Relevant Study On The Realistic Animal-shaped Bronzes Of Shang And Zhou Dynasties

This paper takes realistic animal-shaped bronzes as the research object,and adopts archaeological typology,statistical methods and research methods of artistic style to conduct systematic and comprehensive research on the unearthed and existing realistic animal-shaped bronzes collected.It mainly focuses on unearthed objects,supplemented by existing bronzes.On the one hand,realistic animal-shaped bronzes are studied according to different categories and shapes,and the style and changes of realistic animal-shaped bronzes in different ages are summarized and analyzed.On the other hand,this paper summarizes the regional distribution of such bronzes and explores their spatial differences and characteristics,thus further analyzing the relationship between ages and regions vertically and horizontally.On this basis,the relationship between human and animal is studied.Besides,the reasons behind the facts reflected by realistic animal-shaped bronzes are discussed while combining ancient writings,records in literatures and real objects.The first part is the study of classification over one hundred realistic animal-shaped bronzes of Shang and Zhou Dynasties.There are three categories:Zun,You and Gong.(All of them are wine containers with different shapes.)Since the quantity and category of Zun are overwhelming among the three,this paper pays great attention to Zun.Based on formal analysis,the development of realistic animal-shaped Zun of Shang and Zhou Dynasties is divided into four stages.In addition to those unearthed cultural relics without specific excavated information,the rest cultural relics were studied while taking into consideration the archaeological sites,and their excavated backgrounds were introduced in detail,which is of fundamental significance to following researches.The second part is about the distribution study of realistic animal-shaped bronzes of Shang and Zhou Dynasties.The author collected 58 bronzes with specific excavated sites,including Central Plains,Guanzhong area,the Xiangjiang River Basin and other areas.It can be seen that few bronzes have specific excavated information and they scatter widely.Generally,bronzes mainly distributed on Anyang region and the Xiangjiang River basin in the Shang Dynasty,but they transferred to the Shanxi-Shaanxi area in the Zhou Dynasty.Regarding animal themes,some general characteristics in areas where different animal shapes distributed are summarize.For instance,the theme of owls is commonly seen in Henan.The fourth part is the difference study of realistic animal-shaped bronzes.Based oin the classified and distribution researches above,this part makes deep analysis on the age and regional differences of realistic animal-shaped bronzes.From real objects,it can be seen that realistic animal-shaped bronzes like Zun developed rather rapidly in the late Shang Dynasty.In particular,the stage of the Shang Dynasty to the Western Zhou Dynasty can be regarded as the peak of its development.Although they continued to develop during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States,its development became slower.After entering the Qin and Han Dynasties,such bronzes were rarely seen.As for this process,this paper summarizes the changes in realistic animal-shape bronzes and the reasons behind them from three aspects:animal species,artistic style and functions.Meanwhile,as real objects,realistic animal-shaped bronzes can be an important evidence for the geographical distribution of animals and cultural communication.Based on the previous analysis,the fifth part discusses the relationship between human and animal.Combined with ancient writings,ancient literature records,and archaeological materials related to animals,the characteristics and styles reflected in the realistic animal-shaped bronzes are used to analyze t;he changes in attitudes that people held towards animals.Actually,the realistic animal-shaped bronzes are closely related to human production and life as well as totem worship.