As I focused on the exploration of the Shang dynasty’s bronze vessels this week, I further realized how the process of casting bronze is so unique and complicated, as well as very diverse in its entirety. The reason that it is very hard to particularly define the systematic process is because it is ““a continually changing composite of different animals, including humans” (22). The objects themselves offer the most information through their various human and animal characteristics, as well as their “close conceptual connection between hunting and sacrifice in early agricultural societies” (24). One of the most common uses of the bronze vessels is during ritual banquets in which wine is drank out of it. The incorporation of the bronze vessels during religious and ceremonial events reminds me of a common tradition in my religion in which we leave glass of wine for Miriam, the prophet, during Passover seders.
Furthermore, the bronze vessels were also used as “material resources collected for political gain” because of the fact that “religious divination as a ritual was closely tied with making political decisions” (Bensimhon, Rachel). The reason that the bronze vessels were produced in such great abundance was because of the fact that there was such a large amount of raw material available at the time. The modular technical system allowed for the production of such how quality vessels. Additionally, “unusual technique favored the development of a social system, the division of labor” and supports standardization and coordination with other laborers (Ledderose, Lothar).
Although I didn’t research the oracle bones, I found numerous parallels in reading from my classmates blogs, such as the fact that they were also used as rituals during ceremonial events. Both the bronze vessels and oracle bones were recovered mostly from the Anyang, Henan region. These two significant materialistic objects in history have both “added considerably to our views of the development of humankind in general” (26).
Things I learned this week:
- Bronze vessels were made to represent various tasks, in particular common rituals that took place during ceremonial events. The oracle bones were also used as frequent rituals.
- The bronze vessels and oracle bones represent the intersection between the artistic, the mythological, and the sociopolitical aspects that were so prominent in ancient Chinese history.
- The most discoveries of bronze vessels and oracle bones were in Anyang, Henan region. The objects themselves provide the most information about their origin and significance.
Works Cited
Keightley, David N. Sources of Shang History: The Oracle-Bone Inscriptions of Bronze Age China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978.
“Precious Metals: Animal-Shaped Bronze Vessels in the Shang-Dynasty Period.” In People and Their Stuff: A History of China in Objects Now Preserved in North America.
Allan, Sarah. “The Taotie Motif on Early Chinese Ritual Bronzes.” In The Zoomorphic Imagination in Chinese Art and Culture, edited by Jerome Silbergeld and Eugene Yuejin Wang. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2016.
Ledderose, Lothar. “Casting Bronze the Complicated Way” Chapter 2 in Ten Thousand Things: Module and Mass Production in Chinese Art. The A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, 1998. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000.
