Donghu Bronze Decoration Study

Donghu,who is an ancient national minority in the northeast of China, has made invalueable contribution to the north ancient Chinese history. An acute shortage of the history record about Donghu, combined with it taking the important position in the northern grassland at that time, even the important role of the descendants of it, such as Wuhuan, Xianbei, Shiwei, Khitan, Mongolia in the development of our national history, so it is particularly urgent to study about Donghu.From 1959 to now, although there has found many Donghu graves,we have not researched it systematicly. Therefore, one of my research contents is carefully arranging and analyzing the Donghu graves to fill these vacancies.The current situation of the study about Donghu, is only focusing on their national origin and historical development. It is just at primary stage espencially for the research about aesthetic and artistic value of bronze accessories and ornaments, without profound exploration of their utility and the specific meaning. I hope to enrich the historical data of Donghu with the help of archaeological material so as to make up for the shortage of the record in political,economic and cultural situation of Donghu.However, it is only at the beginning of the study of Donghu pattern,even for the bronze pattern,without generalizing systimaticly.I will classify and generalize the Donghu bronze pattern, with the art history,iconology and theoretical approch of bronze pattern in the Shang Dynesty and Zhou Dynesty,in order to analyze artistic features and cultural connotations.The Huns, Xianbei and Donghu are China's ancient "horse nation" in the northern grasslands.For a long time, they created the world's unique grassland culture. Bronzes, golds and silvers in the grassland has made an significant contribution to Chinese ancient culture. The Huns and Xian Bei have similar cultural backgrounds and geographical factors, so I intended to compare Donghu with the Huns and its desendant—Xian Bei in order to conclude the features of bronze about Donghu, futher study on the political, economic, and cultural characteristics. The preface of this text contains the reason, the study status in the domastic and the abroad and study contents;chaper one will introduce history,politics,economics and culture of Donghu;chapter two mainly generalizes forty-two graves in five places and antiquities unearthed from them in order to generalize over all characters of them; chapter three will analyze artistic characters on the base of classifying bronze pattern about Donghu;chapter four will classify bronze pattern in order to sum up internal significance by virtue of iconology. and theoretical approch about broze pattern in the Shang Dynesty and Zhou Dynesty; chapter five will generalize characteristics of Donghu bronze pattern in order to discover political, economic and cultural connotations of Donghu.In view of Donghu system holds important position in the early ancient national minority in the northeast of China and Donghu studies have become an international school; also because archaeological excavations acquire new achievements during the last half of the 20th century to the early 21st century; At the same time, international and domestic academic study of ancient Chinese bronze pattern has made considerable progress, creating a new set of research theory and methods; there is a direct help for study of Donghu culture.Therefore,it is my hope that in this very important and significant research area, by sorting out and analyzing the bronze ware types,artistic characteristics and cultural connotation,comparing Donghu animal patterns with the Huns'and the Xianbei's in order to generalize its own characteristics and make up insufficiency of record in society and culture of Donghu.