A Study On The Bird - Shaped Decoration Of Bronzes In The Central Plains During The Western Zhou Dynasty

There are numerous bronzes with bird design during the Western Zhou Dynasty in the central plains, which are excellent with a typical culture of Zhou Dynasty. At present, about443pieces of bronze with the bird design during the Western Zhou Dynasty have been collected that are very delegate, and about286pieces of them are with inscriptions. Most of the owners for the bronzes are with high status, reflecting that the bronze with the bird design has an important position at that time.Presently the study on bird design for the bronze during the Western Zhou dynasty in academia is mainly on periodical division and accessories of some kind of bird design, discussing on the art form and their cultural connotation. In this paper, we will use statistics methodology to collect the bronzes with bird design and use the method of archaeological typology to do form division and period dating on bird adornment during the Western Zhou Dynasty in the central plains in order to reveal its evolution rule and the period features, which based on previous research achievement. Moreover, combined with aesthetics, art, psychology, religion, and other disciplines and theories it will explore the implication of artistic characteristics and the inherent meanings. There are seven sections which are as follows:Section one gives a review on previous studies by the senior scholars on bird design for bronze and illustrates significance, purpose, objects and methods of this research.Section two does a typology analysis for bronze with bird design during the Western Zhou Dynasty. Bird designs over the bronze can be roughly divided into flat form and stereo form. In the first part, the paper makes a definition for the bird design, and based on that, we’ll do the typology study. First, we divide bird design into small-bird designs, large-bird designs and long-tailed-bird designs, and to every kind of bird designs a division will be made. In the second part, it summarizes characteristics of the bronze with stereo bird design, bronze with the whole bird shape and attachment with three-dimensional shape of bird.Section three does more researches on evolutionary traces and development of the bronze with bird design during Western Zhou Dynasty and based on the research in the second section to reveal out the features of the periods, so as to provide reference for period division. Section four analyses features of bird design on bronze, including the bronze type, position for the bird design, features of bird design and the coexist design.Section five explores that bronze with bird design has quite high artistic value. In this section, bird design over the bronze during Western Zhou Dynasty in the central plains is analyzed from the point of view of art composition with combination of art and aesthetics; and explores their artistic characteristics.Section six does a comprehensive analysis with psychology, religion, and theory method from other disciplines. connecting with related documents and oracle materials to reveal the concealing meaning of bird design during the Western Zhou Dynasty in the central plains.Section seven reveals the evolution and dying out of the flat bird design. From the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the bird design on bronze gradually tended to be abstract. Part of them transformed to the Qie Qu design that appeared in the late period of the Middle Western Zhou Dynasty. Till the late period of the Middle Western Zhou Dynasty, bird design had almost completed its mission and gradually disappeared in the stage of history.