The Original And Sublime Beauty

Precious bronze, giant size, meticulous texture and patterns of mysterious animals forms four characteristics of Bronze vessels in Shang Dynasty which manifest their aesthetic values such as massiveness, solemnness and magnificence. These aesthetic values are vivid reflection of the life needs of people in Shang Dynasty, which is the tenacious vitality and the courage to explore the universe. In Shang Dynasty, out of the helplessness to the delicate life and the desire to control nature, people expect to utilize the power of god to surmount numerous natural disasters and difficulties. In essence, bronze vessels are artistic works made by people in Shang Dynasty to fulfil their life needs and desires by imagination. Following this clue, this thesis will comprehensively illustrate multidimensional aesthetic values of bronze vessels and finally reveal its noble beauty.This thesis includes five chapters.In the introduction, the author has made a literature review of bronze vessels in Shang Dynasty and has proposed research background, purposes and significance of the thesis.The first chapter gives a detailed description of the differences in the characteristics of time, patterns and decorations of bronze vessels respectively in Xia,Shang, and Zhou dynasties by the comparative method, intending to depict the great significance of bronze vessels in Shang Dynasty among the whole Bronze Age.The second chapter has defined and characterized the concept and aesthetic features of the noble beauty of ancient civilization through examining the rheologic and logical curve of aesthetic concept.The third chapter has introduced three aesthetic concepts: massiveness,solemnness and magnificence to explore concrete meanings of the noble beauty of bronze vessels in Shang Dynasty.In the conclusion, the author summarizes that bronze vessels in Shang Dynasty are artistic works made by people’s imagination and recombination of thinking to meet the life needs and desires. They have the salient feature of the noble beauty of ancient civilization exhibited by massiveness, solemnness and magnificence.