The characteristics of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period bronze decoration

1. Animal face pattern ancient known as taotie pattern, (taotie for the name of the legendary gluttonous beasts), the ancients believe that the beast has a head without a body is extremely scary, in fact, this kind of decoration is a variety of animals or fantasy beasts of the head of the front pattern. After another name for the animal face pattern, more accurate than the taotie pattern, clearer. The main decorative object of the animal-face pattern is the tripod, and the bronze tripod is not only used as a utility, but also has an important use, that is, used as a ceremonial weapon. Most of the animal-face motifs are decorated with exaggerated animal faces and simple lines, which are believed to be closely related to the religious beliefs and social patriarchal system of the people at that time, which is also the main basis for the study of ancient China's society, economy and religion. Beast face pattern is characterized by the bridge of the nose for the center line, highlighting the front modeling, symmetrical arrangement of the two sides, the upper end of the first is the corner, the corner of the eye, the more specific beast face pattern in the eye on the eyebrow, the eye side of the ear, most of the claws, both sides of the left and right to expand the body or the tail of the beast, a few abbreviated form of the beast is not the body and the tail. It can be said that all the animal face pattern is basically molded according to this model, only in the performance method and skills, with the development of the times and different. Also known as "animal face pattern". One of the common decorative patterns on bronzes. The pattern symbolizes the face of Taotie, a gluttonous beast in ancient legends, with many variations. The word taotie is found in Lü Shi Chun Qiu (The Spring and Autumn Annals of Lu Shi), which reads, "The Taotie of the Zhou tripods has a head but no body, and eats people without swallowing and harms its body, in order to say that the reward is more than enough." During the Shang Dynasty and Western Zhou Dynasty, the taotie was often used as the theme decoration on the objects, mostly lined with cloud and thunder pattern. After the late Western Zhou Dynasty, it gradually promoted the prominence of thematic decorations, and was often used to imitate the decorations on the ear or foot of the vessel. Since the Song Dynasty Xuanhe Bogu TuLu called this type of decoration Taotie, the name has been used throughout the ages. 2.3. Dragon motifs include kui dragons and kui dragons. Here, "kui" is the ancient name for an animal with one horn and one foot, but in fact it is the side image of a bipedal animal. The image of the dragon in the minds of the ancients is varied, so the decorations are also different, according to the structure of the pattern, there are crawling dragon pattern, curly body dragon pattern, cross body dragon pattern, double body dragon pattern, two-headed dragon pattern and so on. One of the decorative patterns on bronzes. The dragon is an animal in the legends of ancient gods and goddesses. Generally reflecting its frontal image, it is the nose as the center line, with eyes on both sides, and the body extends to both sides. If its side for the image, it became a long body and a claw. The image of the dragon originated very early, but as a bronze decoration, the earliest seen in the Shang dynasty Erligang period, after the late Shang dynasty, the Western Zhou dynasty, the Spring and Autumn period until the Warring States period, there are different forms of dragon pattern. The Shang Dynasty mostly showed a flexed form; the Western Zhou Dynasty mostly showed several dragons coiled around each other, or the head in the center, divided into two tails. Legend has it that the appearance of the dragon is related to water, "Kao Gong Ji - painting and coloring things" said: "water to dragon, fire to huan." It is the image of the dragon that is used to symbolize the god of water, so there are more occurrences of dragon scrolls or three-dimensional images in bronze water vessels. According to the knots of the dragon pattern can be roughly divided into crawling dragon pattern, scroll dragon pattern, intersecting dragon pattern, two-headed dragon pattern and double-body dragon pattern several kinds. In the records since the Song Dynasty, on bronzes, where such a pattern is shown as a claw, it is also called "kui dragons" or "kui dragons". Kui dragon pattern The pattern represents a legendary animal that resembles a dragon, the kui, mostly with one horn and one foot, an open mouth and an upward curling tail. In the records since the Song Dynasty, all the reptile-like figures on bronzes with one foot are called kui or kui dragons, which is related to the ancient record of "kui with one foot". This is related to the ancient record of "Kui one-footed", which reads: "Kui, god, is like a dragon with one foot." Some kui dragons have developed into geometric decorations with great variations. Commonly, the body is made of two ribs, or the body is made of diagonal lines, with a kui head at each end. Prevalent in the early Shang and Western Zhou Dynasty. 4. Phoenix bird pattern Phoenix was first seen in the "Classic of Poetry", the original "Feng Huang", the Han Dynasty Mao Heng explained as "male for the phoenix, female for the emperor". Phoenix and dragon are the same ancient auspicious animals. "Heavenly orders Xuanbird, descending and born Shang", that Xuanbird is the totem of Shang, in ancient times, the phoenix bird is the representative of the bird totem. Phoenix bird pattern according to the composition of the image is divided into long beak bird pattern, the body is a bird, the head has a longer beak; owl pattern, the front, large round eyes, hairy horns and large wings, prevalent in the middle and late Shang Dynasty; geese pattern, is a realistic image of the bird pattern, belongs to the late Spring and Autumn period of the northern style. The phoenix and bird motifs are often found on the necks, mouths, bellies and feet of tripods, guis, zuns, wine containers, jerricans, goblets, goblets, cups, yi, pots and other artifacts. It is one of the decorative patterns on bronzes. The bird has a long plume and a drooping tail or a long tail curled upwards, looking forward or looking back. Most of them are arranged symmetrically on bronzes. Liangzhu culture unearthed on the jade cong has a clear bird pattern. The earliest appearance of bronze is the Erligang period of deformed bird pattern. Yinxu period has bird pattern as the main decoration. Bird motifs appeared in large numbers from the early Western Zhou Dynasty until the Spring and Autumn Period. Shang Dynasty bird motifs were mostly short-tailed, and Western Zhou bird motifs were mostly long-tailed and high-crowned. Bird patterns include phoenix patterns, owl patterns, luan patterns and geese patterns arranged in groups. 5. 5. coiled chi dragon folk have nine sons of the dragon, auger and chi are the son of the dragon said, and coiled means "coiled and ambush". The coiled chi dragons on ancient bronze representations, their bodies and legs resemble dragons, while their faces resemble beasts. This pattern was used in the Shang, Ming, and Zhou Dynasties, and was the main decoration on jade objects of the Spring and Autumn, Warring States, and Han Dynasties. The chi dragons of the Warring States period have round eyes and large noses, double-lined thin eyebrows, cat ears, thick and curved necks, and curved lines on the legs, with the claws of the feet often upturned. The body is mostly outlined in shaded lines, with the tail in gelatinous filigree shaded lines. In the Han Dynasty, the eyebrows were erect and inner color, the eyes were slightly down, the nose appeared with fine line delineation, the body did not differ from the Warring States period, only the tail appeared by two curly lines only three legs. In the period of the North and South Dynasties, the eyes were slightly longer and curved, the two cheeks around the mouth were more grooved, some long horns on the head, some without horns, the legs were shorter, usually there was only one front leg, so it was also three legs, sometimes, the front leg stretched out a little bit as the fourth leg, and the curly cloud pattern on the tail was a little wider than before. Song Dynasty, the most characteristic feature is a very wide shaded line under the nose, extremely three-dimensional. Yuan Dynasty, the forehead is wide and high, its eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth are concentrated in the lower part of the whole face, accounting for only one-third of the face, the neck is low, and many places have been covered by hair, rising, crouching, circling, and other images, its majestic, beautiful form. Until the Qing Dynasty, the emergence of the previous times have not been the unique pattern. 6. coiled venomous snake pattern snake pattern on the bronze a kind of decoration. There are triangular or rounded triangular head, a pair of prominent large round eyes, the body has scaly joints, curled long, snake features are very obvious, often as an accessory to shrink very small, some people think it is the silkworm pattern. Individuals have as the main pattern, seen on the Shang Dynasty bronzes. The snake pattern of the late Shang and early Zhou Dynasty, most of the single arrangement; Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, most of the snake pattern is very small, for the coiled spiral interlinked, the old name "coiled venomous pattern". Vermin Pattern One of the decorative patterns on bronzes. The image of a small snake, forming a geometric figure. Prevalent in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States. 7. Yunlei pattern is a kind of deformed line stripe, mostly used as the ground pattern, playing the role of accompanying the main pattern. It is composed of softly circling lines as the cloud pattern, and the circling lines with square folds are the thunder pattern, which was prevalent in the middle and late Shang Dynasty. 8. Vortex pattern is also known as fire pattern. As the name suggests, it resembles a water vortex, so it is called the Eddy Pattern. Characterized by a circle, the inner circle along the edge of the rotating arc, the middle of a small circle, like the water on behalf of the rumble, round next to the five semicircular curves, like the water vortex excitation. It is believed that the shape of the vortex like the sun like, is the sky fire, also known as the fire pattern, the early Shang dynasty vortex is a single continuous arrangement, the late Shang dynasty to the spring and autumn and warring states period, generally with the dragon pattern, eyepatterns, birds, tigers, cicadas and so on in between the arrangement. The scroll pattern is mostly used in the shoulder and abdomen of earthenware jar, tripod, jia, and ampoule, and it was prevalent in the Shang and Zhou dynasties. 9. heavy ring pattern by a slightly elliptical ring composed of ribbons, the ring has a heavy, two heavy, three heavy, the ring side of the formation of two right angles or acute angles. Sometimes it also appeared with other decorations. Prevalent in the middle and late Western Zhou Dynasty. 10. Stealing Curve Pattern is a flat and long pattern made up of hooked or "S"-shaped lines at both ends, often filled with eyelets in the middle, prevalent in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Kui dragons: the performance of the legend of an animal similar to the dragon, the pattern is mostly a horn, a foot, mouth open, tail rolled up. Some kui dragons have become geometric decorations. It is mostly used as the main pattern on the artifacts. Dragon pattern: the pattern takes the image of the legendary dragon. Basically there are three forms: flexed form, several dragons coiled around each other, the head in the center of the split double body. Coiled chi dragons: shaped like kui dragons, with open mouths and curled tails, the motifs are made up of small coiled snakes (gnarls). Bird motifs: Some of the motifs have a long plume hanging down from the tail, while others have a long tail curled upwards, with the head looking forward or looking back. There are also birds on the head for the upward or downward high crown, this shape of the bird pattern, also commonly known as the phoenix bird pattern. The bird pattern is mostly used as the theme decoration on the artifacts. Cicada pattern: most of the pattern in the triangle for the cicada body, no front and back feet, surrounded by cloud and thunder pattern. There are also for the long shape, and there are front and rear feet, and then fill in the center of the cloud and thunder pattern. Silkworm pattern: the head is round, two eyes protruding, the body is curved. Mostly decorated on the mouth or foot of the object. Elephant motif: the pattern shows the form of an elephant, with a long trunk constituting a distinctive feature, there are also single elephant head, trunk as a pattern. Fish motifs: the motifs show the form of fish, some of which are dull, while others are vivid. The spinal fins and ventral fins are one or two each. Fish motifs are often decorated in the plate, reflecting the close integration of the decoration and the shape of the object. Fish pattern is also often applied to copper wash and copper mirror. Turtle pattern: its shape is generally carved out of the full shape of the turtle, not much seen in bronze, mostly applied to the disk. Shell Pattern: the shape of the shell, the individual shells are connected to form a pattern. Cloud and Thunder Pattern: a typical decorative pattern on bronzes. Its basic feature is a geometric pattern composed of continuous cyclorama lines. Some patterns make a circular continuous composition, known as the cloud pattern; some patterns make a square continuous composition, known as the thunder pattern. The cloud and thunder pattern is often used as the ground pattern of the bronze ware, which is used to emphasize the theme pattern. There are also alone in the neck or foot of the artifact. Hooked Thunder Pattern: It consists of lines that are similar to a T-shape hooked to each other. Nipple Pattern: one of the simplest patterns on bronzes. The pattern is in the form of raised nipples arranged in a single row or square. Another pattern, nipple each placed in a diagonal square grid, known as the diagonal square grid nipple pattern