Asian Art China (Shang And Zhou)

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China: Late Shang Dynasty: date, capital moved to?, description

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- **1250-1050 BCE
- capital: Anyang
- walled city- suggests trying to keep out attackers from surrounding areas
- centralized power controlled a large workforce
- workshops and foundries for bronze casting

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Shang: Urban center

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- Anyang

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Shang: social hierarchy (image on courseweb)

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- City layout separates elite from commoners
- walled area contained palace and ruling elite
- outside city walls: bronze foundries, workshops, and cemeteries
- separate graveyards for royalty and commoners

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Shang: monumental architecture

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- tombs
- very large
- approached by large ramps
- rectangular pits dug into group- some 60 feet under
- lined with timber
- chambers held the coffin and large quantities of grave goods for the deceased in the afterlife
- slaves were beheaded and buried in ditches nearby
- often much is missing because of grave robbers

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Shang: "pit-and-shaft tombs"

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- very large
- rectangular pits dug 60 ft deep and lined with timbers
- long ramps lead from ground level to pit

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Shang: royal tomb

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- chambers held the coffin and large quantities of grave foods for the deceased to use in the afterlife
- wives and servants often buried with the deceased
- slaves were beheaded (ritual sacrifice?) and buried in diches nearby

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Shang: tomb of Fu Hao- who was she?, description, contents, unique features

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- 1 of 64 wives of the fourth Shang king to rule Anyang
- rectangular grave with coffin box
- two niches which held about 3 corpses who followed her into death
- excavated 1976- untouched by grave robbers- large amount of grave foods
- 440 bronzes, 590 jade objects, 560 objects made of bone
- only tomb found inside walled palace area (map on courseweb)
- reconstructed the shrine above tomb

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Shang: writing

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1- oracle bones script (method of prognostication)
--applied heat to flat animals' bones and turtle shells (images on courseweb)
--the king asked questions and the shaman would communicate with the spirit world of ancestors)
-- interpreted their answers based on the patterns of cracks on the bones/shells
-- *both the questions and answers were recorded on the bones/shells and kept as records= writing was a tool of the elite to communicate with spirits
2- inscription identifying the bronze vessel (Bird Zun figure 11.10) as belonging to Fu Hao

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Shang: metallurgy- BD, BV, SP, BCP

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*bronze
1. - surfaces of bronzes mostly covered with designs
-- most popular design: Taotie= animal mask deisgn, for cooking sacrificial offerings, Fanding from Fu Hao's tomb (images on courseweb)
2- bronze vessels
-- varied in shape and decoration
-- created for ritual offerings associated with the deceased
-- held food and millet wine to sustain the deceased in the afterworld
-- different designs (some have feet, some have spouts, some are just for holding things)
3-symbols of power (not warfare): axe for beheading (image on courseweb), bronze dagger for ritual killings
4- bronze casting process at Anyang: piece mold method (clay molds)- inner mold, outer mold= design is carved into this mold

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Zhou Dynasty: dates

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1045-221 BCE
- early zhou- 1045-771 BCE
- late zhou 771- 221 BCE

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Zhou unified confederation: date, mandate of heaven?

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- 1000 BCE Zhou conquered and moved into Shang
- declared that the Shang had misused their power and lost their mandate of heaven
- mandate of heaven= the idea that the righteous had the right to rule and were protected by heaven when they overthrew a corrupt government
- as neighbors had already adopted much of their culture (bronze technology and rituals)

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4 changes in Zhou bronzes (from Shang bronzes)

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1) more bronzes made as ritual sets- *figure 11.12
2) inscriptions added to bronzes-*ICW
3) Bird design replaced Taotie design
4) Taotie motif "dissolves" and changes over time

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Zhou: expanded territory and new system of feudal territories led to?

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- led to decentralization and the development of distinctive regional styles
- 1) Abandoned human sacrifices and substituted with bronze images
--shows how they began to value human life and the current world rather than spirit world
2) bronze designs change from ritual importance to aesthetic and social status importance
-- complex designs, intertwined animals, inlays of gold and silver (dazzle the eye rather than awe or terrify)
--ex) Hu ritual vessel *figure 11.15

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Zhou: warring states period- Confucius: theory, impact on bronze images and rituals

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- 550-478 BCE
- philosopher
- achieve moral society through the "5 relationships"- reestablish relationships to be based more on respect
- bronze images replaced human sacrifices-- exemplifies humanistic influence of Confucianism
- bronzes depict confucian rituals- hunting chariot driving, archery (skills of the morally disciplined human)
- ex) Bronze figure holding jade birds- *figure 11.14

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Zhou: warring states period- Lao Zi: theory, impact on bronze rituals

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- 640 BCE
- Daoism
- concerned with the relationship of humans to the universe/nature
- "The Dao" (the way) is the underlying principle in all nature
- bronzes depicting Confucian rituals (hunting, chariot driving, archery) depict man's interaction with nature