Selected 20 pieces of bronze and inscriptions from the special collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Zhou Zhihan, using the latest high-power expansion technology, the gold glyphs with a length and width of less than two centimeters are enlarged to tens of centimeters, so that the partial structure of the glyph, the back of the pen path, the modification of Fan Zhu, the layers of rust are stacked, and the regularity and elegance of the lines are all huge and meticulous.
Jinwen refers to a kind of calligraphy name of Chinese characters, referring to the inscription cast on the bronzes of the Yin Shang and Zhou Dynasties, also known as Zhong Dingwen. The Shang Zhou dynasty is the era of bronze, the ceremonial instrument of bronze is represented by Ding, the musical instrument is represented by the bell, and "Zhong Ding" is synonymous with bronze.
China has entered the Bronze Age in the Xia Dynasty, and the smelting of copper and the manufacturing technology of copper are very developed. Because the Zhou Dynasty also called copper gold, the inscriptions on bronze were called "Jin Wen" or "Ji Jin Characters"; and because this type of bronze ware had the largest number of words on the bell ding, it was called "Zhong Ding Wen" in the past.
The age of jin wen application, from the end of the Shang Dynasty to the qin extinction of the Six Kingdoms, about 800 years. The number of words in jinwen, according to Rong Geng's "Jinwen Compilation", totals 3722, of which 2420 can be recognized.
Jinwen is the name of a calligraphy of ancient Chinese characters. The general term for the inscription on bronze ware during the Shang, Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn periods, and warring states. Jin wen can be roughly divided into four types, namely the Shang Dynasty Jin Wen (around 1300 BC to 1046 BC), the Western Zhou Jin Wen (around 1046 BC to 771 BC), the Eastern Zhou Jin Wen (770 BC to 222 BC), and the Qin Han Jin Wen (221 BC to 219 BC).
Shang Dynasty Jinwen
Although bronzes had been made before the Shang Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty began after Pan Geng moved to Yin (present-day northwest of Anyang, Henan). At the beginning, there were only a few numbers, and by the beginning of the week, it had reached more than 1,200 words. At the end of the Shang Dynasty, there were many bronzes with golden texts, but the description is still very brief, mostly in the name of the caster or his ancestors. At the time of the death of shang, there were articles appearing, but the longest text at that time was still only more than forty words.
Western Zhou Jinwen
Since the Shang Dynasty of the Zhou Dynasty, Jin Wen has gradually flourished, and the affairs of the Son of Heaven, such as king Zhao's southern tour and Mu Wang's western hunting, have been recorded.
Eastern Zhou Jinwen
Since the King of Ping moved east to descend, iron tools have gradually become seen, and bronze music such as bells has gradually increased, and it can also be cast on the outside of bronze, so the records of Jin Wen are no longer as they were, only for the affairs of the princes and ministers, battle achievements, musical scales, etc., are all cast. At this time, the golden text was widely used and could be called a heyday.
Qin Han Jinwen
After Qin Shi Huang unified the world, the edict was written in the same text, and a stele was erected in the four directions, and the words used were all small seals, and no inscriptions were engraved on the bell ding, and the jin text gradually declined. In the Han Dynasty, folk inscriptions were mostly cast on iron, bronze utensils were no longer used, and the golden text was not found in history.
mold
The Yin Zhou Jinwen was cast on the inside of the bronze, but how to engrave the jinwen on the casting mold is still uncertain. Extrapolating from the large number of molds found at the site of the workshop, the method of making bronzes is as follows:
1. Use clay to make a soil embryo (model) similar to the size of the finished product. In addition, the model is wrapped in clay, and the outer layer of clay is cut after it is dried thoroughly, which is used as an outer mold.
2. Cut off the outer layer of the model as an inner mold, and engrave the pattern text on the inner mold. Combine the outer mold and the inner mold, and put a copper sheet between them as a spacer to wait for the copper liquid to be injected.
3. Inject the dissolved copper, break the mold cooling, and remove the bronze.
Jin Wen has been unearthed as early as the Han Dynasty and has been studied by scholars. The Jin wen is the main material for the study of the Yin Shang, Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn, and Warring States scripts, and is also the most precious material for the study of pre-Qin history. Compared with the Oracle, the Oracle pen is thin, straight, and turning, and it is different from the square, and the golden pen is fat and thick, with more curved pens and more clumps. Inscriptions on bronzes vary in number of words. The notes are also very different. Its main content is mostly to celebrate the merits of ancestors and princes, but also to record major historical events. For example, the famous Mao Gongding has 497 characters, and the account involves a wide range of aspects, reflecting the social life at that time.
The content of the Jin text is a record of the rituals, orders, edicts, conquests, hunting, covenants and other activities or events at that time, all of which reflect the social life of the time. The gold script is neat and beautiful, simple and thick, and compared with the oracle bone, it is stripped of the plate, varied, and richer. The jinwen basically belongs to the seal body. These texts were discovered during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, when someone sent a statue excavated in Fenyang into the palace, so Emperor Wu of Han set the era name as Yuan Ding. Later, Jin Wen made discoveries one after another.
The Song Dynasty literati Ouyang Xiu and Zhao Mingcheng were both good at writing and had studied and recorded the Jin text. The golden text on the "Mao Gongding" cast by King Xuan of Zhou is very representative, and its inscription has a total of 32 lines and 497 characters, which is the longest bronze inscription unearthed. The font structure of the "Mao Gongding" inscription is strict and neat, thin and smooth, the layout is not rushed, and the line is proper, which is the best in Jin Wen's works. In addition, the inscription of "Da Lu Ding" and the inscription of "Scattered Disc" are also the best works in the Golden Text.