Research On The Western Zhou Dynasty Bronzes In Tunxi,Longyou,and Miaoshanjian

The Tudun tombs at Tunxi are among the few Yue burials in the Qiantang River valley where Western Zhou bronze wares have been unearthed,and the richness and number of bronze wares and their highly distinctive decoration are of great significance in exploring the bronze civilisation of the south-eastern region during the Western Zhou period.However,there has long been considerable controversy over the dating of some of the bronze wares and the burials as a whole in Tunxi.The scarcity of materials and the confusion in dating has led to a blurred perception about the overall face of Western Zhou society in the region,causing the study of Yue history before the mid Spring and Autumn period to stumble.This paper presents a series of discussions on the bronze culture,social landscape and cultural interactions of the southeastern Yue,taking into account the newly discovered Western Zhou bronze tomb at Miaoshanjian in the upper reaches of the Qiantang River,as well as the old jinxian material of two recorded bronzes in the Archaeological Map.The paper begins with a detailed piece-by-piece analysis of the Tunxi bronze group,starting with the shape and decoration of the wares,to determine their age,summarise their characteristics and find connections.Based on the dating of the individual wares,the group is then combined with the coexisting primitive porcelain,seal-printed hard pottery and burial forms and assemblages to form an understanding of the overall chronology of the bronze group.Through the above research,this paper identifies the Tunxi mound group as dating from around the mid-Western Zhou to the early Spring and Autumn period,and identifies a type of snake motif that is characteristic of the Yue people,forming a preliminary understanding of the cultural elements,assemblage forms and other features.The second part of the study discusses the dating and location of the two bronze vessels,3.31 gui and 4.33 you,recorded in the Archaeological Map,and concludes that they were excavated in the upper reaches of the Qiantang River,adding another example to the analysis of cultural interaction patterns and routes in the final chapter of the paper.The study of the Western Zhou bronze tombs at Miaoshanjian is based on the limited published material,and uses elements such as carriages,bronze swords and burial systems as a starting point for structuring their links with the Tunxi mound tombs and even the local bronze culture.Synthesising the information extracted from the three groups of bronze vessels,the end of the paper suggests that the bronzes from the south-eastern Yue of the Western Zhou period show a tendency to imitate and adapt the bronze ritual culture of the Middle Kingdom,with the pursuit of formalised assemblages reflecting the opposing notions of ritual and economy pursued by the indigenous upper classes.The different stages of change in the pattern of interaction between the Central Plains and the south-east and the routes of resource flow before the Qin and Han dynasties have been recovered from Tunxi,Longyou,Miaoshanjian and other Shang to Western Zhou bronze sites previously discovered in the region,suggesting that the pattern of resource flow between the Central Plains and the south-east was being reconstructed in a new two-way manner between the Yinxu III and Western Zhou periods.The upper reaches of the Qiantang River,where the three bronze groups are located,played an important role in this new network of connections and played a two-way marginal role in the development of the Huaxiaisation process and the formation of a pluralistic unity in ancient south-eastern China.