There are various kinds of decorations on the bronzes, but what kind of decorations are generally in the center part?

The stylized characteristics of ancient Chinese bronzes

Ancient Chinese bronzes have a long history and are splendid, with timeless historical and artistic value. A large number of bronzes that have been handed down and discovered in recent years show that bronzes themselves have a complete development and evolution system. Since the Xia, Shang, Zhou to Qin, Han the whole history of bronze development, can be divided into thirteen periods: that is, summer for the Erlitou culture period, Shang, Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn each for the early, middle and late three periods, the Warring States for the early and middle and late two periods. Qin, Han for the development of bronze for the rest of the history. Now the characteristics of each period, expressed as follows:

The Erlitou culture sites in the western region of Henan Province, dozens of sites have been found. After the excavation of the site and Zhengzhou Loda Temple and the street, Shaanxi County, seven miles store, Luoyang East Gangou, Linru Coal Hill, Xichuan Wanggang and other places. Shanxi Fen River downstream survey found more than thirty sites of the Erlitou culture, Xiaxian East Feng site has been excavated. But the scientific excavation of the Erlitou culture of bronze ceremonial objects, concentrated in Yanshi Erlitou unearthed, Henan's Xinzheng Wangjing building and Shangqiu area, there are individual findings.

Scientific excavations of the Erlitou culture period of bronze ceremonial vessels, now limited to the drinking utensils jerks. The basic features are narrow and flat flow, short tail, no column, or a column-like prototype, flat bottom. The body is relatively flat, the lower bearing three feet. The body type is divided into long body girdle type, long body segmented type and short body girdle mode and so on several kinds. Foot has two types of long and short, long feet for triangular pointed cone, short feet for triangular segmented shape, some short feet may be the use of erosion. Some of them are made into hollow shape, which is the characteristic of Erlitou culture period.

Erlitou culture bronzes are generally not decorated, but some of the Jennifer's cup body has a row or two rows of rounded nail-shaped decoration on the front. Some of the belly has a round cake-like protrusion, when the Erligang period on the due to the pattern of the abuse. Although the Erlitou culture on the bronze ritual vessels did not see animal-shaped decorations, but the Erlitou unearthed in the interior of the bronze go, there have been deformed animal decorations, and thus can not be excluded on the bronze ritual vessels on the emergence of animal motifs may be.

Early Shang Dynasty 16th century B.C.E. - the middle of the 15th century B.C.E.

Equivalent to the period of Shang Erligang culture. Charcoal in the rammed earth of Zhengzhou Mall carbon 14 dating for 1620 BC, coinciding with the period of the Shang Tang statehood, but the lower limit of the Erligang culture is still not clear. The remains of Erligang are divided into two layers, and the difference between the upper and lower bronzes does not belong to the stylistic aspect, but rather to the fact that the upper layer has more development of the types of wares than the lower one. Many early Shang dynasty bronzes were unearthed in Zhengzhou, due to the fact that Zhengzhou Mall was the capital of the early Shang dynasty. Important ones are the tombs or cellars at Erligang, Baijiazhuang, Zhangzhai Nanjie, Yangzhuang, Nan Guanwai, Minggong Road, Erqi Road and other places. They are roughly distributed in the south and southeast corners of the city center. In the northeast and west of the city, there were also cemeteries where bronze vessels were buried. A number of early Shang Dynasty bronzes have been found in northern Henan. Important discoveries were also made in Huangpi Panlongcheng in Hubei, Jiashan Pogang in Anhui, and Wucheng in Qingjiang, Jiangxi. The early Shang Dynasty bronzes found in the above sites and tombs are mostly from the upper layer of Erligang.

Early Shang Dynasty bronzes have unique shapes. Din, li and other eating utensils three feet. There must be a foot and an ear into a vertical line, in the visual sense of imbalance. Ding, jia and other columnar foot into a cone-shaped foot and the belly of the vessel connected, this is due to the fact that at that time has not mastered the casting of the core of the Fan fully closed skills. The square tripod was huge, and the container part was made in the shape of a square deep dipper, which was completely different from the rectangular trough-shaped square tripod of the Yinxu period. The shape of the jue inherited the Erlitou culture style, - law for the flat body and flat bottom. The flow is very narrow and long. Bronze jia in addition to the flat-bottomed type, but also appeared in the bag foot jia. Goblet, zun, ampoule, earthenware and other footrims have +-shaped holes, rather than the upper Erligang ware, + character shape has become a large square hole. Some even have several notches in the rim of the footrim, examples of which have been excavated at Zhengzhou and Huangpi Panlongcheng. The half-capped bag-footed fiancé, with a large handle on the back side, is a distinctive feature of the period, with the pipe running obliquely over the top. Earthenware jars all have narrow lips and high necks with shoulders, and are also tall in form. Early Shang Dynasty pots with a beam have a long neck, small mouth, bulging belly shape and small mouth body in the shape of a hanging gourd two, there are also small mouth neck is not high without a beam. The main body of the early Shang dynasty bronze decoration has been animal face pattern, to the rough hook curved back and forth line composition, all the deformation pattern, in addition to the beast eye round, thought

symbolism, the rest of the stripe is not a specific representation of the various parts of the object, decoration, more than flat carving, the individual main line appeared in relief, the two Rigaoka upper Zun, earthenware ware shoulder has been in high relief ?? head decorations. All the animal face pattern or other animal patterns are not thunder pattern for the ground, is the characteristic of this period. The geometric patterns of the early Shang Dynasty were extremely simple, with some crude leiwen, as well as single or multiple columns of lengzhu, and nipple patterns had also appeared.

Early Shang Dynasty bronzes, very few inscriptions, previously believed that the individual turtle shape is the text, in fact, is still decoration rather than text.

Mid Shang Dynasty Mid 15th - 13th centuries BC

Between the Shang Erligang and Yinxu culture periods, several batches of bronzes were unearthed. These wares have some sort of early Shang characteristics, however there has been more evolution; there is also the origin of certain Yinxu period bronze features. More typical are a group of bronzes unearthed in the lower tombs of Taisi in Gaocheng, Hebei region, the bronzes unearthed in Shang Dynasty tombs in Liu Jiahe, Pinggu, Beijing, and the bronzes unearthed in Funan and Feixi regions of Anhui. They were also unearthed in Lingbao Dongqiao in western Henan. In the first phase of the Yinxu culture, there were such artifacts found, such as a group of bronze artifacts unearthed in Xiaotun Tomb No. 232, and some of the bronze artifacts unearthed in Xiaotun Tomb Nos. 331 and 333, and so on. However, not many of these artifacts were found in Yinxu, while some of them were more typical and better than those in Yinxu in other areas, and there is still no Shang metropolis that produced such bronze artifacts like Erligang or Yinxu. The capital of the Shang dynasty before Pan Geng moved to Yin was in Ami, and earlier in Pihe Xiang, but after the Erligang period and before the Yinxu period, these bronzes existed objectively. Because these bronzes have the transitional characteristics of the early to late period, so some will be broken in the Erligang period, some broken for the early Yinxu culture. The distribution of these bronzes was extensive, and the center of their production was not in Yin, so it is necessary to draw a stage called the middle of the Shang Dynasty after the Erligang period and before the mature Yinxu period. The upper limit of the middle of the Shang Dynasty is not easy to determine, and the lower limit is about before Wuding.

The shapes close to the early period in this period include the jue, goblet, and jia. Although the end of the jue is similar to the early period, but the flow has been relaxed, the emergence of the round body of the jue is put unseen. Jia in addition to the empty vertebrae-shaped foot, the emergence of the Ding-shaped foot, the bottom of more downward dropsy, flat bottom has been less common. Early although there has been a broad-shouldered large mouth Zun, this kind of shape at this time there is a greater development, such as Funan's dragon and tiger Zun and animal-faced Zun such a thick and majestic shape, in the early Shang dynasty is never seen. Ampoule this kind of shape, also is this period of development, gao cheng's animal face pattern ampoule is its typical. Early taller earthenware jar, in this time for the proportion of the body is lower and broad shoulders of the style, the museum collection of the giant animal-faced earthenware jar is its typical. The + shaped and square holes in the footrims of the vessels at this time were reduced in size compared with earlier periods. Tripods, li class ware is more prominent change is no longer an ear and - foot opposites, forming an imbalance, but three feet and two ear symmetry, become a fixed format of all tripod, but this time the casting of the core of the Fan suspension sealing method has not yet been fully resolved, and thus the hollow tripod feet and the belly of the case of communication.

Patterns are divided into two categories, one is the Erligang period of deformation of the animal pattern of improvement, the original rough lines become finer and dense, a stream such as Pinggu animal face tripod and Feixi jia and Jennifer, and Funan Longhu Zun and Jiashan Pogang's main pattern of animal face has been finer, the foot of the animal face pattern is still maintained on the structure and style of the early period. The second category is the emergence of the beast face pattern composed of dense thunder pattern and neatly arranged feather pattern. This kind of animal face pattern eyes tend to protrude. If not carved in relief, there is no clear distinction between either the head or the body. In this regard, such as the Gaoxue ampoule and the Museum collection of large earthenware jar, has used more high relief attachment, but the line outline has a sense of roundedness, and the late relief contour line Jun straight sharp style is different.

Mid Shang Dynasty bronzes generally still maintain the habit of not casting inscriptions, but individual ware found on the casting of the family crest of the person who made the ware, but did not find was sacrificed to the ancestral test of the name of the day dry.

Late Shang Dynasty 13th century B.C. to 11th century B.C.

From Wuding to Dixin. The archaeological staging of the Duanxu culture generally adopts Zou Heng's four-phase statement, that is, the first phase of Pan Geng to Xiao Yi, the second phase of Wuding to Zu Jia, the third phase of Xin to Wending, and the fourth phase of Di Yi Di Xin. Subsequent discoveries, by and large, have not crossed this boundary. The Yin ruins of the bronze staging Zhang Changshou's three said, that is, the first Pan Geng to Wuding, the second Zugeng to Kanding, the third period of Wuyi to Dixin. In addition, there are - some other statements.

The Records of the Grand Historian. The Yin this period" in Pan Geng to Wuding more detailed, Yang A, Yin decline, Pan Geng five, to the small Xin again decline, to Wuding got Fu said for the phase, and then only to make the "Yin Road to revitalization". The so-called decline of Yin refers to the loss of control of the Shang king over the vassals, the vassals do not Chao, that is, not subordinate to the political, economic not tribute, and thus the decline of the state power. And Yin ruins highly prosperous bronze culture, must be in the wu ding's wu kong wenzhi operation for a considerable period of time can be achieved, wu ding - that is, the throne can not immediately appear Yin ruins of bronze culture of the high degree of development. Therefore, this era, may be the middle of the Shang Dynasty bronzes and late bronzes of the alternating period.

The important archaeological data of late Shang Dynasty bronzes are represented by the excavations of the No. 5 Tomb of Yin Ruins, the No. 18 Tomb of the North of Xiaotun Village of Yin Ruins, the Big Tomb of Wuguan Village, the Big Tomb of Xibeigang and the Big Tomb of 1040, and the Round Burial Pit of Xiaotun. There are also bronze artifacts unearthed from the burial complexes in the western area of Yinxu. Other areas are equivalent to the excavated territories of late Shang Dynasty bronzes. Important ones are the late Shang Dynasty tomb complexes in Yidu Sufutun in Shandong, Yonghe, Liulin, Baode and Shilou in Shanxi, and Qingjian, Suide and Wubao in Shaanxi, which are of a certain local color, mainly belonging to the late Shang Dynasty's bronze culture area. Late Shang bronzes have been unearthed many times in Huangzai and Yue Shan in Ningxiang, south of Dongting Lake in Hunan Province, while late Shang bronzes have been unearthed in Liling, Changning, Xiangxiang, Hengyang, Xiangtan as well as Wuming in Guangxi. The distribution of Shang Dynasty bronze culture is very wide, and the locations of unearthed late Shang Dynasty bronzes, are not few.

The late Shang Dynasty, such as the late Wuding, to the emperor may be close to two hundred years or less than two hundred years, in such a long period of time, according to the specific circumstances,

And can be distinguished as before and after the two phases.

The first part of the Yinxu period

is represented by the bronzes unearthed in Tomb No. 238 in Xiaotun, Tomb No. 5 in Yinxu, and Tomb No. 18 in Xiaotun Village North, and the bronzes unearthed in Erlangpo Peach Blossomers in Shilou, Shanxi, the latter in Lanjiagou, and in Ningxiang, Hunan, in Huangzai, and so on, in other areas. The new shapes include square yi, high necked ellipsoidal flattened body jugs, open necked ellipsoidal flattened fan body goblets, goblets and so on.

Square Yi is found in Tomb No. 238 of Xiaotun and Tomb No. 5 of Yin Ruins, and there is a "even square Yi", which looks like a combination of two square Yi, with a rectangular groove inside.

High-necked ellipsoidal jugs were found in Tomb No. 5 of Yinxu, with wide mouths and ellipsoidal flats, high necks, expanded bellies, and pierced ears on both sides of the necks, and footrims underneath, some with lids, and

Shilou Peach Blossom Flat Jugs with dragon-shaped lifting beams. These flat pots were popular in the first part of the late Shang period, but disappeared rapidly in the latter part of the period.

Open-mouthed, necked elliptical flat goblets are found in Tomb Five at Yinxu. Some of the goblets have no cover, and the necks are not very small, but there are also different approaches to the width of the goblet. Most of the goblets are small, and some are of medium size. Another kind of goblet with an open mouth and a rounded neck that looks like a cup also appeared around this time. The above two types of goblets are found in a large number of heirlooms.

Two types of goblets were made in the form of birds and beasts and with rounded feet, all of which were found in Tomb No. 5 in Duanxu. At this time, goblets were commonly made in the form of birds and beasts, such as the Wuhao goblet with a tiger in front and a lord at the back, and the Simu Xin goblet with a monster in front and a bird at the back, so that the goblet's front foot was not the same as its back foot. The United States florida museum of fine arts also has a front for the tiger after the duck-shaped and flat pecked animal and bird amalgamated goblet. The amalgamated shape is one of the characteristics of the design of the goblet at that time. A horn-shaped goblet unearthed in Shilou, Shanxi, is a special case of the goblet.

The new ones are also bird and animal shaped zun, such as the bird zun of Wuhao, the pig zun unearthed in Xiangtan, Hunan, and the elephant zun unearthed in Liling, all of which are new forms, and it is unprecedented to make the container look like an animal. There are also designed as half-container half-animal style, such as double sheep Zun, the center is Zun-shaped, flanked by sheep's head, a special shape. It is worth noting that the square ware was greatly developed at this time, Yinxu Tomb No. 5 unearthed square jerricy, square jia, square zun, square earthenware, square pots, square percussion, etc., and the heirloom ware in the square goblet, square goblet, almost all the major wine vessels are square, from the overall point of view, although the square ware is a very small part of, but it is rich in characteristic artifacts.

The types of wares used in the middle period also changed to a greater or lesser extent during this period, and some new styles appeared.

One goblet period, mostly equivalent to the pre-Yin and Shang period

Two Bo Gu period, the late Yin and Shang period, the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty to the Zhaomu era

Three open period, after King Gong Yi to the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period

Four new period, the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period to the end of the Warring States period

Five period of decline, after the last year of the Warring States period

Decorative motifs on pre-Qin bronze wares, according to the theme can be divided into three major motifs: animal motifs, figure motifs, geometric motifs, and animal motifs, figure motifs and geometric motifs. The animal motifs can be divided into two types. The animal motifs can be divided into two types, one is to imagine the composition of the main, strange deformation, rich in magical colors of the gods and animals, such as Taotao Taotao pattern (a said animal face or mask pattern), dragon pattern, phoenix pattern, etc.; one is realistic, the existence of the natural world of the animal pattern, such as fish, birds, tortoises, cows, elephants, rabbits, tigers, cicadas, silk worms, snake pattern, and so on. (Gao Feng 2006, p80) This period of various dynasties of bronze decorative motifs are not the same, the following will be stated:

1, indiscriminate period of ornamentation (Yin and Shang period)

This period of bronze objects, generally decorated with rugged lines and the composition of dense ornamentation, and the use of animal abstraction, in addition to the main pattern, there are also abstract bird and other decorations, such as the dragon pattern, the cicada pattern to do as Accompanying decorations, some accompanying decorations on both sides of the bird pattern has a small animal, so that constitutes the Taotie pattern (some people call the animal face pattern). The taotie motif is the most distinctive and representative motif of Shang and early Western Zhou bronzes, and it is an exaggerated or fanciful frontal image of an animal's head, characterized by a cross-eyebrowed mouth, a wide nose and glaring eyes, a teething or jagged teeth in the mouth, a pair of standing ears or a large chair horn on the forehead, and a pair of sharp claws. "Caveat emptor", "symbols", "Tongshen said", reflecting people's attention to this mysterious pattern and explore, in fact, these three sayings are quite reasonable, or in fact, all three are both, so the Taotie pattern of the connotation of the set of political, religious, and ethical as a whole.

2, Bugu period decoration (late Yin and early Western Zhou)

Shang dynasty objects decorated with animal images of the majority of the material, which in addition to the reality of the common cattle, sheep and other animal images, the vast majority of the more abstract objects in the fantasy, such as the diamond dragon pattern, fecal phoenix pattern, cloud and thunder pattern, etc. These peculiar shapes, strange and strange, and the majority of the abstract objects in the fantasy, such as the diamond dragon pattern, fecal phoenix pattern, cloud and thunder pattern. These shapes of strange, weird, through a mysterious and bizarre tone of the pattern, in the Shang Dynasty artifacts in the decoration of the mainstream. The mother of these decorations are mostly ancient myths and legends of the mysterious animals, they and Taotao Taotao pattern together, resulting in a solemn and even solemn horrible atmosphere. In general, the pursuit of mystery and complexity is the Shang Dynasty bronze decoration features.

Early Western Zhou bronzes inherited the tradition of the Shang Dynasty, and the decorative patterns were both elaborate and simple, with elaborate patterns applied to the whole body of the objects, while simple patterns were applied to the mouth or neck of the objects with simple strings or ribbons composed of dragons and thunderclouds. Figure 2

Figure 2

Figure 3

3,Open period decoration (after the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty to the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period)

The shapes and decorations of the bronze wares in the late Western Zhou Dynasty were more simple and tended to be stereotypical, with an increase in the number of tools, and the combination of wares was a new feature. Bronzes in the early Spring and Autumn period are the natural continuation of the late Western Zhou, and the biggest difference between the Spring and Autumn period bronzes and the Western Zhou is that: most of the Western Zhou is the weapon of the king's ministers, and the existing Spring and Autumn bronzes are the weapon of the states, the reason is that the Zhou royal family status is declining, and the kings of the states and their followers need a lot of bronzes to show off their own clan temples and houses, so as to improve their own status and identity. In this period, the number of weapons increased significantly, the belt, bronze mirror began to prevail, and later appeared brilliant gold and silver, inlaid with gold, jade and gemstone craft and gilt craft, and its decorative pattern is neat and detailed, popular patterns such as coiled chi dragons, serpentine pattern, and so on. Figure 3

4, the new style period decoration (Spring and Autumn period to the end of the Warring States period)

The early Warring States period is still used in the Spring and Autumn period all the bronze form, bronze casting at its peak, at this time due to the beginning of the development of the iron industry is gradually replacing the status of bronze, but bronze is still in the daily life of the instrument and carving and ornamentation and so on to play its role in decorative motifs gradually get rid of the atmosphere of the religious God, animal motifs, further abstraction, into the animal motifs. Further abstraction, into geometric patterns, and the emergence of some feast, hunting, war and other subjects reflecting the life of the time. Late Warring States because of the war, the casting of bronze a lot of practical development, the relative reduction of the type of ware, the decoration of the object gradually degraded, mostly for the surface of the plain unmarked objects, the shape of some quite majestic, but even if there is a lack of fine casting of the decorations.