Ancient Chinese bronze ware

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Technical Features

In almost every culture，bronze was the first alloyed metal to be used for many kinds of life necessities such as ploughshares，yokes，kettles，knives，bracelets，earrings，and chariot axles.

The melting point of unalloyed copper is a bit lower than that of bronze but it is not able to sustain hard requirements.Alloying it with at least 5%tin gives the metal its needed durability.In China the oldest bronze findings are 3，200 years old.

Culture

In the west of the Eurasian continent，bronze items were in most cases used for agricultureand warfare.In China，most discovered bronze items were not forged as ploughs or swords but cast as sacrificial vessels.Even a great number of weapons had a sacrificial meaning，such asdaggers and axes，which symbolized the heavenly power of the ruler.The strong religious sense of bronze objects brought up a great number of vessel types and shapes which became so typical that they would be copied as archaic style receptacles with other materials like wood，jade，ivory or even gold until the 20th century.5 The first research on Shang and Zhou vessels was made in Song times when every type received a scientific name.Until then，some types did not even have a fixed name or were allotted to different categories，like Ding and Li. The different types were used for three purposes:as vessels containing millet wine，vessels containing food or vessels containing water.Some vessels with their long feet made it possible to cook the food inside，making a fire of charcoal under the vessel.Some types were standing in acharcoal basin，especially wine containers.The ritual books of old China minutely describe who was allowed to use what kinds of sacrificial vessels，and how many.The king of Zhou was favoured to use nine Ding and eight Gui vessels，a duke was allowed to use seven Ding andsix Gui，a baron could use five Ding and three Gui，a nobleman was allowed to use three Ding and two Gui.

The cultural significance of the bronze vessels is also evident in the abundance of Chinese characters inscribed inside or out.The character dou，in later Chinese meaning“bean”or“pea”originally meant a sometimes round one-footed vessel with a cover.The character feng，was an earlier form of (feng). Today it is only used phonetically，but it once depicted a vessel that was filled with precious jade stones，later reshaped to the character feng (tang)，today meaning “rich，abundant.”