A Study On Ideology Of Artifact-Making In Pre-Qin Dynasty

Lu Simian had ever said,"As for the academic pursuits of the past dynasties, those which were purely creative actually ended by Qin Dynasty." As the origin of Chinese ancient artifacts, Pre-Qin had inherited the artifact creation traditions of Neolithic Age and yielded the first peak of ancient artifact activities. The artifact creation is permeated with aristocratic ideology as well as the "general knowledge, ideas and beliefs" of that era. Viewed from Aristotle’s theory of material, form, purpose, dynamic, the artifacts in Pre-Qin period conveyed ideas and thoughts in not only the purpose of artifact creation, but also the choice of materials and forms and the decision of processing procedures. Artifacts were definite carriers of meanings and ideas and contained subtle and profound cultural associations.The dissertation will target the artifact activities in the three dynasties as the object of examination and will explore the ideology of artifact-making in pre-Qin dynasty from four aspects, namely, the social identity of the artifact craftsmen and its influence on the design and production of the artifacts; the use and evaluation of artifacts by the users; the shape, decoration and structure of the artifacts; and the commentary and criticism about those artifacts by thinkers who draw on their political, economic, social and philosophical ideas. The study is helpful to reveal the whole cultural picture of the three dynasties, especially the "Axis Time", as well as provides new resources and perspectives for ideological and cultural studies; meanwhile, the study also has practical value in that it can offer enlightening ideas for current practices of artifact designing.However, artifacts indicate meanings indirectly and obscurely. Only if a set of effective analysis methodology could be applied, it is likely to touch the implied thoughts. Based on the existing analysis of ancient artifact morphology and benefiting from the theories and methods taken from different disciplines such as Archaeological Typology, Linguistics, Semiology and Stylistics, Chapter One preliminarily discusses the ways of textual explanation and furthermore tries to apply them to the analysis of bronze sacrificial vessels.Chapter Two to Five explores the thoughts of artifact-making by summarizing those activities in Xia, Shang, Western Zhou and Eastern Zhou dynasties respectively. From Xia on, the artifact-making with bronze, pottery clay, jade, lacquer wood and bones had the all-round development. The functions of dinning vessels, robes and flags, royal buildings reached a high standard. Moreover, the earliest bronze sacrificial vessels and large amount of bronze weapons expressed the idea of "sacrifice and military affairs, both are the most important events of a state". Xia Dynasty valued the artifact activities a lot. The dynasty recognized the social status of craftsmen and privileged them of the duty. Sacrificial vessels, such as bronze tripod and jue cup which were closely relating to the power of sacrifice in divine sphere, began to have the meaning as the symbol of royal power. One the other hand, the creation of bronze farm tools in the mortal life became the solid foundation of the development of the era of "thriving culture", the bronze civilization.The age of bronze progressed to its prosperity during Shang dynasty, when the principle "artifacts made for innovation" not only refers to the dramatic changes in bronze categorizing, shaping and decorating, but also defines the function of communication between people of Shang and their ancestors. Originating from ancient mythology, people of Shang invented monster-face veins, whose images conveyed secret connotations, which is considered as the imaginative means of power identification. While, the practical means to identify power relies on the huge bronzes and palace architecture. Category, quality and quantity of sacrificial vessels corresponded to the status of aristocrats, so as to imply the concept of "etiquette closely related to politics". Regularized artifacts application is just the right way to establish ideal political orders.People of West Zhou inherited decrees and regulations from people of Shang and even developed into Zhou culture. Up to the mid period of Western Zhou, they still followed the bronze style of the late Shang dynasty. System of rites and music wasn’t established until enfeoffment system made political structure come into being. Shaped decoration of sacrificial vessels, inscription recordation and artifact application explicitly showed and strengthened the rank differentiation and monarch-subject relationship; such is the rule to regulate human relations as well as the relations between man and divinity. Shaping worked well with craft, but gradually drifted away from the decorations with religious intentions. Moreover, the practical features of sacrificial vessels and its tendency for secularization just reflected the preliminary awakening of Zhou’s rational mentality. People of Zhou also put the ideaistic scheme of universe into artifact making. Shaping and decorating used for robes, carriages and palaces, together with behavioral patterns and social institutions can also be explained by universe perception.During Eastern Zhou Dynasty, sacrificial vessels and their symbol meanings had been declining and fading away, while the utility value of vessels were rising. The ancient thinkers’reviews on artifact-making were mainly presenting four themes. First, the relations between humans and the objects. Confucianism and Daoism were starting the discussion with sensory needs. Both of them agreed that "gentlemen are served by the artifacts, not vice versa" but disagreed on the way to realize it. Second, the relations between the culture and the essence of vessels. Confucianism holds the mean way of "coping culture and essence properly" by highly praised culture and being compatible with essence. Daoism considered it as the opposing position between "artificial" and "natural", proposing of dropping the external phony and returned to the "essence" of nature. Mohism and Legalism transformed it into "form" and "utility", in favor of utility and feeling sick against decoration. Third, the perception of relations between heaven and human expressed in the artifact-making. Confucianism pursued the unification of heaven and human in terms of moral perfection. Daoism advocated the unification in terms of obeying "nature". Fourth, the Daoism idea that vessels can be approaching Dao. Artifacts and artifact-making activities were particular object and the specific approaches to experience Dao:In the course of Xinzhai(心斋),they can achieve Qiwu(齐物),and ultimately they would identigy themselves with the state of Dao(道)Conclusion holds that further research on the Pre-Qin artifact ideology requires more investigation on current social and cultural context, as well as improvements of analytical methodology. Only when the two aspects can be combined dynamically and testified mutually, there is a possibility to determine the meaning boundary between "reasons of metaphysics" and "objects of metaphysics", so to achieve the "moderation" of ideology interpretation.