Chinese decorated bronzes deposited as grave goods
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A variety of wine vessels around an altar, Western Zhou, Metropolitan Museum of Art.[1]A Shang dynasty bronze vessel to preserve drink; 11th century BC; height: 35.2 cm; Musee Cernuschi (Paris)Square zun with four sheep heads; Shang Dynasty, 13th-10th century BCETaibao Ding, from Shandong c.10th century BCE, Western ZhouBurial pit at Tomb of Lady Fu Hao, as it is now displayed
Sets and individual examples of ritual bronzes survive from when they were made mainly during the Chinese Bronze Age. Ritual bronzes create quite an impression both due to their sophistication of design and manufacturing process, but also because of their remarkable durability. From around 1650 BCE, these elaborately decorated vessels were deposited as grave goods in the tombs of royalty and the nobility, and were evidently produced in very large numbers, with documented excavations finding over 200 pieces in a single royal tomb. They were produced for an individual or social group to use in making ritual offerings of food and drink to his or their ancestors and other deities or spirits. Such ceremonies generally took place in family temples or ceremonial halls over tombs. These ceremonies can be seen as ritual banquets in which both living and dead members of a family were supposed to participate. Details of these ritual ceremonies are preserved through early literary records. On the death of the owner of a ritual bronze, it would often be placed in his tomb, so that he could continue to pay his respects in the afterlife; other examples were cast specifically as grave goods.[2] Indeed, many surviving examples have been excavated from graves.
The ritual bronzes were probably not used for normal eating and drinking; they represent larger, more elaborate versions of the types of vessels used for this, and made in precious materials. Many of the shapes also survive in pottery, and pottery versions continued to be made in an antiquarian spirit until modern times. Apart from table vessels, weapons and some other objects were made in special ritual forms. Another class of ritual objects are those, also including weapons, made in jade, which was probably the most highly valued of all, and which had been long used for ritual tools and weapons, since about 4,500 BCE.[2]
At least initially, the production of bronze was probably controlled by the ruler, who gave unformed metal to his nobility as a sign of favour.[3][4] The technology of bronze production was described in the Kao Gong Ji (Record of Trades, Records of Examination of Craftsman, Book of Diverse Crafts) compiled some time between the fifth and third centuries BCE.[4]
^"Altar Set | China | Shang dynasty–Western Zhou dynasty (1046–771 B.C.) | The Met". The Metropolitan Museum of Art, i.e. The Met Museum. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
^ abRawson, 44–60
^Rawson, 33–34
^ abPare, Sascha (10 August 2022). "Researchers decode metal-making recipes in ancient Chinese text". The Guardian.
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