Science and Technology in Early Chinese History
2 min readChina，as one of the world’s four countries of great ancient civilizations，is famous for its scientific discoveries in ancient times，and Chinese technology began to flourish in the Bronze Age sometime in the fourth or third millennium BC.There may actually have been two Bronze Ages:the Plain Bronze Age followed fairly rapidly by what could be called the Golden Age of Bronze.Its excellence is exemplified by the cast-bronze ritual vessels of the Shang Dynasty and the Western Zhou Dynasty.Ancient metallurgy in China attained high achievements very early.The bronze casting technology，represented by the delicate Four-ram Square Wine Vessel，was highly sophisticated.
Four-ram Square Wine Vessel has a ram at each corner.Their heads emerge as fully three-dimensional sculptures，while their chests and front legs appear in relief.Rendered with astonishing realism amid a dense sea of zoomorphic motifs，spirals，and scroll patterns，these complex shapes exemplify the characteristicallyelegant Shang fusion of abstract and representational animal motifs.Flanges are a purely abstract ornament，but here，running under the rams’chins and down their chests，they also serve as the rams’beards and woolly pelts.Incised birds with tall，scrolled crests cover the rams’bodies，while three-dimensional horned dragons project outward from either side of the ram’s head.
The remarkable results of bronze casting are testimony to the high technical skil of the early Chinese artists.These artists employed the“Lost Wax”process，using wax casting to produce their magnificent Vesselbronzes.A model was prepared with the decoration cut and incised on the inner face（which would result in equivalent projections on the cast vessel）.This model was then coated with wax.The solidified wax was encased in a two-layer mold of plaster or clay.It was then melted or otherwiseremoved from the mold，and metal was then poured into the space where the wax had been. After cooling，the model was broken to free the metal object.
