Page 129 - Deydier UNDERSTANDING CHINESE ARCHAIC BRONZES

商, the owl was revered as a sacred bird. This seems to be confirmed
by the above-mentioned archaeological work done at Shang sites in
China since the 1930s, which have uncovered a fairly large number of
important marble owl sculptures as well as ritual bronzes decorated
with owl motifs.

It seems that for the earliest Chinese, and especially the people of the
Shang, the owl’s large, deep-set, penetrating eyes, in a head which can
be turned sharply from one side to the other without necessitating
bodily movement, its strange, lugubrious shriek, its nocturnal habits
and its prowess in swooping down suddenly on its prey, all suggested
to its beholders a unique bird endowed with extraordinary mystical
powers, a creature that could serve as a medium between the world of
men and the world of the spirits, as well as between the world of the
living and the world of the dead, the inhabitants of the netherworld.

It was most likely for all of these reasons that the owl or chixiao 鴟鴞
motif featured so prominently on the motifs employed to decorate the
religiously significant bronze ritual vessels of the Shang 商 dynasty
and early Western Zhou 西周, vessels employed not only in the worship
of the spirits and clan ancestors inside the ancestral temple, but also
in the burial chambers of deceased kings, members of the royal family
and other members of the nobility.

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Owl motif, detail of the fanggui, Shang dynasty, Yinxu period (circa 14 – 12 /11 centuries B.C.)
Meiyintang Collection n° 65.
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