Page 165 - Christies March 15 2017 Fujita Museum

IN SEARCH OF KINGS’
RITUAL BRONZES:

THE SHANG BRONZES FROM
THE FUJITA MUSEUM COLLECTION

In China, the advent of bronze metallurgy inaugurated the use of bronze vessels for rituals during
the Erlitou culture (c. 1700-1500 BC). The art and technology of ritual bronzes underwent several
distinct stages of development from the early Shang dynasty (c. 1600-1400 BC) to the middle Shang
dynasty (c. 1400-1250 BC), and reached its apogee in the Yinxu period (c. 1250-1046 BC).1 The bronze
fangzun, fanglei, pou, and ram-shaped gong from the Fujita Museum were indeed during the heyday
of bronze art and industry. The frst three vessels represent early Yinxu style and technology, and
refect the sophisticated aesthetic sensibilities and the technological prowess of the Shang capital,
Yinxu (modern day Anyang city). The ram-shaped gong is an extremely rare specimen from a foundry
located in the Yangtze River region, where patrons were more interested in real animals than fantastic
creatures.

These elaborately ornamented vessels not only functioned as the agents between ancestors/
gods and kings and nobles, but also symbolized the power and wealth of their owners. For Shang
ritual bronzes, the refnement of decoration, the use of faceted shapes, and the use of fanges are
all indications of the status or taste of the commissioners.2 According to the Guben zhushu jinian
(Ancient Bamboo Annals), Yinxu was the seat for twelve Shang kings, who ruled there for 273 years,
which has been largely confrmed by oracle bone inscriptions. Between 1934 and 1935, archaeologists
discovered a Shang royal cemetery in Xibeigang, Anyang city, the size of which is more than 110,000
square meters. However, only a few bronzes were retrieved from those enormous cross-shaped
burials; the contents had been emptied by Zhou conquerors as early as the second half of the 11th
century BC. Two bronze fangding vessels, luckily recovered from the ramp of M1004, demonstrate
the magnifcence of the kings’ bronzes (illustrated by Li Ji and Wan Jiabao in Yinxu chutu qingtong
dingxingqi zhi yanjiu [Research on the Bronze Ding Vessels Unearthed from Yinxu], Taipei, 1970, pls.
25-31) and are evidence that the Shang kings clearly possessed ritual bronzes of the fnest quality.

1 Yang Xizhang, Gao Wei ed., Zhongguo kaoguxue: Xia and Shang (Archaeology in China: Xia and Shang Dynasties), Beijing,
2003, pp. 188, 253, and 294.
2 Yue Hongbin, Yinxu qingtong liqi yanjiu (Research on the Yinxu Bronze Ritual Vessels), Beijing, 2006, pp. 263-268.

163