Chinese bronzes
Species Appreciation (1).
Ding
role: Eating utensils, utensils used in ancient China to cook meat and store meat, and also used as ritual vessels for sacrifices.
Styling: Three-legged round tripod and four-legged square tripod are common, covered and uncovered.
Left: Stepmother Wu Dafang Ding (late Shang period, National Museum of China).
Right: Mao Gongding (late Western Zhou Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei).
簋 (guǐ).
Purpose: A vessel used in ancient China to hold cooked meals, and also used as a ritual vessel.
Styling: It is common to have both ears, square seat, round seat or foot.
Left: Bronze Gui (late Shang period, National Museum of China).
Right: Li Gui (Early Western Zhou Dynasty, National Museum of China).
Left: Gui (uncertain, early Western Zhou Dynasty, National Museum of China).
Right: "Yihou Pavilion" bronze 簋 (Western Zhou Dynasty, National Museum of China).
鬲 (lì).
role: The mustache is a cooking utensil, and it is also a ritual vessel. "Erya Interpreter" said that Ding, "the paragraph is called the mustache", and the "Hanshu Suburban Ritual Chronicles" said that the tripod "empty foot is the mustache", so the shape of the mustache is similar to the tripod, and the empty foot communicates with the abdominal cavity.
Styling: Copper mustache was popular in the Shang Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period, and the Western Zhou Dynasty was more prevalent, most of them were folded, folded feet, arc files, and no ears; In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the bronze mustache buried with the burial was often used together with the copper tripod in an even combination.
Left: Bronze mustache (late Shang period, National Museum of China).
Right: Shi Zhao (mid-Western Zhou Dynasty, Palace Museum).
甗 (yǎn).
role: The steaming utensils of the pre-Qin period of China can be divided into two parts, the lower half is the 鬲lì (is the pot), which is used to boil water, and the upper half is the 甑 (zèng, that is, the cage drawer, the bottom of the retort itself is the mesh), which is used to place the food and can be steamed.
Styling: Generally, the upper part is a retort, and the lower part is a mustache; It appeared in the early Shang Dynasty, formed a square retort in the early Western Zhou Dynasty, and basically retorted in the late Spring and Autumn Period (i.e., retort and sheath casting).
Left: Gluttonous Pattern: Western Zhou Dynasty (National Museum of China).
Right: Ring stripe: Late Spring and Autumn Period (Palace Museum).