of patterns with curled ends is present in Zhou bronze wares. It further simplifies the early animal patterns.

Zhou patterns don't follow the Shang style of straight lines but adopt S-shaped curves. Zhou curled patterns integrate both round and square forms. Moreover, the relief decoration patterns of Zhou bronze wares have a sense of rhythm, while quadratic sequence patterns show a sense of order closely connected with the Zhou ritual system.

Considering the growth of Chinese sculpture, Western Zhou Dynasty was relatively backward, but it is an important turning point.

The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period—Slim and graceful luxury

Various ideological and cultural trends, as well as artistic forms, thrived during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. Though sculptural arts hadn’t freed themselves from crafts and architecture, the utilization of sculptural expressions became mature. The Spring and Autumn Period is regarded as a peak in Chinese sculpture, with more practical factors than in any previous dynasty.

Various materials were widely used during that period, including bronze, gold, silver, lead, pottery, jade, stone, and teeth and bones from animals. The comprehensive utilization of multiple materials also began during this period. Colouring becomes popular. Sculptural techniques also grow along with various materials. Some techniques such as lost-wax casting and gold and silver inlaying push bronze sculptures into a new stage of luxurious style. The style presents the aesthetic orientation of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period and is full of an easy and vigorous feeling.

The Eastern Zhou's animal sculptures display a high level of artistic merit and bear the signs of the times. The representative masterpiece is a square-shaped pot with lotus and crane designs from Xinzheng, Henan Province. The 122cm-high pot has dragon-shaped ears and beast-shaped feet with a double layer of lotuses on the cover. The lotus petals splay out to support a vivid immortal crane about to take flight in the center. This pot produces an agile feeling, and the style has a lot to do with the social state free from the ritual system.

One typical masterpiece is the double-wing bronze divine beast inlaid with gold and silver unearthed from the Tomb of the King of Zhongshan Kingdom. The 40cm high sculpture integrates features of various animals - the noble quality of the dragon, the grace, and the power of the tiger and leopard. The divine beast is so vigorous that it seems to fly to the clouds. The sculpture is full of a sense of rhythm and vitality. It integrates motion and quietness, a traditional Chinese technique. Another similar masterpiece is the gold and silver inlaid pedestal designed with the tiger- devouring-dear pattern. It is vivid and gorgeous and produces a feeling of unrest and strength, which is also a symbol of the social unrest and thought contention that marked the times. The gold and silver inlaying makes the sculptures more luxurious and unreal.

An important masterpiece of the late Warring States period is the gold and silver inlaid bronze rhinoceros Zun with cloud patterns from Xingping County, Shaanxi Province. It presents a new high for animal-shaped bronze wares of the Warring States period and displays the unique practical style of the Qin people.

Horizontally, the cultures of the Shang and Zhou dynasties underline the differences between different regions and interact with each other. Vertically, the cultures present the heritage and cultural growth of features from different periods. Sculptures of this period mark the beginning of the history of Chinese sculpture. As it matured, Chinese sculpture established its ethnic characteristics and exerted a significant influence on sculptural concepts and techniques that emerged later.