The Xia Period
The Emergence of Chinese Bronzes
Chinese bronzes were first produced in the prehistoric period before the
twenty-first century BC. The bronzes of this time are a few small
tools and decorative pieces. A bronze-casting industry of some scale took
shape during the early period of the formative and development of the Chinese
state, this historical Xia period. The Xia Dynasty ruled from the
twenty-first to the seventeenth century BC, and the bronzes of that period
achieved a certain level both in casting techniques and vessel shapes. The
small number of pieces that have been discovered consists mainly of wine vessels
and a few food containers, musical instruments and weapons.
Of the wine vessels, the jia was used for pouring wine in sacrifices to the ancestors or when feasting guests. The jia with a string of pearls design (Plate 1) has thin walls and an oblate belly. Its three legs are hollow and open into the body of the vessel. The vessel's shape is similar to that of pottery jia of the same period. Modeled on a pottery vessel, this jia lacks the hard, stiff outlines of metal vessels. This is the characteristic of Xia period bronzes. There are a pair of nail-shaped posts on the front rim of the jia. These fittings are unusual but practical, being used to suspend a fine bag inside the vessel to filter out wine sediment or the crushed herbs sometimes added to the wine. The wines used in sacrifice in ancient times were called chang and yu chang. Chang was made by fermenting black broomcorn millet, and yu chang by mixing into the wine a decoction obtained by boiling water with the crushed leaves of aromatic turmeric.
Small wine vessels dating from the Xia period are called jue. They are tripods with flattened bodies that have long, narrow groove-like or tubular spouts. Some also bear nail-shaped posts. They, too, resemble in shape that of pottery jue of the same period. Extant bronze jue have a very small capacity; thus the jue with a contracted waist (Plate 2) has a high, narrow spout, demonstrating that it was used for pouring wine or for ladling the wine from a large container and not directly for drinking.
Bronze food vessels from this period are rarely discovered. Of the ding shapes known at the present time, the cloud pattern ding (Plate 3) is a tripod with a level mouth and a deep belly that resembles a rounded jar. The three conical legs are open to the body of the vessel. There are two upright handles on the edge of the vessel's lip; one of these is positioned in line with one of the legs, so that the placement of the legs seems out of balance with the shape of the body. The earliest ding were cooking pots and food containers used for cooking meat dishes. This ding has the marks of old repairs on its conical legs, made necessary by long-term use as a cooking utensil. The surface of the vessel has pattern band made up of simple geometrical lines.
The Xia period is the emergent period of Chinese bronzes. Although relatively few Xia period vessels have been discovered or handed down from antiquity, the basic wine and food vessel shapes already existed and the technology and systems necessary for the ensuing Shang period bronzes to flourish had been created. Archaeologists describe the Xia period culture represented by bronze vessels as Erlitou culture, first discovered at Yanshi, Erlitou, in Henan Province. Erlitou culture sites are distributed over Southern Shanxi Province and Western and Central Henan Provence. This is consistent with historical records of the area of Xia activity. Most of the bronzes discovered to date belong to period three of Erlitou culture, namely the late Xia period.
Source: Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Shanghai Museum, Chen Peifen, Scala Books