The Classifications of Chinese Bronze
The Chinese bronze sculpture are mainly divided into nine classes according to the function, namely Ding, Wine Containers, Food Vessels, Water Vessels, Musical instruments, Weapons, Measuring Containers, Mirrors and Miscellaneous.
Ding
Ding is one of the most important Chinese bronze sculptures in terms
of its cultural influence. At the very beginning, it was used as cooking and
storing meat and amounts to cauldron of today. Ding generally has a round bowl
with three legs and two handles at each side by the name of ears. There also are
variations of four-legged square tripod and other forms of round or square flat
feet tripod with or without the lids. Nowadays, the ding with a lid is very
rare. The body of round ding (Yuan ding) is usually the shape of basin, or calyx
while the square ding called a fang ding features square-shaped bucket. The
earliest dings were modeled on the pottery. Since the Shang and Zhou Dynasty,
ding has always been the most common and mysterious sacrificial bronze
statue.
There are small dings less than four inches and great dings among which are Simuwu Great Tripod that is China’s biggest piece of Chinese bronze wares. It was firstly resurrected from Wu family cypress graveyard, Houjia village of Yin Dynasty ruins in March 1939. Its height is 133 cm, length 110 cm and weight 875 kg. Due to its majestic shape and nicely made, it is the largest archaeological Chinese bronze not only in China but also in the world.
One kind of ding is constructed from large to small and become a group of tripods called lie Ding representing different status ranks in the Zhou dynasty. Ding is the main food vessel of sacrificial wares and stands for hierarchy system and authority in the ancient times. The ritual books of old China minutely describe who was allowed to use what kinds of sacrificial vessels and how much. The number of Lie Ding is usually singular. Nine dings are only allowed to be used by the feudal lords while seven and five tripod for a duke, three and one tripod belongs to a nobleman. But the emperor should be twelve tripods, a dual number, since the tomb of emperor of Zhou has not been found so, whether it is correct or not remains to be confirmed.
Wine Vessels
In ancient China, there is a term of “No Wine No Ceremony”;
hence wine is indispensable to worship the ancestors and the gods, ceremonial
exchanges, banquet and other activities. Naturally, wine vessels have turned
into one of the sacrificial chinese
bronze vessels. The simplest combination of Chinese bronze wine
vessels in Shang dynasty wine is Jue and Hu for pouring drinks.
A jue a china bronze tripod goblet or beaker used to serve or warm wine, is the earliest sacrificial vessel and also a wine cup used in the feast. Because this Chinese bronze shapes like a sparrow with three slim legs, a spout with a pointed brim extension diametrically opposite, plus a handle, and is homonyms with sparrow, it is named jue. It was used for ceremonial purposes by the Chinese of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties. Often the jue had a handle, sometimes in the shape of a dragon. It also has two protuberances on the top of the vessel, which were probably used when lifting the vessel out of heat. The surface of jue is often decorated with old inscriptions of taotie (The design typically consists of a zoomorphic mask, described as being frontal, bilaterally symmetrical, with a pair of raised eyes and typically no lower jaw area).
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