Page 74 - China, 5000 years : innovation and transformation in the arts

went on by a great diminution in the absolute
numbers and types of wine vessels and a
corresponding increase in bronze vessels for food.
The establishment of rites that stressed food rather
than drink led directly to considerable development
of such existing types of bronze food vessels as the
ding, the yan, and the gui. The large round ding of
the Western Zhou greatly outnumbered those of
the Shang; the yan was used more extensively than
during the Shang; square-based gui, such as the Li
gui and Da Feng gui from the time of King Wu,
were entirely new to this era. The Zhou attached
great importance to ancestor worship, in strong
contrast to the Shang worship of gods and spirits.
Religious connotations are less apparent in
bronze decorations of the Western Zhou. Apart
from zoomorphic masks, the most gorgeously
executed bronze motif of the Western Zhou,
particularly during the time of kings Kang and
Zhao (perhaps early ioth c), was the phoenix
pattern. Phoenix patterns, beautifully accomplished
in limitless variety, became a feature of this period,
imparting an aura of wealth and luxury to the
bronzes. Their vogue, however, was brief; beginning
in middle Western Zhou, such sumptuous phoenix
patterns were seldom to be found on bronzes.
But, like the last burst of twilight, they brought the imparting a sense of simplicity and sprightliness.
peak period of Chinese bronze making to a
magnificent close.
Early Western Zhou bronzes show another
important change from Shang: the appearance of
long inscriptions inside the vessels. Many of these
inscriptions recorded major events of the time,
events often not mentioned in surviving historical
texts. For instance, the inscription on the He zun
featured in this exhibition (cat. 32) records and
precisely dates the building of the Western Zhou
capital, Chengzhou (in the area around present-day
Luoyang, Henan Province) by King Cheng,
successor of the Zhou conqueror: "It was at the
time when the king began the building of Cheng-
zhou. . . .This happened in [King Cheng's] fifth
year." 8 These inscriptions are our most direct and
most reliable historical sources for the study of
ancient Chinese history.
From the reign of King Mu of the Western Zhou,
the types, shapes, and decorations of the bronzes
changed significantly reflecting new customs and
uses. Bronze wine vessels, including the jia, gong,
zun, and you, essentially faded from use, and
although some new shapes such as the ling appeared
to take their place, the proportion of wine vessels
was much smaller than before. Beginning in the
middle period (ca. 975-875) of the Western Zhou,
many new types of food vessels such as the fu and
shu appeared, and older types of food vessels such as
the dou and pu were used more extensively than
before. New variants of some commonly used
RITUAL BRONZES — EPITOME OF ANCIENT CHINESE CIVILIZATION
vessels like the gui emerged. Zoomorphic masks, for
centuries the chief decorative motif of bronzes,
gradually changed in appearance. Major parts of the
mask, such as the relatively well-formed ears,
eyebrows, mouth, fangs, and claws, were simplified
or sometimes omitted altogether. The eyes, which
had been the paramount feature, lost their former
power, sometimes being reduced to two small,
socket-less circles, and at other times only faintly
suggested by a stylized outline. These changes
drained the masks of their former solemnity,
ferocity, and mystery.
The middle period of the Western Zhou also saw a
noticeable reduction in the use of dragon and bird
patterns for bronze decoration and, as with the
zoomorphic masks, modifications in the design of
these traditional motifs. These modifications
transformed the dragons and birds into what were
—formerly known as "curved zigzag patterns" what
we now call "modified animal patterns,"
"intertwined animal eye patterns," "coiled animal
body patterns," etcetera. These patterns were
generally composed as continuous bidirectional
horizontal bands of decoration around the bronzes,
The most distinctive pattern of this period was the
wave pattern (formerly known as the "curved band
pattern"), whose regular, rhythmic undulations
create a powerful sense of motion.
Bronzes of the late Western Zhou period (ca. 875—
771) show basic continuity with those of the middle
period. An ever-greater proportion of the food
vessels consists of fu and slm.At the same time both
the prescribed uses and the appearance of common
food vessels such as the ding and gui became
increasingly formulaic. Of two principal ding
variants, one was flat-bottomed with a relatively
shallow belly, the other round-bottomed and deep-
bellied. The principal form of gui had a contracted
mouth with cover, swelling belly, two symmetrically
placed animal-shaped lug handles spanning the
belly, and three evenly spaced zoomorphs serving as
feet under a ring base. The decorative combinations
were also more fixed: for example, a flat-bottomed,
shallow ding would generally have a modified
animal pattern around the lip and a wave pattern
around the belly, whereas a ding with deep belly and
rounded bottom was usually more simply
decorated, sometimes with only a few parallel lines
under the lip, sometimes with an overlapping fish-
scale pattern in a band around the lip. This trend
toward formulanzation suggests a certain stagnation
in bronze making at this time; nevertheless, some
items produced for royal use were still very well
made. During the late Western Zhou the greatest
innovation in bronze decoration was the interlaced
dragon pattern. This consisted of a central dragon
flanked on both sides by several subsidiary dragons.