What are the characteristics of bronze characteristics

Characteristics of Bronze

Bronze has a low melting point, high hardness, plasticity, wear-resistant, corrosion-resistant, bright color, etc.

It is suitable for casting all kinds of utensils, mechanical parts, bearings, gears, etc.

Bronze categories are food, wine, water, musical instruments, weapons, vehicles and horses, agricultural tools and tools, currency, seals and symbols, measurement and weighing, bronze mirrors, miscellaneous twelve categories, which can be subdivided into a number of subcategories. Among them, food, wine, water, musical instruments, weapons, these five categories are the most important, the most basic.

Study of bronze

Animal and plant image pattern: "venomous pattern" because of the graphic coiled into a group of serpent-shaped name, popular in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period. Vicious is the ancient canonical records of highly poisonous

snake, the so-called like a snake but small. The "venomous pattern" is only seen in the Spring and Autumn period.

"Elephant pattern" and "elephant trunk pattern" is also a common pattern on the bronze. Elephant, through the phase. It is a large, gentle animal, and often used as a symbol of peace and good fortune, as well as the splendor of the "generals and ministers".

"Animal face with pattern" in the past, also known as "hunting belt pattern", is a kind of deformation on the bronze for the belt-shaped decorative pattern of the animal face image combination. This decoration appeared in the late Western Zhou Dynasty, popular in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States.

Geometric shapes: refers to the diamond, triangle, circle and other connected into groups of deformed patterns. More typical are: "band pattern" or "bead pattern", mostly for the auxiliary pattern, popular in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties; "triangular cloud pattern" often interlaced with other patterns, popular in the Warring States period; "diamond-shaped diagonal checkerboard", popular in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period. "rhombic diagonal lattice" is often seen mixed with "vortex" and "S" shaped pattern, popular in the Warring States period; "ring belt pattern", formerly known as the "Gongzhi" The "ring band pattern", formerly known as the "Gongzhi pattern", manifested as a continuous "S"-shaped wavy band pattern, the top and bottom of the filling "steal curve pattern" or ring pattern, popular in the late Western Zhou Dynasty; the "steal curve pattern".

The use of bronze

Overseas

As early as 3,000 BC, bronze has been manufactured, but used as a general application of artifacts much later. The earliest bronzes appeared 6,000 years ago in the Two Rivers Valley of ancient Babylon. Large bronze knives carved with the image of a lion during the Sumerian civilization are representative of early bronze. Homer, in his epic poem The Iliad, mentions that Hephaestus, the Greek god of fire, threw copper, tin, silver, and gold into his furnace, which resulted in the refining of the shield used by Achilles. The proportions of copper and tin varied over a wide range (67 to 95% copper as measured from surviving artifacts); but it was already known in the Middle Ages that different proportions could produce different potencies. An 11th-century Greek codex in the library of St. Mark's Church in Venice lists an alloy of 1 pound of copper to 2 ounces of tin, an 8-to-1 ratio, which is similar to the gunmetal later used. Bronze is harder than copper and has a lower melting point, making it easier to melt and cast; it is also harder than pure iron, and different alloy compositions of bronze are suitable for making gun barrels and machine bearings. In tools and weapons, the historical substitution of iron for bronze is not due to any special advantage of iron itself, but to the abundance of iron over copper and tin. Bell bronze is characterized by its ability to produce a loud sound when struck. Its tin content is high, 1/4 to 1/7. Sculpture bronze contains as little as 1/10 tin, sometimes with a mixture of zinc and lead. Zinc can improve the hardness, bearing alloy usually contains a small amount of zinc. Bronze with a small amount of phosphorus can improve its performance and strength; phosphorus bronze containing phosphorus ingots up to 1 ~ 2%, castings contain only trace; its high strength, especially suitable for pumps for plungers, valves and sets. Manganese bronze is also used in the mechanical industry, it contains a small amount of tin or even no tin, but contains a large amount of zinc and manganese. In addition to its use as tools and weapons, bronze is also widely used to make coins; many coins are actually minted in bronze, which typically has a composition of 4% tin and 1% zinc. Bronze is a substance that expands and contracts with heat just like water.

China

The development of bronze culture in China is divided into three major phases, namely the Formative Period, the Peak Period, and the Transformation Period. Formative period refers to the Longshan era, 4,500 to 4,000 years ago; heyday that is, the Chinese Bronze Age, the era of Xia, Shang, Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn and the early Warring States period, the continuation of the time of about 1,600 years, that is, China's traditional system of the age of bronze culture; the transition period refers to the end of the Warring States period - the period of the Qin and Han Dynasties, bronze has been gradually replaced by iron, not only the number of large reduction, but also from the original ritual weapons and Used in ceremonial rituals and sacrifices, war activities and other important occasions into daily utensils, their corresponding types of ware, construction features, decorative art has also undergone a turning point in the change.

Formation period: 4,500~4,000 years ago, Longshan era, equivalent to Yao, Shun and Yu legend era. Ancient documents recorded that people had already begun to smelt and cast bronze. In the sites of the Longshan period in the Yellow River and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, bronze artifacts have been found in dozens of sites through archaeological excavations. From the available materials, the bronze in the Formative Period has the following characteristics:

1, red copper and bronze coexist, and the appearance of brass. Gansu Province, Dongxiang Lin Jia site, unearthed a Fan cast bronze knife; Hebei Province, Hebei Province, Tangchengshan site found two pieces of perforated red copper plaque ornaments; Dengfeng, Henan Province, Wangchenggang Longshan City unearthed a bronze container containing 7% of tin fragments; Shanxi Province, Shanxi Province, Xiangfen Taosi graveyard unearthed within a complete brass bell, the Department of Red Copper; Jiaozhou, Shandong Province, three miles of the site of the two pieces of brass cones; Shandong Province, Qixia, Yangjia circle of the unearthed pieces of brass fragments. The largest number of copper products were found in the Qijia culture around Gansu, Qinghai, and Ningxia, where several cemeteries unearthed knives, awls, drills, rings, and copper mirrors, some of which were bronze and some of which were red copper. The production technology, some of which were forged and some of which were cast in Fan, is relatively advanced.

2, bronze varieties are less, mostly belonging to the daily tools and living class, such as knives, awls, drills, rings, bronze mirrors, decorations and so on. But it should be recognized that people at that time have been able to make containers. In addition, in the Longshan culture is common red or yellow pottery quail, and flow mouth, abdominal crotch is often imitated metal rivets, if you think that this time the copper quail containers and the XiaShang copper quail, Jennifer, jia containers function as the same words, the bronze has been in the time or began to turn to the ceremonial apparatus.

3, generally small sites also unearthed bronze products, the general population also embraced bronze products. In addition, the bronze products of this period are more simple and undecorated, that is, the bronze mirror with decoration is only for the geometrical decoration of stars and stripes, triangular pattern and so on, and there is absolutely no mysterious feeling of the bronze decoration of the third generation.

The dynastic period: including Xia, Shang, Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn and the early Warring States period, the continuation of the time about more than 1,600 years. Bronzes of this period are mainly divided into ritual instruments, weapons and miscellaneous weapons. Musical instruments were also mainly used in clan and temple ritual activities. Ceremonial instruments were used in ancient red tape rituals, which carried a certain degree of sanctity and could not be used in general life occasions. Among all the bronzes, ritual instruments are the most numerous and the most beautifully made. Ritual instruments can represent the highest level of Chinese bronze craftsmanship. The types of ritual vessels include cooking vessels, eating vessels, wine vessels, water vessels and idols. This period of bronze is the most beautifully decorated, and more types of decorations.

One of the most common patterns on bronzes is the taotie pattern, also known as the animal face pattern. This pattern first appeared in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River five thousand years ago on the Liangzhu culture jade, Shandong Longshan culture inherited this pattern. Lv's Spring and Autumn Annals - the first knowledge of the article cloud "Zhou tripod with Taotie, with a head without a body, eat people before swallowing, harm and its body", so, generally this animal face pattern is called Taotie pattern. Taotie pattern in the Erlitou summer culture in bronze has been. There are many types of taotie motifs in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, the mysterious color of bronze decoration gradually faded. Dragons and phoenixes were still the mother themes of many bronze patterns. It can be said that many patterned floral motifs are actually derived from the two main types of motifs: dragon and snake, phoenix and bird.

Cicada pattern, is a common pattern in the Shang Dynasty and Western Zhou Dynasty, and in the Spring and Autumn Period, there are also deformed cicada patterns. During the Spring and Autumn period, chi dragon motifs were prevalent and gradually dominated, crowding out almost all other patterns.

Another outstanding feature of ancient Chinese bronzes is the exquisite craftsmanship, showing the creative talent of ancient craftsmen. With ceramic composite model casting production of bronze and Fan method, in ancient China has been fully developed. Pottery model of the material selection mold turned model, pattern engraving are extremely sophisticated, muddy casting, casting, casting, superimposed casting technology is very mature. Subsequently developed without the need to cast the lost wax method technology, is undoubtedly a major advance in the bronze casting process.

Inlaid on the bronze to increase the beauty, this technology appeared very early. Inlaid materials, the first is turquoise. This green stone, still used in jewelry. The second type is jade, there are jade aid go, jade leaves of the spear, jade blade of the axe and battle-axe. The third type of meteorite iron, such as iron blade copper battle-axe, iron aid copper blade, identified, iron blade are Shuo iron. The fourth is embedded red copper, red copper to form animal-shaped pattern. Spring and Autumn and Warring States also used gold, silver to inlay decoration of bronze. The famous Yue Wang sword is also cast in bronze.

During the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the development of metallurgical casting technology was high, and there appeared a technical summary of the manufacture of bronze weapons, "Kaogongji". The book on the production of bells and tripods, axe catty, Eagle halberd and other various artifacts used in bronze in the proportion of copper and tin made detailed provisions. Due to the frequent wars, weapon casting was developed rapidly. Especially Wu and Yue's 'sword, unusually sharp, famous all over the world, appeared a number of famous sword makers, such as dry generals, Ouzhizi and so on. Some swords have been buried in the ground for more than two thousand years, but they can still cut through stacks of paper. Some swords, such as the Yue Wang Goujian Sword, have their surfaces treated with certain chemicals to form rust-proof diamond, scale or flame-shaped patterns, which are exceptionally gorgeous.

Another feature of Chinese bronzes is that no portraits have been found so far. Many bronzes use human faces as decorations, such as human face square tripods, human face battle-axe, etc., but these faces are not the faces of any particular person. More artifacts are the overall image of a person, such as a human-shaped lamp or a vessel seat; or the whole of a person as part of the artifacts, such as the bell frame has a sword human figure with his hand raised to hold the beam, the copper plate under a few human-shaped vessel feet and so on, most of these figures are men and women to wait from the attire, and is not a specific maidservant's portrait. Sichuan Guanghan Sanxingdui unearthed three-dimensional like, human head, the size of more than normal people, are long ears and eyes, high nose and wide mouth, rich in mystery, should be mythological characters.

Tens of thousands of Shang and Zhou bronzes have inscriptions, these texts are generally called gold. For historical scholars play a role in proving and supplementing history.

Inscriptions on Chinese bronzes, the text to the cast is more. Recessed characters, called yinwen, and a few raised characters, called yangwen. During the Shang and Western Zhou dynasties, it can be said that the inscriptions were all cast, with only very few examples of inscriptions carved with sharp tools.

In the late Western Zhou, inscriptions that were entirely carved began to appear. In the middle of the Warring States period, most of the inscriptions were already engraved, and even the three extremely ceremonial vessels in the Han Tomb of King Zhongshan in Pingshan, Hebei Province, were all deed-engraved, with exceptionally rounded knives of high artistic value.

The ancients believed that the bronze is extremely strong, the inscription can be passed on immortal, so to long-term circulation of matters must be cast in bronze above. Therefore, inscriptions have become an important material for studying ancient history today.

During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, the technology of casting bronzes was further developed, and due to the accumulation of experience, there was a proportion of copper and tin when casting various bronzes. Zhou Li - Kaogongji said: gold has six Qi: six points of its gold, and tin in its one, called the bell, tripod Qi; five points of its gold, and tin in one, called the axe catty Qi; four points of its gold, and tin in one, called the halberd Qi; three points of its gold, and tin in one, called the big edge of Qi; five points of its gold, and in two, called the cut kill vector Qi; gold and tin in half, called the identification of the flint Qi.

Here the so-called gold is copper, copper tin alloy that is bronze. The so-called "gold six Qi", is to distinguish between the bronze varieties of the six formulas of the portion, in order to manufacture a variety of utensils. The so-called "bell, tripod of Qi" copper, tin ratio of six to one, that is, 85.71% copper, tin accounted for 14.29%. "Axe catty of Qi" of copper, tin ratio of five to one, that is, copper accounted for 83.33%, tin accounted for 16.67%. The ratio of copper to tin in the "Gohu Zhiqi" is four to one, i.e., 80% copper and 20% tin. The ratio of copper to tin for the "Great Blade of Qi" is three to one, i.e. 75% copper and 25% tin. The ratio of copper and tin for the "Qi of Sharpening and Killing Yard" is five to two, i.e., copper accounts for 71.43% and tin accounts for 28.57%. The ratio of copper and tin in the "Qi of flint" is one to one, i.e. each accounting for 50%. According to Mr. Yang Kuan, the ratio of copper to tin alloy of various types of bronzes stipulated in Kao Gong Ji is in line with the principle of alloying.1 Bronze is the toughest when tin accounts for 17% to 20% of its composition. Kao Gong Ji" said "axe catty of Qi" tin accounted for 16.67%, "Gao halberd of Qi" tin accounted for 20%, because the axe, catty, Gao, halberd need to be tough. Bronze in the composition of tin accounted for 30-40%, the highest hardness. The Kao Gong Ji stipulates that 25% of tin is used for the "Great Edge of Qi" and 28.75% for the "Cutting and Killing Vector of Qi" because of the high hardness required for these weapons. As the amount of tin in bronze increases, the luster changes from bronze to reddish-yellow, orange-yellow, or yellowish. With 30-40% tin, the bronze turns grayish-white. The Kao Gong Ji stipulates that "the bells and tripods of the Qi" tin accounted for 14.29%, in order to make it more beautiful orange-yellow color, but also in order to be able to knock out a beautiful sound.

Archaeological discovery of the Spring and Autumn period in Hubei Suixian unearthed Zeng Hou tomb chimes, there are 19 pieces of the New Bell, 45 pieces of the Ningbo Bell, the King of Chu gifts Bo a ① measured sound to know, "this set of chimes Department of the seven tones of the scale, the same as the modern meter, its vibration frequency is also similar to the international standards of the modern world, the total range of the five octaves across the range of less than the modern piano at each end of the range of one octave. The total range spans five octaves, one octave less than each end of the range of a modern piano. The sound of this set of bells is beautiful, wide range, change the sound is more complete, can play a variety of tunes "② The discovery of this set of bells is a vivid example of the brilliant achievements of the Spring and Autumn period of bronze casting technology.

"Zhou Li - Kaogongji" said: "Where the casting of gold, gold and tin black and cloudy gas exhaustion, yellow and white second; yellow and white gas exhaustion, green and white second; green and white gas exhaustion, green second, and then can be cast." This is in line with the metallurgical reasoning. In the bronze mixing and casting, first of all, the impure material volatilization, so produce "black turbid gas". Secondly, tin melting volatilization, so produce "yellow and white gas". When the temperature rises again, copper melts and volatilizes, producing "green gas". To the "green gas" appeared, copper, tin completely melted, bronze alloy smelting is completed, and then can be cast into objects. Xunzi said: the casting of bronze objects lies in the "criminal (type) model is correct, gold (copper) tin beauty, craftsmanship, fire Qi get. This shows that the production of casting model, raw material selection, smelting and casting skills, fire mastery and other aspects should be mastered in order to cast a good artifacts.

The progress of bronze technology in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period is highlighted in the use of the following two technologies: one is the gold and silver wrong technology, the so-called gold and silver wrong technology is inlaid with gold and silver wire on the surface of bronze, made of patterns or text. This technology, the middle of the Spring and Autumn period has appeared, when Chu, Song and other countries on the weapons of the wrong gold art characters. At the beginning of the warring states, copper rituals appeared on the large gold and silver wrong pattern, the middle of the warring states this technology is not only used in weapons, rituals, but also used in the runic festival, seal, car, copper mirror, belt hooks and lacquer on the copper buckle. Second, after the middle of the warring states carved and skeletonized image process developed, this process is in the thin pot, grudge grudge grudge, identify, trousseau on the system on the thin as hair on the carved and skeletonized images, generally more land and water attack, hunting, banquets and rituals, etc. Pictures. These pictures are made after casting the shape of the vessel, with a steel knife engraving and processing made.

Transformation period: refers to the period from the end of the Warring States period to the end of the Qin and Han dynasties. After hundreds of years of annexation wars and political, economic and cultural reforms aimed at enriching the country and strengthening the military, the county system to replace the feudal system, with the centralized nature of the final establishment of feudal society, the traditional ceremonial system has been completely dismantled, iron products have been widely used. All areas of society underwent radical changes.

Bronze in the social life of the status of the gradual decline, most of the artifacts of daily use, but specific to certain bronze, exquisite works are still a lot. Such as in Shaanxi Lintong Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum excavated two bronze carriage. The first ride driving four horses, the car has a shed, the emperor is sitting. These two carriages are bronze casting composition, size and actual proportion, extremely exquisite. There are also a lot of gold and silver ornaments on the carriage, the whole body is painted. The second horse, 3.17 long, 1.06 meters high, can be said to be so far unearthed to the huge shape, structure and the most complex bronze.

By the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, ceramics have been greater development, the role of social life is becoming increasingly important, thus further sidelining the daily bronze vessels from the life. As for weapons, tools, etc., this time iron has long dominated. Sui and Tang dynasties of bronze is mainly all kinds of beautiful bronze mirror, generally have a variety of inscriptions. Since then, in addition to bronze mirrors, it can be said that there is no longer any development, and thus the development of this web site on the development of ancient Chinese bronze, to the Sui and Tang Dynasty.