Page 15 - Deydier VOL.2 Meiyintang Collection of Chinese Bronses

Studies of archaic Chinese bronze ritual vessels

From as early as the Han dynasty, Chinese classical books and official historical
annals comment on the great interest shown by Chinese intellectuals in the
study of ancient ritual bronze vessels from the Shang and Zhou dynasties. This
keen interest was, most probably, aroused by the unintentional unearthing
at the time of a number of archaic bronze vessels by floods, earthquakes
and mudslides, as well as during the construction of new tombs, temples
or other buildings or the digging of wells. These discoveries were regarded

as so important that they were recorded and discussed in the Hanshu (漢
書) (Official Han Annals). The first documented discovery of an ancient
ritual bronze vessel was that of a large ding in 116 bc., an event considered
so important and auspicious that the Emperor of the time, Wu Di (武帝)
(140 – 87 bc.) changed his reign name to Yuanding (元鼎) or “Original Ding”
between the years 116 and 111 bc. The rightness of his decision and his belief
that heaven continued to favour him were deemed confirmed when in the 5
th
year of Yuanding (112 bc.), yet another large ding was unearthed by a landslide
in Fenyang County, Hedong Prefecture, an event which was also considered
important enough to be recorded in the Hanshu.

During the following centuries, certain events, many natural, continued to
bring to light a number of archaic ritual bronze vessels and such discoveries
were always considered auspicious and signs of heaven’s favour towards the
ruling house.

During the Tang and the Song dynasties such discoveries became even more
common, which was probably at least partially due to the many public works
projects being undertaken around China at that time, as the country prospered
economically and imperial power increased. Another possible reason was that
during the Tang, many of the sites chosen for new tombs were located in areas
where ancient cemeteries had previously been made and these were often
inadvertently disturbed and their contents brought to light.

During the late Qing dynasty, the building of the railway lines also led to the
accidental unearthing of quite a number of tombs and caches containing
ancient bronze vessels. But perhaps the most important discovery from the
point of view of ancient bronze vessels, their inscriptions, etc. was made
th
during the reign of Guangxu in the late 19 century when a massive mudslide
led to the discovery of the Shang royal tombs, in Xiaotun near present-day
th
Anyang in Henan Province. This was followed in the early 20 century by
fifteen scientific excavations organized by the Academia Sinica from 1928
until 1938, when all archaeological work on the sites was interrupted by the
Japanese invasion.

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