Similarities and differences of bronzes between Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties and Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period

Popular in the late Neolithic period to the Qin and Han dynasties, Shang and Zhou artifacts are the most exquisite. Gadgets or decorations appear first. There were bronze containers and weapons in the Xia Dynasty. In the middle of Shang Dynasty, the varieties of bronzes were very rich, with inscriptions and exquisite patterns. From the late Shang Dynasty to the early Western Zhou Dynasty, it was the heyday of bronze ware development, with diverse shapes, rich inscriptions and rich patterns. Subsequently, the bronze matrix began to thin, and the decorative pattern gradually simplified. From the late Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period, due to the popularization and use of iron tools, copper tools became less and less. In the Han Dynasty, with the introduction of porcelain and lacquerware into daily life, the variety of copper containers decreased, the decoration was simple, mostly plain, and the carcass was light. Ancient Chinese bronzes are the great contribution of our ancestors to human material civilization. Although according to the current archaeological data, Chinese bronzes appeared later than some other places in the world, there is no place in the world where bronzes can be compared with ancient Chinese bronzes in terms of scale of use, casting technology, plastic arts and varieties. This is one of the reasons why China ancient bronzes occupy a unique position in the history of world art and attract widespread attention. Judging from the shape of Western Zhou bronzes, it is impossible to cast the same pottery sculptures because they are made of pottery sculptures, just like those in Xia and Shang Dynasties. Therefore, there were no exactly the same bronzes in the Western Zhou Dynasty. If there is, one of them must be fake or both. Judging from the decorative patterns, there are almost no bronzes with the same decorative patterns or nicks, because except for a few bronzes cast by a single fan, the Shang Dynasty was cast by Fan Tao, but this decorative pattern was rare in the Western Zhou Dynasty. From the point of view of copper-iron co-casting, archaeological discoveries in recent years have proved that in the late Shang Dynasty and the early and middle Western Zhou Dynasty, the iron used in this copper-iron co-casting was meteorites, so when did artificial iron smelting appear? This is a very important time estimation problem, because as long as this time is fixed, we can know the time from the late Shang Dynasty to the combination of meteorite and copper. When did the era of artificial ironmaking and copper smelting exist? 1990, an iron sword with a jade handle and a copper core handle was unearthed from Guo Guizu's cemetery in Sanmenxia, Henan Province in the late Western Zhou Dynasty. It is a typical copper-iron co-casting artifact, known as the "first sword of China", and the earliest artificial iron smelting artifact discovered in China so far. It can be inferred that the co-casting period of copper meteorite in China history is from the late Shang Dynasty to the late Western Zhou Dynasty. The era of artificial iron smelting and copper casting technically matured at the latest in the late Western Zhou Dynasty.