The Civilization of the Shang Dynasty was not only known for its solemn bronzes, but also for its numerous jades.
In the early Shang Dynasty, jade artifacts were not found much, and the craftsmanship was relatively rough. In the late Shang Dynasty, the jade refining skills were exquisite and the artistic style was unique, which occupied an important position in the history of jade carving in China. Jade production in the late Shang Dynasty has been very developed, and the representative one is the Anyang Yin Ruins of the late Shang Dynasty.
Animal jade carving in the Shang Dynasty opened a new chapter in jade carving, gave animal jade carving a new style, and played a normative role in animal jade carving later, becoming a traditional type of jade carving. Shang Dynasty animal jade carving is diverse in shape, vivid in image, simple and bold in style, good at capturing the typical characteristics of animals, such as the curved neck and flat beak of the jade goose are prominent and exaggerated, so that the facial characteristics of the animal image are immediately displayed, which is the most successful side of the animal jade carving of the Shang Dynasty, which is very artistic.
The small animal-shaped jade pendants of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties are very rich, including imaginary dragons and phoenixes, as well as many realistic animals, such as: fish, silkworms, cicadas, praying mantises, turtles, turtles, frogs and so on. These jade ornaments are gorgeous and changeable, exquisite and beautiful craftsmanship, and the image is conveyed, representing the highest level of jade in the late Shang Dynasty.
Admire the exquisite Shang Dynasty
"Fantastic Beasts" shaped jade pendant ~
Mantis-shaped jade pendant is a common kind of jade pendant in the Shang Dynasty, although the shape is simple, it fully reflects the ancient people's observation of the natural world in detail.
Frogs, Zhan Zhu or toads, moon spirits in ancient myths and legends. Nuwa created the world, created humanity and its civilization. Nuwa related frog totem. The frog has many children and is a symbol of life reproduction. The superposition of animal and human forms gives humans the same ability. The frog totem is one of the four major totems of Yangshao, and the image and deformation pattern of the frog pattern totem can be seen almost everywhere in the Yangshao cultural sites in the entire Yellow River Basin.
The jade turtle is one of the few in ancient jade, but this jade turtle is a household name in the jade world. It is famous because it is a beautiful jade turtle. Most strikingly, the black part of the jade is cleverly made into the turtle's back and eyes, while the gray-white part is made into the turtle's head, top, abdomen and feet. This is the earliest known jade beautiful color work, which shows that the ingenious color process designed by using different colors of jade was first born in the Shang Dynasty. Therefore, this jade turtle has epoch-making significance in the history of the development of jade production.
In addition, there are pictographic jade pendants, lizard-shaped jade pendants, bat-shaped jade pendants, parrot-shaped jade pendants and so on.
In the later development, there were also some other rare jade ornaments, such as the sacred beast-shaped jade pendant excavated from the tomb of the Marquis of Haixia, and the ornaments of Capricorn and toad excavated from the tombs of the nobles of the Liao Dynasty.
This sacred beast was greatly famous in the Han Dynasty, and its scientific name was "Fang Xiangshi". It is a god who drives away epidemics and avoids evil spirits, and is a native deity in China. This jade pendant of Liu He, the Marquis of Haixia, adopts the image of Fang Xiangshi, a fierce beast cloaked in bear skin and golden eyes, which is also in line with the meaning of Chinese jade prayer and exorcism.
The use of these jade pendants, in addition to the most basic decorative functions, scholars tend to believe that these animal-themed jade objects represent primitive nature worship, people hope to obtain magical abilities of animals by wearing ornaments of animal images, or to use the power of animals to communicate with the gods when holding ritual activities. Some scholars believe that these jade animals represent the ancient totem gods.
Through careful observation, the ancients extracted a vivid moment from life and restored it, from which we can understand the respect of the ancients for the natural world, and also let us appreciate these wonderful works of art today.