Page 79 - China, 5000 years : innovation and transformation in the arts

best of early Chinese ceramics and jades. But the
supremacy of these two mediums was soon to be

challenged by a new material that would eventually

dominate China's artistic scene for the next
thousand years: cast bronze, an alloy mainly of
copper, with smaller amounts of tin and/or lead.
Cast-bronze objects became symbols of the power
of the ruling elite, replacing the ritual jades of the
preceding Neolithic era as ceremonial regalia in
political and religious rites.

Set next to the refined ceramics and jades of the

time, early attempts at bronze casting in China,

such as the wine cup (jue; cat. 21) made circa

1700-circa 1600 bce, appear unusually crude and

almost devoid of artistic merit. But the jue's modest

appearance and undecorated surface should not

diminish its significance in the history of this new

technology. The vessel has the unusual distinction of

being one of the earliest bronze vessels made in

ancient China, as it closely resembles similar wine

cups from Erlitou,Yanshi, Henan Province, where

burials generally dated to the second quarter of the Fig. 1. Ceramic wine cup (jue). Early second millennium

second millennium bce have yielded some of the BCE. Erlitou, Zhengzhou, Henan Province.

Mapearliest cast bronze objects (see 1

i).

Metallurgical analysis ot the Erlitou wine cups clay. 3 It is possible to incise designs into the hard
shows that they were cast from a deliberate alloy of surface of cold bronze, but such a technique could
copper and tin, poured in a molten state into a
mold made up of four or more fitted sections. The not have created the flowing rhythm ot the many
alloy and casting (instead of cold-working) scroll designs on the early bronzes. The raised linear
technology evident on these vessels, as well as the designs on the fang ding (cat. 22) embody the
mold-assembly methods, were major innovations in
material use and manufacturing technique for decorative possibilities of section-mold casting
China of the early second millennium bce. But technique at their simplest: lines incised on the
these first bronzes were also firmly linked to
China's older, established ceramic industry. The interiors of mold sections become raised lines
eccentric shape of the wine cup, certainly not easily (thread relief) on the cast vessel. Continuous
cast in bronze, was based on cups commonly made refinement of this unique advantage offered by
in pottery during the early second millennium bce section molds enabled the bronze workers to create
(fig. l).The potter's experience in maintaining high vessels with ever more ornate surfaces from circa
kiln temperatures must have contributed to the 1300 to circa 1 100 bce (cats. 23-26). 4
bronze maker's ability to smelt, refine, and mix his
More amazing, perhaps, than the advance in
ores for casting. Excavations at Erlitou habitation
sites also yielded fragments of clay casting molds, decorative technique is the existence, as early as the
further demonstrating that the early bronze casters mid-second millennium bce, of foundries that
worked closely with potters of the time. 2
could handle such monumental castings as the fang
ZHENGZHOU PERIOD ding (cat. 22). Nor was this rectangular cauldron,
which weighs about 40 kilograms and is S2
The unassuming beginning exemplified by the centimeters high, entirely unique in its time: it was
small drinking cup (cat. 21) does not prepare us for found, in a shallow pit at Qian village, Pinglu
county, Shanxi Province, with two round ding
the bronze caster's astonishing progress in the vessels, each about 70 centimeters high. 3 Farther
east, in the vicinity of Zhengzhou. Henan Province,
following centuries. By 1500-1400 BCE the believed to be the site of one of the earliest capitals
undecorated early vessels had given way to vessels of the Shang dynasty.'' three separate discoveries

with surfaces enhanced by varied scrolled designs have unearthed eight other square or rectangular
(cat. 22). Bronze makers must have been quick to cauldrons, closely comparable to the present
realize (lie decorative potential offered by a casting example in size and decoration, together with
technique that utilized section molds (fig. 1): it gave additional large round ding vessels.' I he largest ol
access to the interior surface of the mold, allowing these fang ding is 100 centimeters high and weighs
designs to be executed with relative ease in the soli S2.4 kilograms.

INNOVATION IN ANCIENT CHINESE METALWORK 77