Bronze Studies Have Guo

The State of Zeng is among the various southern states in the Zhou Dynasty, which is located in what is today the Nanyang Basin or the upper and middle reaches of the Huaihe River. It is a very special state, in that there are no historical records about it but a large number of unearthed bronze ware inscribed with the character "Zeng". Due to the discrepancy between the archaeological findings and historical documents, the State of Zeng remains an unsolved mystery for later generations.In early2011,325items of bronze ware were unearthed from the Yejiashan Tomb site in Suizhou, Hubei. Among the discoveries, those inscribed with "Vassal of Zeng","Remonstrance from Vassal of Zeng" advance the upper limit of the Bronze Age of the State of Zeng forward to early West Zhou Dynasty, and provide a new opportunity for unraveling the "Zeng" mystery. Meanwhile, the discovery at Yejiashan also adds more controversy and mystery to academics, such as the genealogical issue of the tomb, its chronologization, the characterization of Zeng culture in early West Zhou Dynasty, etc. Therefore, it is urged that various archeological methods be employed in the present study, based on what has been found so far, to collect and arrange the bronze ware of the State of Zeng, and then conduct comprehensive and systematic investigation on them. In so doing, this paper tries to recover the authentic picture, in a holistic way, of the Bronze Culture of Zeng. This paper is organized in seven parts, and they are summarized as follows.1.Summarize and judge the status quo of the previous study of Tsang Kwok bronzes of the Western Zhou Dynasty;A brief introduction of the research topic, study object, research purpose and methods.2.Typology and installments dating. Typological Analysis about some bronzes which have obvious evolutionary sequence. Based on the previous analysis, we further researched their installments dating. We divided bronze into three artifacts, and their characteristics were summarized.3. Artifacts Portfolio Analysis. To analyze the artifacts portfolio according to the artifacts buried specifications and tombs size.4. The tombs textual research and Investigation of the identity of the tomb. To judge the decade of some tombs and investigate identity of the tomb based on the preceding sections.5. Analysis of Cultural Factors. This is one important part of the paper.The analysis is based on three aspects:graves, burial custom and bronze. The bronze culture is divided into four major categories; include Shang cultural factors, Zhou cultural factors, local factors, and mixed factors. Through the quantitative analysis of the cultural factors, the cultural identity of Tsang Kwok of Western Zhou is highlighted.6.Contrast with other bronze culture. This is also one important part. From the tombs, bronze, bronze combination, we contrast "Zeng"country with the capital region and other area. We take the bronze culture in Fenghao of capital region and several other countries as examples to compare them with "Zeng" bronze culture to highlight the characteristic and status of "Zeng" bronze culture.7.The related issues reflected by Bronzes. To investigate the ethnic characteristic, the relationship between "Zeng" in western Zhou Dynasty and eastern Zhou Dynasty according the result of preceding sections and research data.