Brilliant Sunset Glow
2 min readIn 221 BC, the Qin Kingdom wiped out the other six kingdoms and established the Qin Empire, the first unified centralized country in Chinese history. Emperor Shihuang of the Qin Dynasty ordered all collected bronze weapons in the countiy to be sent to Xianyang shortly after the establishment of the country, and turned the bronze weapons into 12 huge bronze statues. This event marked the end of the Chinese Bronze Age.
The time of the Qin, Western Han and Eastern Han dynasties totals 441 years. The period was the beginning of Chinese feudalism and the ending of Chinese ancient bronze art.
In the new age, the bronze art was not as glorious as before and lost its dominant status. In the metal manufacturing industry, the emerging iron smelting technology became more prominent. The scope of the application of bronze ware reduced, and bronze ware was gradually replaced by gold and silver ware, porcelain and lacquer work. Bronze ware became a staple item. At that time, bronze ware mainly included lamps, smoking stoves, mirrors and harnesses. These practical articles carried the tradition during the Warring States Period in style, decoration and production, and became lighter and easier to carry. The bronze ware during the period was in two artistic styles. One was gorgeous and splendid, and the other was simple and elegant.
During the last development period of bronze ware,a large quantity of bronze articles were made in the Qin and Han dynasties. Bronze sculptures were especially brought to another level. In the history of Chinese sculpture, bronze sculptures before the Qin Dynasty were mainly small-sized decorations. In addition to Sanxingdui, other places had few large-sized individual full relief objects. During the Qin and Han dynasties, there were a lot of large-sized individual full relief articles. The sculptures were simple and smooth, and the style was unpretentious, grand and dramatic. Many bronze articles are representative works of Chinese sculpture.
