Hello everyone
We're meeting again
Today
Bao Bojun first needs to take everyone to understand
It is the Western Zhou beast face pattern
Name: Western Zhou animal face pattern
Age: Early Western Zhou Dynasty
Inscription: Gui Inner Bottom Cast Inscription 1 line 3 characters "Zha (Zuo) Bao Yi"
Excavation information: Excavated in 1980 in Baoji City (Bowfish) National Cemetery Zhuyuangou No. 7 Tomb
Collection unit: Baoji Bronze Ware Museum
The animal's face is round and outer, the neck is bulging, the foot is high, and there is a hook-like hanging under the ears of the two beasts. The neck and hoop feet are decorated with dragon patterns and paisleys, and the abdomen is decorated with animal face patterns, and there is no ground pattern throughout. The ornamentation is in the form of relief, which is very three-dimensional, and the shape of the instrument is thick and heavy, and there is little rust throughout the body, which is a fine work of bronze art in the Western Zhou Dynasty.
For the basic understanding of Shang Zhou Bronze Gui, I believe that the small partners who often pay attention to our micro-classroom have long been familiar with it. So today, Bao Bojun will use the decorative pattern of this animal face pattern to briefly introduce a very important type of Shang Zhou bronze ornamentation - animal face pattern.
The animal face pattern is decorated on bronze ware, and it is currently the earliest seen in the bronze plaque decoration of the inlaid turquoise animal face excavated from the Erlitou site of the Xia Dynasty, but it is generally popular in the Shang to Western Zhou Period, especially from the late Shang Dynasty to the early Western Zhou Dynasty, which is the peak moment of the development of the animal face pattern, and after the early Western Zhou Dynasty, it is going into decline.
The shape of the animal face pattern is based on the positive image of the animal's head as the main body, supplemented by the torso, claws and other parts, of which the head facing the face occupies the center of the overall ornamentation, and other parts can be reduced to varying degrees. This type of ornamentation, since the Song Dynasty, has been known as the food tāo 餮tiè pattern, this is because the animal face pattern "omits the body and only shows the head" type, which coincides with the record of the image of the food tāo 餮tiè in the "Lü's Spring and Autumn", with a head without a body, cannibalism without swallowing, harming its body, and repaying it with words. However, there are many "body" phenomena in the animal face pattern on the Shang Zhou bronzes, and the "bodyless" animal face pattern is only a brief form of the animal face pattern in the later stage of development, after realizing this, scholars represented by Ma Chengyuan renamed this kind of ornamentation "animal face pattern", which has now become the general consensus of scholars in the industry.
As an animal that does not exist in our natural world, the animal face pattern is actually a collection of various animals that the ancients imagined on the basis of their understanding of real animals. Among them, the part that is most closely related to the real animal is the "horn" of the animal face pattern, which is also the most important symbol to distinguish the animal face pattern. After observing the horns of the animal face pattern, we found that the horn characteristics of the animal face pattern are similar to the image of the horns of animals such as cattle, sheep, and deer in our reality; the claws are like the claws of birds in reality; the body is narrow and long, like the result of the patterning of the snake's body.
Horned animal face pattern
Sheep horned animal face pattern
Giraffe horned animal face pattern
So, why did the ancients decorate the animal face with a large number of bronzes? In fact, the animal face pattern has been heavily decorated on jade since the prehistoric period, which is an important ornament on the ceremonial jade, so it is closely related to the sacrifice activities, and after entering the Bronze Age, this ornament is naturally decorated on the bronze ceremonial vessel.
We all know that the Shang Dynasty was a period of sorcery theocracy, and the discovery and interpretation of the oracle bone proves that the merchants attached great importance to sacrifice and divination. The animal face pattern originates from reality and transcends reality, it is decorated on the bronze ceremonial vessel In addition to its own attributes, the "fierce shape" will also exacerbate the mysterious and majestic sense of the bronze ceremonial vessel, which is also the reason why the animal face pattern is favored by the ruler and is heavily decorated on the bronze.
As for the connotation attributes of the animal face pattern, there is still no conclusion, limited to the length of the article here is no longer too much to describe, interested friends can read this article about the reference materials of the ornament Oh!
The above is the main content of our micro-class today, next, please play the role of "cultural relics appraiser" with Bao Bojun, and make an chronological order for the animal face pattern (line drawing) on the bronze below from morning to night.
(Early Shang Dynasty; Late Shang Dynasty; Middle Western Zhou Dynasty)
Resources:
Chen Liang: Lectures on Treasures of Baoji Bronze Ware Museum, Northwest University Press, 2021.
Zhang Rongming: Yin Zhou Politics and Society, Taipei Wunan Publishing House, 1997.
Ma Chengyuan: Shang Zhou Bronze Ornamentation, Cultural Relics Publishing House, 1984
Lin Wei Naifu, "The Patternology of Gods and Beasts: Ancient Chinese Gods", Sanlian Bookstore, 2009.
Duan Yong: A Study on the Fantasy Animal Pattern of Shang Zhou Bronzes, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 2003.
Image Source:
The cultural relics photos are derived from the Baoji Bronze Museum; the line drawings are derived from the "Shang Zhou Bronze Ornamentation"; others are derived from the Internet.
Editor: Ya Wang
Editor-in-charge: Cui Ruihua
Review: Li Qi