the Bronze Age. The Shang kings ruled from a series of royal capitals
in the Yellow River valley and vied for power and territory with the
rulers of neighboring states. In 1928 excavations at Anyang (ancient
Yin) brought to light the last Shang capital. There, archaeologists
found a large number of objects—turtle shells, animal bones, and
bronze containers—inscribed in the earliest form of the Chinese
language. These fragmentary records and the other finds at Anyang
provide important information about the Shang kings and their af-
fairs. They reveal a warlike, highly stratified society. Walls of
pounded earth protected Shang cities. Servants, captives, and even
teams of charioteers with chariots and horses accompanied Shang
kings to their tombs, a practice also documented at the Royal Ceme-
tery at Ur (see Chapter 2).
The excavated tomb furnishings include weapons and a great
wealth of objects in jade, ivory, lacquer, and bronze. Not only the
kings received lavish burials. The tomb of Fu Hao, the wife of Wu
Ding (r. ca. 1215–1190 BCE), contained an ivory beaker inlaid with
turquoise and more than a thousand jade and bronze objects. Many
of the vessels found in Shang tombs, for example, the guang (FIG.
7-3), shaped like a covered gravy boat, were used in sacrifices to an-
cestors and in funerary ceremonies. In some cases families erected
shrines for ancestor worship above the burial places. Shang artists
cast their elaborate bronze vessels in piece molds (see “Shang
Bronze-Casting,” above).SANXINGDUIRecent excavations in other regions of China
have greatly expanded historical understanding of the Bronze Age.
They suggest that at the same time Anyang flourished under its
Shang rulers in northern China, so did other major centers with dis-
tinct aesthetic traditions. In 1986, pits at Sanxingdui, near Chengdu
in southwestern China, yielded a treasure of elephant tusks and ob-
jects in gold, bronze, jade, and clay of types never before discovered.
They attest to an independent kingdom of enormous wealth con-
temporary with the better-known Shang dynasty.China 183A
mong the finest bronzes of
the second millennium BCE
are those that Shang artists created
using piece molds. The Shang
bronze-workers began the process
by producing a solid clay model of
the desired object. When the model
dried to durable hardness, they
pressed damp clay around it to
form a mold that hardened but re-
mained somewhat flexible. At that
point, they carefully cut the mold in
pieces, removed the pieces from the
model, and baked the pieces in a
kiln to form hard earthenware sections. Sculptors then carved the
intricate details of the relief decoration into the inner surfaces of the
piece molds. Next, the artists shaved the model to reduce its size to
form a core for the piece mold. They then reassembled the mold
around the model using bronze spacers to preserve a void between
the model and the mold—a space equivalent to the layer of wax used
in the lost-wax method (see “Hollow-Casting Life-Size Bronze Stat-
ues,” Chapter 5, page 122). The Shang bronze-casters then added a
final clay layer on the outside to hold everything together, leaving
open ducts for pouring molten bronze into the space between the
model and the mold and to permit gases to escape. Once the mold
cooled, they broke it apart, removed the new bronze vessel, and
cleaned and polished it.
Shang bronzes show a mastery in casting rivaling that of any
other ancient civilization. The great numbers of cast-bronze vessels
strongly suggest well-organized workshops. Shang bronzes held
wine, water, grain, or meat for sacrificial rites. Each vessel’s shape
matched its intended purpose. All were highly decorated with ab-
stract and animal motifs. On the guang illustrated here (FIG. 7-3),
the multiple designs and their fields of background spirals integrate
so closely with the form of the libation-pouring vessel that they are
not merely an external embellishment but an integral part of thesculptural whole. Some motifs on the guang’s side may represent the
eyes of a tiger and the horns of a ram. A horned animal forms the
front of the lid, and at the rear is a horned head with a bird’s beak.
Another horned head appears on the handle. Fish, birds, elephants,
rabbits, and more abstract composite creatures swarm over the sur-
face against a background of spirals. The fabulous animal forms, real
and imaginary, on Shang bronzes are unlikely to have been purely
decorative. They are probably connected with the world of spirits
addressed in the rituals.Shang Bronze-Casting
MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES7-3Guang, probably from
Anyang, China, Shang dynasty,
12th or 11th century bce.
Bronze, 6–^12 high. Asian Art
Museum of San Francisco,
San Francisco (Avery
Brundage Collection).
Shang artists perfected the
casting of elaborate bronze
vessels decorated with animal
motifs. The animal forms, real
and imaginary, on this libation
guang are probably connected
with the world of spirits.1 in.