Ferocious Beauty of the Central Plains Civilization
Animal Sculptures on Bronze from the Shang and Zhou dynasties
As bronze casting techniques and the ritual culture of the central plains evolved, bronzes from the Shang and Zhou dynasties became more impressive in their technique. Those ferocious and unreal animal images embody the spiritual beliefs of the times. Elaborately decorated patterns fully display exquisite bronze casting techniques and unique shape expression. The sculptural techniques and the highly abstract and organized patterns of the bronzes also influenced jade sculpture.
China entered into the important Bronze Age during the Shang Dynasty, around the 16th century. Ancient formative arts changed very obviously at that time. The artistic shapes and tendencies of each stage are closely associated with the culture features of the times.
Generally speaking, the Shang and Zhou period consists of three states including the Shang Dynasty (1600–1046 BC), the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046–771 BC) and the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770–256 BC). The Eastern Zhou Dynasty is usually divided into the Spring and Autumn Period (770–476 BC) and the Warring States Period (475–221 BC). Though similar, the cultural features of each stage have differences. The differences on the bronzes reflect the different cultural features. The Shang and Zhou dynasties exerted great influence in the ritual system.
Strictly speaking, the Shang and Zhou Period did not produce any independent bronze sculpture. Most sculptures combine vessels and various images. In spite of that, the bronze sculptures for sacrificial purpose still make a strong impression and demonstrate the superior intelligence and aesthetic level in shapes, patterns and functions.
Shang—Magnificent ferocity
During the Shang Dynasty priority was given to religious concepts. People believed in ghosts and deities and had a respect for martialism. Drinking was very popular. In The Book of Rites, Biaoji said, “the Shang’s people respect for deities and offer sacrifices to deities. People pay higher respect to ghosts than rituals, punishments than rewards.”
Under this social influence, the bronzes from the Zhou Dynasty gradually embody the mysterious and majestic. Most bronzes were made for religious rituals, as reflected by the shapes and patterns. The bronze casting techniques reached their peak during the mid and late Shang Dynasty. Many new works of sculpture emerged and they paid little attention to practical functions. Most works are images of people or animals in myths and give a feeling of terror and intimidation due to their mysterious and eerie patterns.
The largest and best-preserved heavy bronze ware from the Shang Dynasty is the Simuwu Ding, which has a horrific pattern. Outside of its two ears there are a pair of horrible relief tigers with human heads inside their opening mouths. This pattern is also found in other Shang bronzes. The Ehushiren You (a kind of wine container resembling a snarling tiger devouring a man) is on the verge of being a three-dimensional sculpture but it is a vessel rather than a sculpture. It is made with typical bronze casting features from the Shang Dynasty and features a snarling tiger and fine patterns on the bodies of tiger and man. The use of complicated background patterns is one of the key features of Shang sculptures.
The main achievements of Shang bronze arts are mainly demonstrated by large numbers of bronze wares in imitation of various animals, including zun, gong, you and other animal-shaped vessels for wine. The animals are mainly rhinoceros, elephant, sheep, tiger and owl.
The most common animal image on bird and beastshaped zun is the owl. According to the Chou Rituals, bird and beast-shaped zun were widely used for the different sacrificial activities in different seasons by the noble family. As altar wares, they are full of dignified and noble beauty. The casting techniques are exquisite and congruous with the social functions. Therefore, such bird and beast-shaped zun don’t belong to ordinary sculpture, while animal images for imitation are not created for aesthetic purposes. The images and the wares are types of tools for communicating with ghosts and deities.
There were traditional rules on the creation of such animal images during the Shang Dynasty. Some patterns including taotie (gulosity), kui dragon (kui, one-legged monster), phoenix, elephant and tiger evolved from those threedimensional images and have similar connotations.
Taotie
“Taotie,” one of the ancient mythological beasts in China, is known for having eaten too much. In fact, it died from overeating, and became a symbol of greed. The historical legend about “Taotie” teaches us that we should be temperate when doing things or asking for something. Nowadays, the Chinese also use “Taotie” to describe gluttonous or greedy people. The pattern, also known as the “beast face pattern” was popular on bronze ware from the Shang to the early Western Zhou dynasties.
There were two common bronze casting techniques for bird and beast-shaped zun. The first is to combine the images of bird and beast with one piece of bronze ware, such as the four-foot Simuxin Hu from Tomb of Fuhao. The Simuxin Hu imitates a beast in the front, a bird in the end and kui and tiger on both sides with a long dragon on cover. The second is to integrate various animal images together, such as a bird head with animal horns or dragon or snake-shaped wings.