Lifelike Patterns

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In the Shang Dynasty bronze ware decorative patterns，there were many lifelike animal images，for example birds，elephants，deer，rabbits and cicadas.But the craftsmen of that time often changed the look of the animal images in the process of creation and added many imaginary elements；for example，adding horns to the elephant to add some divine color to the object.In the Western Zhou Dynasty，the lifelike features of the animal designs greatly enhanced.

In the late Spring and Autumn Period and the early days of the Warring States Period，the decorative patterns of the bronze ware included some realistic images directly from daily life of that time，including banquets and entertainment，mulbery picking，archery，fighting，hunting，and so forth.The main expressive methods include depicting the image on the same layer as the background and adding another layer，embedding the image with metal of different colors and needle carving.The first two methods were often used for thekettle，mirror and Dou（standing cup）.The kettle with images of banquets and entertainment，mulbeny picking，fishing and fighting are collected by the Palace Museum and are the most famous representative work.

The bronze kettle，unearthed from Baihuatan，Chengdu，Sichuan，is 40cm tall with the diameter at the spout of 13.4cm.The kettle was decorated with four rows of decorative patterns from top to bottom.The image on the left side of the first row is that of an archery scene.A group of nobles are practicing archery.The image on the right illustrates several women on a tree picking mulbeny leaves with somebody helping them from under the tree.On the second row on the left side is the image of a banquet and entertainment.The right sideshows people kneeling on the ground shooting flying birds；in the third row there is an image of fighting.The image on the left is a scene of fighting and defending on land，while the one on the right is a scene of fighting at sea；the fouuth row shows a hunting scene.The hunters are killing running animals with spears.

The figures，animals，trees and objects in the patterns are silhouettes，simple but vividly describing the activities.What’s more，the method narrates the facts clearly and orderly.This expressive method directly evolved from the stone carving arts of the Han Dynasty.