Two animal-shaped sculptures are most typical from the Shang period. One is the Elephant Zun (Xiang Zun) from Liling County, Hunan Province. The Xiang Zun is elegant. As a combination of an animal sculpture and a ware, it is a perfect work of art. The body is full of relief patterns, including animal faces, a pair of dragons, tigers and phoenixes and takes cloud and thunder patterns as background. The pattern styles perfectly integrate with the shapes. The beakshaped nose tip and the long nose form an S-shape, which produces a sense of rhythm and flexibility. A little tiger grovels on the beakshaped nose tip and faces the elephant’s head. Two phoenixes look at each other behind the elephant’s ears. Elephant-shaped bronze wares were very common during the Shang Dynasty. The Xiang Zun is an important wine container on Shang’s sacrificial activities. The common use of Xiang Zun is closely associated with the Shang’s ecological environment. According to Erya, during the Shang Dynasty, there were many elephants in today’s Hubei and Hunan provinces. They were regarded as symbols of beauty and deity.
The other typical bronze ware is the famous Four-Ram Square Zun. A beautiful bronze ware embodied with noble features of such bronze ware. It is a fantastic work of art with four sheep heads on four sides. It is the masterpiece of Shang bronze animal sculptures.
The various shapes and decorations of Shang bronze wares give the idea of being controlled by an invisible power, a kind of devout belief in ghosts and deities. Under such spiritual power, Shang craftsmen created large numbers images to communicate with ghosts and deities. So, the animal images integrated with bronze wares are embodied with unique characteristics of the Shang Dynasty.
Western Zhou—Simple dignity
In contrast to the gorgeous decorations and eerie shapes from the Shang period, bronze wares from the Zhou changed alongside social development. Ferocious and horrific images were buried as the Shang Dynasty falls into decay but the simple and majestic bronze wares became dominant.
A ritual and musical system was the prominent cultural characteristic of the Zhou Dynasty. There was a defined social hierarchy, which is embodied by activities such as worship activity and the use of clothes, wares, houses, horses and chariots. The shroud of mystery on the decorations and shapes of Shang bronzes gradually faded.
In the early Western Zhou, Shang’s characteristics still existed and many aspects of Zhou styles had not been established. However, some bird and beastshaped zun display simple and dignified features. For example, the “Dabaoniao Zun (Bird Zun)” from Xunxian County, Henan Province is the masterpiece. It is kept in the Hakutsuru Art Museum of Japan. As the styles of Zhou bronze arts were established, those bird and beast-shaped zun changed and freed themselves from being part of wine containers. They started to develop the independent features of the sculptural arts.
Animal sculptures from the Western Zhou are a little simpler than Shang works of the same kind in decoration and shape. They have a friendly feeling and no sense of the majestic and solemn. Such feeling makes the sculpture that of a man rather than a ghost or deity.
There were also changes on details, such as the sculptural techniques of eyes. During the Shang Dynasty, the eyes of sculptures were mostly made by a kind of stylized technique, called “eyes patterns.”
Shang’s eyes patterns shows a kind of ferocious or eerie deterrence rather than the description of the eyes forms. The Western Zhou’s bronze sculptures begin to show the features of various animals. Though the majestic force becomes weak, the sculptures are more vivid.