scholarly journals Symbolism of decorative design of ancient Chinese bronzes

2021 ◽  
pp. 215-223
Author(s):  
Светлана Николаевна Шаповалова
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Art ◽  
Semiotic Analysis ◽  
Religious Worldview ◽  
Art Objects ◽  
Bronze Vessels ◽  
Western Zhou ◽  
Decorative Design

Статья является продолжением семиотического анализа декоративно - орнаментальных элементов, украшающих древнекитайские предметы искусства. Личина Тао-те (Tao-tie (饕餮) и входящие в ее состав фигуры дракона Куй до сих пор не имеет научного определения, так как ни в одном письменном источнике нет упоминания об изображенном иконостилистическом персонаже. Исследование опирается на анализ пиктографических изображений (иероглифических надписей) на бронзовых сосудах эпохи Шан, раскрывающих семантику некоторых специально подчеркнутых деталей узора. В результате исследования объясняется значение изображенных элементов: символа гуй (возвращение) и знака «уха» (эр) , подтверждающих принадлежность образа Тао-те к описанию божественного первопредка и способствующих в осмыслении религиозного мировоззрения государств Ся (2017 -1765 г. до н.э.), Шан-Инь (1554 - 1046 г. до н.э.) и Западное Чжоу (1045 - 770 г. до н.э.). The paper is a continuation of the semiotic analysis of ornamental elements decorating ancient Chinese art objects. The mask of Tao-tie (饕餮), including the figures of the dragon Kui making it up, still has no scientific definition, since there is no mention of the depicted, iconostylistic character in any written source. The study is based on the analysis of pictographic images (hieroglyphic inscriptions) on bronze vessels of the Shang Era, revealing the semantics of some specially emphasized details of the pattern. As a result of the study, the significance of the depicted elements is explained: the hui symbol (return) and the "ear" sign (er), confirming the belonging of the image of Tao-tie to the description of the divine primacy and contributing to the understanding of the religious worldview of the dynasties of Xia (2017 -1765 BC), Shang-Yin (1554 - 1046 BC) and Western Zhou (1045 - 770 BC).

Scribes, Cooks, and Artisans: Breaking Zhou Tradition

Early China ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 241-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constance A. Cook
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Control ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Bronze Vessels ◽  
Western Zhou ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Bronze Inscriptions ◽  
Eastern Zhou

Bronze Inscriptions of the Western Zhou period show how ritualists were once dedicated to maintaining the ritual apparatus supporting the divine authority of the royal Zhou lineage. Bronze and bamboo texts of the Eastern Zhou period reveal, on the other hand, that ritualists able to manipulate local rulers reliant on their knowledge subsequently subverted power into their own hands. Ritualists such as scribes, cooks, and artisans were involved in the transmission of Zhou “power” through the creation and use of inscribed bronze vessels during feasts. The expansion and bureaucratization of their roles in the Chu state provided economic and ultimately political control of the state. This was particularly the case as the Chu, like the Zhou before them, fled east to escape western invaders.

Bronzes, mortuary practice and political strategies of the Yan during the early Western Zhou period

Antiquity ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 77 (298) ◽  
pp. 761-770 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Sun
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Northern China ◽  
Political Strategies ◽  
Mortuary Practice ◽  
Bronze Vessels ◽  
Western Zhou

The relations between the emergent Yan state, local groups and the power blocks of the Shang and Zhou are vividly chronicled by bronze vessels, weapons and burials rites in Bronze Age northern China.

Stealing Words, Transplanting Images

2018 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-214
Author(s):  
Yu-jen Liu
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
National Culture ◽  
Visual Representations ◽  
Institutional Setting ◽  
Chinese Art ◽  
Cultural Significance ◽  
Authoritative Knowledge ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Art Objects ◽  
Victoria And Albert Museum

Abstract This article explores how the category “Chinese art” was articulated and consolidated in the early twentieth century by focusing on Stephen Bushell's Chinese Art, the first book in English defined in terms of this category. Bushell's monograph highlights the intercultural character of the category, which was transformed in its content and cultural significance, when ostensibly the same authentic knowledge, articulated in verbal and visual representations, was moved from China to Europe and back again. The article starts by examining how Bushell's insider knowledge of Chinese art was transformed to fit the institutional setting of the Victoria and Albert Museum. It then explores how the authoritative knowledge of Chinese art communicated in Bushell's book was appropriated in China by the journal Guocui xuebao 國粹學報 (Journal of National Essence) in the context of attempts to revive national culture. Both cases involved hitherto unnoticed repetitions of text and images. By analyzing the mechanism informing these repetitions, this article reveals the entangled history behind the distinctive articulations of “Chinese art” in Britain and in China. Moreover, the analysis shows how the same elements, whether words or pictures, acquired a substantially different significance as they moved between cultures. This is exemplified by the formulation of the newly emergent classifying category Zhongguo meishupin 中國美術品 (“Chinese art objects”) in Guocui xuebao.

Bronze Vessels: Style, Assemblages, and Innovations of the Western Zhou Period

2020 ◽  
pp. 450-470
Author(s):  
Yan Sun
Keyword(s):  
Local Communities ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Bronze Vessel ◽  
Bronze Vessels ◽  
Western Zhou ◽  
Military Posts ◽  
Wei River ◽  
Ritual Practices ◽  
Three Phases

This chapter, by employing securely dated vessels, discusses stylistic characteristics of three phases of Western Zhou bronzes in the Zhou metropolitan centers in the Wei River Valley in Central Shaanxi and Luoyang area in Henan. The assemblage of bronze vessels in tombs and caches is also discussed in order to understand Zhou ancestral sacrifices and ritual practices and their changes from the Early to Middle and Late Western Zhou periods. The Zhou interaction with local communities through regional states and military posts beyond the center also stimulated the rise of exotic bronze vessel types inspired by local ceramic traditions.

scholarly journals The state of contemporary art in China: tradition and postmodernism

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Chuang Dai
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Substantial Part ◽  
Chinese Art ◽  
Semiotic Analysis ◽  
Philosophical Perspective ◽  
Reform And Opening Up ◽  
Artistic Heritage ◽  
Contemporary Chinese ◽  
Opening Up

This article is dedicated to examination of the phenomenon of contemporary Chinese art, its essential specificity within the framework of tradition and in the conditions of globalization. For achieving the set goal, the author applies the method of historical-cultural analysis in combination with the elements of structural-semiotic analysis of contemporary art in China of the late XX century. For historical and social reasons, contemporary art became a substantial part of the works of Chinese artists only after the “Reform and Opening-Up” in the 1980s. China was able to preserve tremendous artistic heritage, thus the contemporary art resembles a fusion of the tradition and postmodernism. The scientific novelty of this work consists in shifting away from art discourse in studying artistic material and concentrating on philosophical perspective. The conclusion is drawn that since the 1980s until the present China undergoes a drastic period of transformation of art from traditional to contemporary. The works of that time reflect such themes as the alienation of a modern person from tradition, change in experience of world perception, conflict between modern politics and society.

scholarly journals THE BEGINNING OF CULTURAL MEMORY PRODUCTION IN CHINA AND THE MEMORY POLICY OF THE ZHOU ROYAL HOUSE DURING THE WESTERN ZHOU PERIOD

Early China ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 19-108
Author(s):  
Maria Khayutina
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Social Memory ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Founding Fathers ◽  
General Logic ◽  
Zhou Dynasty ◽  
Bronze Vessels ◽  
Western Zhou ◽  
Corporate Integrity

AbstractThis article explores how the memory of the conquest of Shang and the rise of the first Zhou kings was transmitted during the early centuries of the Zhou dynasty, specifically as it was reflected in inscriptions on excavated bronze vessels and bells from the Western Zhou period (ca. mid-eleventh to early eighth century b.c.e.). Approaching these inscribed objects and their texts from the perspective of the theories of social memory and cultural memory reveals that commemorating the foundational past of the dynasty became part of an intentional policy of the Zhou royal house as early as the first half of the tenth century b.c.e. It demonstrates that by the mid-tenth century b.c.e., a stable narrative emphasizing Kings Wen 文 and Wu 武 as the founding fathers of the Zhou dynasty was established at the expense of King Cheng 成, whose role was gradually downplayed following the general logic of lineage organization, according to which the commemoration of the earliest common ancestors serves as the foundation of corporate integrity in a network of patrilineally related families. It shows that most of the men who included such commemorations in inscriptions indeed belonged to the royal patrilineal network, wherein they occupied the highest positions. It further exemplifies that the royal house cultivated the memory of the first kings using various media, including rituals, utensils, royal speeches, and inscriptions. From the analysis of such inscriptions, we can infer that that the foundational memory of the Zhou dynasty was usually reactivated in the context of political negotiations, some of which included addressing lineage outsiders. Finally, it shows that both the royal house and other metropolitan lineages modified the foundational narrative according to their current needs. This article thus contributes both to tracing the roots of the early Chinese historiographic tradition and to understanding memory production in a society as an ongoing process of negotiations and adaptations.

Chinese art: A survey of collections and research materials in the United States

2014 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-47
Author(s):  
Min Xu
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Research Universities ◽  
The United States ◽  
Decorative Arts ◽  
Chinese Art ◽  
Art Collections ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Research Libraries ◽  
United States Today ◽  
Art Objects

During the 20th century a range of museums in the United States were engaged in acquiring Chinese art objects, developing major collections of painting and calligraphy, ancient bronze, Buddhist sculpture, ceramics and other decorative arts. Research materials on Chinese art have been collected by art libraries in major museums and the East Asian libraries of the main research universities. The author surveys significant Chinese art collections in museums and research libraries in the United States today.

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