Chinese Traditional Texts of Jinwen

Traditional Chinese Culture of the Golden Script

During the Shang Dynasty, the ancestors had already mastered the technology of smelting bronze from ore. During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, bronze was used for everything from weapons to daily eating utensils. People also cast the text engraved on the bronze. The inscriptions cast on bronze were called jinwen, also known as zhongdingwen.

Most of the gold text is cast on the inside of the bronze. As temple treasures, the inscriptions on the bronzes were drawn up by the ancestors and cast on the tripods or bells by the hands of the craftsmen. This spirit of piety and prudence was incorporated into the bronze, creating the beauty of "gold and stone".

Majestic, dignified, solemn bronze recorded on the content of the theme of the relative concentration, mainly at the time of the rituals that took place, give orders, edicts, campaigns, hunting, covenants and other activities. Jinwen's function of "demonstrating strength and serving the sea" was fully utilized. But this is not the most attractive part of the Jinwen.

The charm of Jinwen lies in the aesthetic power of each bronze, which gives it an artistic appeal that no other script can match. There are usually not many words engraved in a piece of bronze, and most of the scripts are long and thin, with strong and robust strokes and a rigorous structure.

During the Western Zhou period, Jinwen became more and more elegant and graceful, with the head and tail of the characters coming out of the front and the lines being thick and natural. Compared with the seal script, clerical script and other fonts, the font and structure of the Jinwen of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties were not completely finalized, and this naturalness added to the charm of the Jinwen and witnessed the development process of Chinese characters.