Ritual Bronzes from the Western Zhou and Dian Culture
byTova Patterson

The Shang dynasty of China ended in 1050 BCE, when the Zhou leader, Wu, captured Anyang. At this point, the last Shang emperor committed suicide and China came under the new rule of the Zhou dynasty. Although western China was under the Zhou rule longer than eastern China, this is the time when all of China acknowledged this new power. The Zhou emperors were responsible for uniting the land, dividing China into feudal states and making China a haven for the arts. In this time artists flourished, and their services were necessary for ritual purpose as well as purposes of the court. One of the most important artistic endeavors during the Zhou dynasty was the making of ritual bronzes.
The purpose of bronzes in the Shang dynasty was to hold inscriptions that were in some way supposed to communicate with the spirits of the afterlife. However, in the Zhou dynasty, the meaning of these inscriptions changed to commemorate the successes of the person. These inscriptions told the story of the personís power and their affluence in society for the sake of posterity. (Image 3) Bronzes also told the story of the ownerís wealth and authority: the more intricate the bronze, the more affluent the owner was. This, however, changes throughout the Zhou dynasty; as the years progress, the style gets less and less intricate, but will still be used as a way to show a personís place in Chinese society. This is true for mainstream Chinese culture as well as those cultures that existed separate from Zhou rule.
In the Yunnan Province (figure 2), the Dian culture grew up separate of the influences of the Zhou dynasty. Although they did not have many of the cultural influences that are known of Chinese culture at that time, the Dian culture developed their own system of funerary rituals and vessels. These vessels often told stories or depicted well-known rituals in the culture. Centered around Lake Dian, this culture had its own livelihood. However removed it was, the Dian culture also had a system of bronzes that meant similar things and were made in a similar fashion. Most bronzes that have been found from the Dian culture have comes from tombs, much like those of the Zhou, but are most often found holding different objects; Dian bronzes are commonly found holding cowrie shells. The Yunnan province borders the ocean, and so these shells could be gathered easier than many other parts of China. Their rarity made them valuable among those in the Western Zhou society. Functioning as a monetary equivalent and a gift of good will, these shells were only held in large quantities by those who were affluent in the Dian culture. Therefore, burying a vessel holding these shells would preserve a personís legacy of significant wealth and almost certain power. In addition to having different contents, the vessels were often decorated in a different fashion.
In the Zhou culture, funerary bronzes began being decorated by taotie masks, a decoration that was a theme in the bronze decoration of the Shang dynasty. However, the bronzes quickly shifted to the use of bird imagery, a sign of the Zhou dynasty. Birds or a band of geometrical figures traditionally decorate bronzes from this dynasty. (Figure 4) This standard image of a bronze was not carried to the Dian culture. In the Yunnan Province, the main purpose for decorating these vessels was to tell a story. These stories of funerary or sacrificial rights were commonly known to the Dian people and would be readily recognized to those people who owned and admired them. Each bronze decoration contained something of importance to the Dian culture.
Drums were a very large part of the Dian culture; they were used to mark different rituals, times of passing for important people, and other types of celebrations and events. Because of this, many bronzes were formed in a drum shaped pattern or depicted drums as part of the story that was told. An example of a traditional vessel is shown in figure 1.
This vessel of cowrie shells is formed in a drum shaped fashion, this vessel is a good representation of Dian bronzes. Made to hold cowrie shells for the purpose of a funerary ritual, it was found in a tomb near Lake Dian. As is typical of Dian bronzes, the vessel tells a story of a ritual, possibly the ritual that the bronze was made for. The theme of drums that starts in the shape of the vessel continues to the figures on the top. On the right side of the figure, there are two large drums; also there are smaller drums that are set up under the carriage roof that is at the back of the image. Around the drums are people who are taking place in the sacrificial rite that is portrayed. Looking past the top of the piece of art, there are cat-like figures that climb up the side of the vessel, which are used as handles. Although the symbolism behind these cats is unknown, one can assume that they are associated with the power and strength of the Dian culture. The trend in the Zhou dynasty was for the bronzes to decrease in their intricacy towards the end of the dynasty. Although this bronze was done at the end of the Zhou Dynasty time, it is extraordinarily intricate. This divergence of rules for bronzes exhibits the belief that the two cultures were not entirely communicating at this point in history. Because of this, the overall similarities between the two styles are remarkable.
These similarities and differences in the bronze eras of the Zhou dynasty and the Dian culture illustrate the wide range of cultural stylizations of the Chinese empire. The functional as well as the aesthetic qualities of the bronzes from the Zhou dynasty give one a great deal of insight into the culture and society that lived in China.

Figure #1- Dian bronze with cowrie shells

Figure #2- Map of Chinese Provinces. Yunnan, in the south west corner

Figure #3- Inscription on Zhou bronze

Figure #4- Zhou Dynasty bronze

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