Art and Archaeology of the Bronze Age in China
- LAST REVIEWED: 26 May 2021
- LAST MODIFIED: 26 May 2021
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199920105-0167
- LAST REVIEWED: 26 May 2021
- LAST MODIFIED: 26 May 2021
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199920105-0167
Introduction
“China” here designates much but not all of China Proper or Inner China, terrain controlled during the Imperial era (221 BCE to CE 1912) by historic dynastic states. Vast regions to the northeast, north, and west—Manchuria, Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet—are excluded even though they are now integral to the modern-day nation-state. Similarly, we slight areas of the south, for example the modern-day Lingnan and Yun-Gui macroregions, that only gradually were absorbed after the Bronze Age. In Chinese scholarship, “Bronze Age” (qingtong shidai 青铜时代) serves as an alternate for the “Three Dynasties” (san dai 三代) of traditional historiography: Xia (Hsia), Shang, and Zhou (Chou). Bracketing dates of c. 2000–221 BCE are now widely used, the first an approximation, the latter firm. Bronze alloy, however, was just one ingredient of material cultures of the Three Dynasties. Other features include the appearance of states, social stratification, urbanization, warfare, and the appearance of iron (the Iron Age), in addition to achievements in literature, music, and philosophy during the latter centuries, a kind of “Classical Age.” Today, “arts” may encompass many forms of crafting materials for a variety of purposes and audiences. This bibliography specifically addresses architecture, bronze, jade, lacquer, and silk as well as music, pictorial representation, and writing. A term from the Bronze Age—“Six Arts” (or “skills,” liu yi 六艺)—defined expertise for an elite male as ritual, music, archery, chariot driving, writing, and calculation. While the overlap between the ancient and modern categories is at best partial, these concepts do intersect in terms of makers and consumers and in social and religious purposes. The elite’s luxury lifestyle was sustained by the “arts.” Ritual required bronze vessels, and the requisite music was performed on instruments of bronze, stone, lacquer, etc. Chariots were outfitted with bronze; writing and picturing employed silk. This bibliography emphasizes Chinese archaeology, both as a discipline and as a realm of knowledge that have burgeoned since the late 20th century. Archaeology creates fresh evidence, which then becomes the stuff of excavation reports, investigative scholarship, exhibitions and museum displays, and reference works. Only some of this bounty can be cited here, and readers are directed to Oxford Bibliographies for Chinese Studies (e.g., Chinese Architecture, Calligraphy, Ceramics, Paleography, Ancient Chinese Religion) for further advice. This essay is limited to publications from 1980 and, when possible, favors English-language sources.
General Overviews
These volumes straddle history and archaeology with some attention to arts. Chang 1980, Hsu and Linduff 1988, and Li 1985 comprise a Yale University Press series entitled “Early Chinese Civilization”; while their data are dated, each has continuing value. Thorp 2006 and Falkenhausen 2006, less tied to historical narratives, are driven by more recent archaeological data through the turn of the century; both explicitly address topics in art history.
Chang, K. C. Shang Civilization. Early Chinese Civilization Series. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1980.
A major contribution, many of Chang’s insights are now widely embraced. Primary focus on the “Shang Society from An-yang” (chapters 1–4), complemented by chapters on “Shang History beyond An-yang” (chapters 5–7), e.g., the Erligang Culture and developments in other regions.
Falkenhausen, Lothar von. Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius (1000–250 BC): The Archaeological Evidence. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles, 2006.
DOI: 10.2307/j.ctvdmwwt6
A thorough synthesis of archaeological evidence—predominately tombs, their furnishings, and inscriptional data—with which the author engages social archaeology. Falkenhausen also interrogates the theory and practice of archaeology as a discipline and Chinese archaeology as a regional archaeological tradition.
Hsu, Cho-yun, and Kathryn Linduff. Western Zhou Civilization. Early Chinese Civilization Series. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988.
DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt211qv1d
Largely a traditional narrative derived from received sources and bronze inscriptions. Coverage of archaeology and the arts is limited to several architectural sites and a chapter on “arts and crafts,” presumably by coauthor Linduff.
Li, Xueqin. Eastern Zhou and Qin Civilization. Early Chinese Civilization Series. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985.
Part 1 surveys the archaeology of the various Eastern Zhou states moving clockwise from Royal Zhou at center (modern Luoyang, Henan) to north-east-south-west ending with Qin, while Part 2 is devoted to thirteen media and related topics, an especially useful set of essays deploying traditional antiquarianism and recent archaeology.
Thorp, Robert L. China in the Early Bronze Age. Encounters with Asia. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.
An update of Shang studies since Chang 1980, with coverage of the Erlitou Culture (short-changed in that work); discussions throughout of elite crafts as well as bronze ritual vessels. Bibliographic essay.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- Activist and Socially Engaged Art
- Adornment, Dress, and African Arts of the Body
- Alessandro Algardi
- Ancient Egyptian Art
- Ancient Pueblo (Anasazi) Art
- Angkor and Environs
- Art and Archaeology of the Bronze Age in China
- Art and Architecture in the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary
- Art and Propaganda
- Art of Medieval Iberia
- Art of the Crusader Period in the Levant
- Art of the Dogon
- Art of the Mamluks
- Art of the Plains Peoples
- Art Restitution
- Artemisia Gentileschi
- Artists in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Brazil
- Arts of Senegambia
- Arts of the Pacific Islands
- Arts of the Tea Ceremony
- Assyrian Art and Architecture
- Australian Aboriginal Art
- Aztec Empire, Art of the
- Babylonian Art and Architecture
- Bamana Arts and Mande Traditions
- Barbizon Painting
- Bartolomeo Ammannati
- Bernini, Gian Lorenzo
- Bodegones
- Bohemia and Moravia, Renaissance and Rudolphine Art of
- Bonampak
- Borromini, Francesco
- Brazilian Art and Architecture, Post-independence
- Burkina Art and Performance
- Byzantine Art and Architecture
- Caravaggio, Michelangelo Merisi da
- Carracci, Annibale
- Ceremonial Entries in Early Modern Europe
- Chaco Canyon and Other Early Art in the North American Sou...
- Chicana/o Art
- Chimú Art and Architecture
- Colonial Art of New Granada (Colombia)
- Color in European Art and Architecture
- Conceptual Art and Conceptualism
- Contemporary Art
- Courbet, Gustave
- Czech Modern and Contemporary Art
- Daumier, Honoré
- David, Jacques-Louis
- Delacroix, Eugène
- Design, Garden and Landscape
- Destruction in Art
- Destruction in Art Symposium (DIAS)
- Dürer, Albrecht
- Early Christian Art
- Early Medieval Architecture in Western Europe
- Early Modern European Engravings and Etchings, 1400–1700
- Eighteenth-Century Europe
- Ephemeral Art and Performance in Africa
- Ethiopia, Art History of
- European Art and Diplomacy in the Global Early Modern Peri...
- European Art, Historiography of
- European Medieval Art, Otherness in
- Expressionism
- Eyck, Jan van
- Feminism and 19th-century Art History
- Festivals in West Africa
- Francisco de Zurbarán
- French Impressionism
- Gender and Art in the Middle Ages
- Gender and Art in the Renaissance
- Gender and Art in the 17th Century
- Giorgione
- Giotto di Bondone
- Gothic Architecture
- Gothic Art in Italy
- Goya y Lucientes, Francisco José
- Graffiti
- Great Zimbabwe and its Legacy
- Greek Art and Architecture
- Greenberg, Clement
- Géricault, Théodore
- Hendrick ter Brugghen
- Iconography in the Western World
- India During the Sultanate Period, Architecture in
- Installation Art
- Islamic Art and Architecture in North Africa and the Iberi...
- Japanese Architecture
- Japanese Buddhist Painting
- Japanese Buddhist Sculpture
- Japanese Ceramics
- Japanese Literati Painting and Calligraphy
- Jewish Art, Ancient
- Jewish Art, Medieval to Early Modern
- Jewish Art, Modern and Contemporary
- Jones, Inigo
- Josefa de Óbidos
- Jusepe de Ribera
- Kahlo, Frida
- Katsushika Hokusai
- Lastman, Pieter
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Luca della Robbia (or the Della Robbia Family)
- Luisa Roldán
- Markets and Auctions, Art
- Marxism and Art
- Maya Art
- Medieval Art and Liturgy (recent approaches)
- Medieval Art and the Cult of Saints
- Medieval Art in Scandinavia, 400-800
- Medieval Europe, Art of the Catholic Religious Orders in
- Medieval Textiles
- Meiji Painting
- Merovingian Period Art
- Mingei
- Moche Art
- Modern Sculpture
- Monet, Claude
- Māori Art and Architecture
- Museums in Australia
- Museums of Art in the West
- Nasca Art
- Native North American Art, Pre-Contact
- Nazi Looting of Art
- New Media Art
- New Spain, Art and Architecture
- Olmec Art
- Pacific Art, Contemporary
- Palladio, Andrea
- Parthenon, The
- Paul Gauguin
- Performance Art
- Perspective from the Renaissance to Post-Modernism, Histor...
- Peter Paul Rubens
- Philip II and El Escorial
- Photography, History of
- Pollock, Jackson
- Polychrome Sculpture in Early Modern Spain
- Postmodern Architecture
- Pre-Hispanic Art of Columbia
- Psychoanalysis, Art and
- qajarpainting
- Qing Dynasty Painting
- Rembrandt van Rijn
- Renaissance and Renascences
- Renaissance Art and Architecture in Spain
- Rimpa School
- Rivera, Diego
- Rodin, Auguste
- Roman Art
- Romanesque
- Romanticism
- Science and Conteporary Art
- Sculpture: Method, Practice, Theory
- South Asia and Allied Textile Traditions, Wall Painting of
- South Asia, Modern and Contemporary Art of
- South Asia, Photography in
- South Asian Architecture and Sculpture, 13th to 18th Centu...
- South Asian Art, Historiography of
- The Art of Medieval Sicily and Southern Italy through the ...
- The Art of Southern Italy and Sicily under Angevin and Cat...
- Theory in Europe to 1800, Art
- Timurid Art and Architecture
- Turner, Joseph Mallord William
- Turquerie
- van Gogh, Vincent
- Viking Art
- Visigoths
- Warburg, Aby
- Warhol, Andy
- Wari (Huari) Art and Architecture
- Wittelsbach Patronage from the late Middle Ages to the Thi...
- Women, Art, and Art History: Gender and Feminist Analyses
- Yuan Dynasty Art