About Bronze
Origin, Smelting and Casting
Bronze ware mainly refers to the utensils made of copper-tin alloy in the pre-Qin period. Including cooking utensils, table utensils, wine utensils, water utensils, musical instruments, chariot and horse utensils, bronze mirrors, belt hooks, weapons, tools, and measuring instruments.
It was popular from the late Neolithic Age to the Qin and Han Dynasties, and the Shang and Zhou utensils were the most exquisite. Small tools or ornaments first appeared, bronze containers and weapons began to appear in the Xia Dynasty, and the bronze wares in the middle Shang Dynasty were already rich in varieties and fine patterns appeared. The period from the late Shang Dynasty to the early Western Zhou Dynasty was the heyday of the development of bronze wares, with various shapes, gradually lengthening inscriptions, and rich and colorful patterns. Subsequently, the bronze carcass began to become thinner, and the decorations were gradually simplified. From the late Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period, due to the promotion of ironware, copper tools were used less and less.
Ancient Chinese bronze wares are the great contribution of our ancestors to human material civilization. Its scale of use, casting technology, plastic arts and varieties occupy a unique position in the history of world art and have attracted widespread attention.
origin
Chinese bronze wares originated in the Yellow River Basin. As early as the Longshan Culture and Qijia Culture in the late Neolithic Age, forged copper or brass knives, cones, chisels, shovels and other tools and bronze mirrors appeared.
to smelt
Bronze is an alloy of red copper and tin. Bronze has the advantages of lower melting point and higher hardness than red copper. The alloy composition of bronze wares has different ratios of copper and tin depending on the use and type of wares.
Varieties, uses and etiquette
Variety use
1. Ritual utensils: Ritual utensils are utensils used by the ruling class to distinguish between superior and inferior. Among the ritual utensils, cooking utensils include tripod, ge (ge), and yan (yan); food utensils include gui (gui), yu, 簠 (fu), and beans; wine utensils include goblet (gu), jue , 觯 (zhi), 斝 (jia), Zun and other varieties; water vessels include pan, 匜 (yi), Jian and other varieties.
2. Musical instruments: In the Spring and Autumn Period, musical instruments were indispensable in sacrifices and ceremonies. The so-called Zhongming Dingshi reflects the situation at that time. Such as cymbals (nao), bells, bells, drums, etc.
3. Weapons: The most unearthed weapons were in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. There are spears, battle axes, halberds, spears, knives, helmets, arrowheads, etc.
4. Carriage and horse utensils and miscellaneous utensils: such as jurisdiction, horse bits, luan bells, stoves, lamps, belt hooks, etc.
In addition, bronze daily-use utensils are mainly classified into four types: food utensils, wine utensils, water utensils, and miscellaneous daily utensils, among which food utensils and wine utensils are the main ones.
Etiquette
1. The Shang Dynasty included a set of Ding, Li, Gu, Jue, and Ju, with different scales, and the difference in rank gradually widened in the later period.
2. After the mid-Western Zhou Dynasty, tripods and guis were mainly combined, odd numbers were used in the Central Plains, even numbers were used in the south, and even numbers were used in both guidus. There were also clear regulations on the etiquette of bronze ware—bronze ware shape, quantity, Quality, variety and combination. The highest level is the nine tripods of the emperor, the seven tripods of the following princes, and the five tripods of high officials, in descending order.
3. In the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, low-level rulers used high-level bronzes, and it gradually became popular.
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