During the Xia, Shang and Western Zhou dynasties, Chinese culture gradually formed a unique system. The rise of the Xia Dynasty marked China's entry into the Bronze Age. During the Shang Dynasty, Chinese culture developed further. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, Chinese culture gradually formed a complete system.
Bronze forging techniques
Throughout China's history, bronze forging is an ancient skill with far-reaching influence. The emergence and development of bronze technology can be roughly divided into three stages: first, the invention period in the late summer and early Shang period, when people began to consciously produce bronze ware;Second, during the development period of the middle of the Shang Dynasty, the production of bronzes gradually became larger and more complex, and began to turn to social applicationsThe third is the heyday from the late Shang Dynasty to the Western Zhou Dynasty, which was the first peak in the history of the development of ancient Chinese bronzes, and bronzes were widely used in various production sectors of society. In the production process, craftsmen use a variety of techniques such as pottery casting, lost-wax casting and forging to mix copper, tin, lead and other metals in a certain proportion, and finally produce a variety of exquisite bronzes through smelting, mold making, pouring, trimming and other processes. The famous ones are the stepmother Wuding, the four sheep Fangzun, the big Yu Ding and so on.
Stepmother Wuding
The Houmu Wuding is a bronze ware from the late Shang Dynasty in China, and it is also one of the most representative bronzes in Chinese history. It was unearthed in 1939 in Anyang City, Henan Province. The shape of the stepmother Wu Ding is very solemn, the whole Ding is rectangular, with standing ears, full abdomen, and four legs. The body is decorated with gluttonous patterns and dragon patterns, which are delicate and delicate and have far-reaching meanings. The inner wall of the abdomen of the tripod is cast with the words "stepmother E", indicating who the owner of the tripod is. The weight of the stepmother Wuding is very large, up to 133 kg, with a maximum diameter of 110 cm. It is the largest Shang Dynasty bronze found so far, showing the high level of development of bronze manufacturing in China at that time.
Four sheep square honor
The Four Sheep Fangzun is a bronze ritual vessel of the late Shang Dynasty in China and one of the top ten national treasures in China. It is based on the shape of four sheep, each with a raised square on the chest and waist, and the square is decorated with a coiled dragon pattern, giving people a strong visual impact. The lines of the whole Fangzun are simple and bright, and the structure is exquisite, showing the superb level of ancient Chinese bronze craftsmanship.
Da Yu Ding
Da Yu Ding is a Western Zhou cooker. The inscription on the inner wall of the tripod is 19 lines and 291 words, which records the historical fact that King Zhou Kang ordered the nobles in September of the 23rd year. The gist of it is: King Kang recounted to Yu the experience of the founding of the state by the first kings of Zhou Chuwen and Wu and the lessons of the Shang king's indulgence in wine and the destruction of the country, and warned Yu to follow his ancestors, faithfully assist the royal family, take charge of the army, and govern the people and protect the territory. There are 2 bronze tripods cast in the bowl, one large and one small, which are called large and small bowls respectively.
Oracle
The oracle bone script is an ancient Chinese script and one of the earliest Chinese scripts. It first appeared during the Shang Dynasty and was carved on tortoise shells and animal bones, hence the name "oracle bone inscription". The oracle bone script is an early form of Chinese characters. In the Shang Dynasty, people were superstitious about ghosts and gods, and sacrifices were frequent, and divination was a text that recorded divination and divination results during sacrifices. Over time, oracle bone inscriptions gradually developed into a mature writing system, which was not only used for rituals and divination, but also for recording historical events, legal texts, contracts, etc. Oracle bone inscriptions come in a variety of forms, both carved and written. Its glyph structure is complex, and the strokes are changeable, presenting a unique artistic style. Although the glyphs of oracle bone inscriptions are different from modern Chinese characters, they already have the basic elements of Chinese characters, such as strokes, radicals, radicals, etc. The writing style of the oracle bone inscription is very unique, with strokes of varying thicknesses and smooth and natural lines. Its glyph structure is also very distinctive, usually large at the top and small at the bottom, symmetrical from left to right, giving people a sense of stability and balance. The meaning of the oracle bone inscription is also very rich, including sacrifice, war, farming, astronomy, etc., reflecting the social life and cultural conditions of the Shang Dynasty.
Jin Wen
During the Yin Shang period, with the improvement of bronze casting technology and its widespread use in people's lives, a kind of writing engraved on bronze ware produced gold inscriptions or inscriptions. Jin Wen is engraved not only on bronze ritual vessels, but also on bronze weapons, bronze miscellaneous vessels and even bronze production tools. But the most engraved are the bells and tripods in the bronze ritual vessels, so they are also called bells and tripods. The font of the Shang Dynasty Jinwen is similar to the oracle bone inscription, the number of words is less, the shape and sound characters are more than the oracle bone inscription, the structure is simpler than the oracle bone inscription, and the font is still not fixed. The main content of the golden inscription is to record who owns the artifact and the title of the ancestor commemorating;Others record the reasons for making the bronzes, and include the year, month, and date;A few have relatively important historical facts. The gold inscriptions on the bronzes in the early Shang Dynasty generally have only one or two characters, mostly the family emblem and other graphic characters, and the pen is strong, and the longest gold inscription found now has more than 40 characters.
Inscriptions
In the middle of the Shang Dynasty, inscriptions began to appear on bronzes. In the Shang Dynasty, it was more common to see the pattern of the family emblem or the name of the owner. The longest inscription is the late Shang Dynasty Wu Hei Zi Ding, with 30 characters. At the beginning of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the number of long inscriptions in various forms and contents increased suddenly, and the number of words above 100 words was very common, far exceeding that of the Shang Dynasty. The content of the inscriptions in the early Western Zhou Dynasty mostly involves the political and military situation and social system at that time, especially the historical facts of the division and rewards given by the king of Zhou to the nobles. In addition, there are also accounts of the hardships of the founding of the Western Zhou Dynasty and the lessons of the fall of the Shang Dynasty. By the middle and late Western Zhou Dynasty, there were numerous long and huge inscriptions. The inscriptions at this time reflect more broadly land transactions, financial compensation, judgments in criminal cases, etc. In addition, there are records of wars such as state conquests in the surrounding areas. Therefore, the inscriptions of the Western Zhou Dynasty have the nature of writing history and are precious historical documents.
Calendar
The earliest calendar in China is the Xia Xiaozheng, which was born in the Xia Dynasty, and is a natural calendar compiled by observing the method of timing. By the Shang Dynasty, the calendar was further developed. The Shang Dynasty's calendar is by far the earliest calendar that is relatively complete. The calendar of the Shang Dynasty was a lunisolar calendar, and the solar calendar took the earth around the sun as a week, that is, 365 days as a return year, so it is also called the "four-minute calendar". The lunar calendar sees the moon orbiting the earth, i.e. the 29th or 30th day as a synodic month. The Shang Dynasty used the stem branch to record the day, and the number to record the month;There are large and small months, the 30th day of the big month and the 29th day of the small month. The twelve synodic months are a civil calendar year, and it has a difference with the return year, so the lunisolar calendar has a built-in leap in a number of years, and the leap month is placed at the end of the year, which is called the thirteenth month.
Divination
Divination is a method for the ancestors to seek help from the gods, as early as the Neolithic Age, animal bones have been used for divination. The character "Bu" is the shape of the crack after the oracle bone is burned, and its pronunciation is the sound of the oracle bone bursting after burning. "Asking divination" is to ask the divination-shaped signs after the nail is burned. Divination activities by merchants were frequent, and they had to ask divination about almost everything, so the divination activities of the Shang Dynasty began to scale up and gradually formed a fixed procedure. They not only used animal bones for divination, but also invented the use of tortoise shells for divination. The Shang Dynasty tortoiseshell divination records the causes and results of divination. The rich content covers field hunting, harvesting, celestial phenomena, ancestor worship, conquest, reclamation and disease, etc., so that we can have a more comprehensive understanding of the social life of the Shang Dynasty.
Yale
The founder of Yale was Ji Fa, the king of Zhou Wu, and in the process of his rejuvenating army and defeating Yin, the army often performed songs and dances to boost morale, and after the destruction of Yin, he made large-scale songs and dances such as "Xiang" and "Dawu" to celebrate the victory. During the reign of King Cheng of Zhou, various rituals and ceremonies in the life of the nobility were formulated to strengthen the hierarchy of the patriarchal society and consolidate the royal power. The occasions for the application of Yale in various aristocratic ceremonies in the Western Zhou Dynasty are: one is sacrifice, the second is a banquet, the third is an archery salute, and the fourth is military exercises and military celebrations. The main forms of Yale include: first, six generations of music and dance, including the highest standard music and dance left by the Yellow Emperor, Tang Yao, Yu Shun, Xia Yu, Shang Tang, and King Wu of Zhou, which are used to worship the ancestors of the gods and the earth;The second is the small dance, which has the names of feather dance, emperor dance, dry dance, human dance, etc.;The third is poetry. Most of them are contained in the "Book of Songs" in the "Daya", "Xiaoya", and "Song";Fourth, religious music and dance. In order to promote Yale, the Zhou royal family set up a special institution, Da Si Le, to be in charge of the administration and the education of the children of the nobility. The content of education for the children of the nobility is stipulated as the "four arts", that is, poetry, calligraphy, rituals, and music. The Yale system and system declined with the collapse of the ** regime of the Zhou Dynasty.
The culture of the Xia, Shang and Western Zhou dynasties was an important part of Chinese culture. The cultural development of this period not only laid the foundation for the progress of civilization in later generations, but also provided valuable information for us to understand the roots and development of Chinese culture.