Inscriptions on bronze Bronze inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty
Although there were bronzes before the Shang Dynasty, the beginning of inscriptions on bronzes was Pan Geng moved to Yin (Now Henan Anyang Northwest). At the beginning, there were only a few figures. By the beginning of the week, there were more than 1200 words. At the end of the Shang Dynasty, bronze articles with inscriptions on bronze were more and more, but the description was still very brief, and most of them were taboo names of the founders or their ancestors. At the time of the death of Shang Dynasty, only articles appeared. However, the longest text at that time was still only 40 words. Bronze inscriptions of the Western Zhou Dynasty
By the time the Shang Dynasty began in the Zhou Dynasty, the inscriptions on gold had gradually flourished Zhaowang Southern tour, King Mu Siso There are many descriptions. Eastern Zhou Dynasty Inscriptions
since Pingwang moved eastward Since then, iron ware has gradually emerged, bronze music such as bells has become more and more popular, and can also be cast on the outside of bronzes. Therefore, the inscriptions on bronzes are not just for princes and ministers as they used to be. There are also cast records of battle achievements and musical scales. At this time, the inscriptions on gold were widely used, which could be called the heyday. Inscriptions in Qin and Han Dynasties
First Emperor of Qin After ruling the country, the imperial edict A book is a prose , and erect a stele in all directions. All the characters used are Xiaozhuan The inscriptions on the Zhongding are no longer carved, so the inscriptions on gold are gradually declining. In the Han Dynasty, most of the people cast inscriptions on iron. Bronze was no longer used, and inscriptions on bronze were not seen in history. Inscriptions in Yin and Zhou dynasties were cast on the inside of bronzes, but how to engrave them on the mold is still uncertain. According to a large number of molds found in the workshop site, the manufacturing method of bronze ware is as follows:
1. Use clay to make a clay embryo (model) of the same size as the finished product. In addition, the model is wrapped with clay, and the clay on the outer layer is cut after drying, as External mold 。 2. Cut the outer layer of the model as Internal mold , engraved with patterns and words on the inner mold. Assemble the external mold and internal mold, and place them between them Copper sheet It is used as a space for injection of copper liquid. 3. Inject the melted copper, cool the mold and break it, and take out the bronze ware.
Bronze inscriptions of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties 1. Dissolve into muddy clay and stick it gradually. This is the Qing Dynasty Epigraphy The expert Ruan Yuan proposed the hypothesis, but there was no empirical experiment. 2. Paste thin clay on the inner mold, and then cut off the excess. This is a hypothesis put forward before the Republic of China. In the process, there must be traces on the inner mold, and there must be traces on the bronze ware, but actually there is not.
3. First on wood chips or Tortoiseshell Carve words on it, fill it with clay, and then transfer the clay to the internal mold. Experiments have proved that this method is feasible, but no relevant physical evidence has been found, so it can only be regarded as a hypothesis. Inscriptions and Oracle Very similar. 
Jinwen Dictionary The content of the inscriptions on gold is about sacrificial rites, giving orders, edicts, wars Hunting The records of such activities or events as. The inscriptions on gold are neat and elegant, simple and thick. Compared with the inscriptions on bones and tortoise shells, the inscriptions on gold are more varied and rich. Jinwen basically belongs to Zhou seal character. These characters were discovered in the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty Fenyang The unearthed tripod was sent to the palace, so Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty named it Yuanding. Later, inscriptions on bronze were discovered one after another. Scholars in the Song Dynasty Ouyang Xiu 、 Zhao Mingcheng Dushan has studied and recorded the inscriptions on bronze. King Xuan of Zhou The inscriptions on Mao Gongding made by Shi are very unique Representativeness The inscription has a total of 32 lines and 497 characters, which is unearthed Bronze inscription Longest. 《 bronze tripod cooking vessel made in late Western Zhou 》The inscriptions are well structured, thin, vigorous, smooth, and well arranged. They are outstanding among the gold inscriptions. In addition《 Big Yu Ding 》Inscription《 Sandwich disc 》The inscription is also the best work in the gold inscription. original Oracle With the demise of Yin, bronze inscription came into being and became the mainstream of calligraphy in the Zhou Dynasty. It was carved on the Zhong Ding, sometimes called Zhong Ding Wen. According to the investigation, Shang dynasty Bronze articles were engraved with inscriptions similar to pictures, which continued to evolve. At the end of the Shang Dynasty, inscriptions on bronze were also the same as inscriptions on oracle bones. This kind of inscriptions flourished in the Zhou Dynasty, and extended to Qin and Han Dynasties 。 However, there were few artifacts and inscriptions in the Shang Dynasty. Since the Qin and Han Dynasties were at the end of their history, the Zhou Dynasty should be considered as the mainstream. 
inscriptions on ancient bronze objects The heyday of Jin Wen was the Zhou Dynasty Pingwang moved eastward Divided into Western Zhou Dynasty and Eastern Zhou Dynasty -- The Western Zhou Dynasty tended to be vigorous and vigorous, resulting in the golden age of inscriptions on bronze; Eastern Zhou Dynasty the various states or nations Independent regimes form regional characteristics - so introduce them separately. Western Zhou Dynasty:
The Western Zhou Dynasty inherited the calligraphy style of the late Yin Dynasty until Cheng Wang The time produced a unique style, and the calligraphy style was vigorous, elegant and spectacular; stay a system of arranging emperors' temples Later, it became rigorous and correct. The development of academic culture will be more or less affected by social and political factors. In the early Western Zhou Dynasty, from King Wu to King Kang, the world was unified and the society was stable Duke Zhou made rites and played music It can be called a peaceful and prosperous age, so the calligraphers can express the vigorous and elegant style, and the content also has the tendency of gradually lengthening, such as Big Yu Ding Even the most typical masterpiece of this period. After Zhaomu, the style of calligraphy gradually changed, and the strokes became uniform from thickness to thickness; The ending and starting of the pen are also different from each other ball pen ； The style of running money is extremely rigorous, even in the form of a square. Clean and elegant Songding Ding Elegant maintenance Da Ke vessel And Mao Gongding, which was a little early, are all representatives of this period. Eastern Zhou Dynasty : King Ping of Zhou moved eastward Later, the Qin Dynasty moved its capital to Yong, inheriting both the old place of the Western Zhou Dynasty and the culture of the Western Zhou Dynasty. just because of this, Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period The characters of Qin Dynasty and Western Zhou Dynasty came down in one continuous line; Because of this, when the characters of the eastern countries changed laterally due to regional characteristics and cultural reasons, the culturally backward Qin characters became orthodox Chinese characters (even if the fact that Qin eventually unified China and the characters was not taken into account, it can be considered that History of Chinese Characters On, Qin script It represents the mainstream of the development of Chinese characters, and Six languages Represents a tributary.) Therefore, the characters in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period can be divided into two systems: the Qin language and the Six Kingdoms language. (The Qin language is from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period, and the Six Kingdoms refers to the Eastern countries during the Warring States Period.) General philologists are also called " Xitu characters "And" Eastern script 」。 After the Qin Dynasty unified the six countries, it began to take measures to standardize the characters, namely the so-called "writing with writing". The standard characters of the Qin Dynasty are based on the characters of the Qin Dynasty Evolution of Chinese Characters It's also in the Qin Dynasty Xiaozhuan And the daily writing form of Qin Zhuan Ancient clerical script Based on the development of. After the Qin Dynasty's "writing is the same as writing", the characters of the six countries were eliminated, and the Qin characters became the real mainstream. Therefore, the Qin system characters are an important link to inherit the ancient writings of the Western Zhou Dynasty, to open the official script of the Han and Wei Dynasties, and even to open the regular script. Its change can be seen as a part of the evolution of Chinese characters according to their own internal structural laws. Therefore Philology As far as it is concerned, the study of the Western characters of the Qin system is more important than that of the characters of the Six Kingdoms, because it is the Chinese characters Lineal relative The six languages are collateral branches, although they also influence and absorb each other. The inscriptions on gold in the Qin Dynasty gradually came to the end, and there were few stone inscriptions. First Emperor of Qin After unifying the world, Yifadu, Hengshi and Zhangshi are all carved or cast on copper and iron for promulgation. It is dominated by curves, Shelf The stability, orderliness, change and boldness of momentum can be called the masterpiece of Xiaozhuan, which also provides the most reliable and complete data for future generations to learn Xiaozhuan 
bronze tripod cooking vessel made in late Western Zhou Scholars since Qing Dynasty Ruan Yuan Since the proposition that "from Han Dynasty to Tang Dynasty, there were rare ancient artifacts, and ancient tripods were occasionally obtained, or to the Yuan Dynasty, it was called Shenrui, a history book of books", scholars have always said that the study of inscriptions on gold must start from the Song Dynasty. However, it may not be all the facts contained in the ancient books. During the more than 1000 years from the Han Dynasty to the end of the Tang Dynasty, a limited number of bronzes were found in historical records. According to scholars in the late Qing Dynasty Fang Junyi As mentioned, there were more than 20 historical records of ancient artifacts from Han to Tang Dynasty. Among them, the specific number of bronzes involved has not been tested. However, according to the general situation recorded in the historical records, the absolute number may be more than 50. Some of these bronzes were regarded as auspicious objects and were recommended as temples, or even changed or established because of them Sacrificer As recorded in the History of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu once "got on the Ding Fen River" when he was Emperor Wu, so he was renamed Yuan Ding 。 The Book of the Han Dynasty · Suburb Sacrifice Annals also contains that "Meiyang got the tripod and offered it. There are some leaders who think it is appropriate to recommend it to the temple, such as the story of the tripod of the Yuan Dynasty." However, finally, because of the "small tripod and hospitality", "it is not suitable to recommend it to the temple". It can be seen that not all bronzes were recommended as temples because they were regarded as auspicious gods, which was already the case in the Han Dynasty. In fact, bronze ware from the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty has been regarded as playing well and has entered the field of private collection. This trend did not originate in the Song Dynasty. According to Historical Records· Filial and martial history 》Record, Martial Emperor It's hidden Bronze ware 。 Today, bronze objects of the Shang Dynasty have been found more than once in excavated Han tombs, which also proves that as early as then, bronze has become an important private collection. The same is true after the Han Dynasty. For example, according to the Southern History of Emperor Wu of the Song Dynasty, in the second year of the Yuan Dynasty, "Jingling County opened its own riverside and produced more than ten ancient bronze ritual vessels... So it was returned to Zhu Rui and hidden in the Prime Minister's Mansion". Although there were no bronze ware drawings and inscriptions from the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty for more than 1000 years, on the whole, the study of bronze inscriptions Academic atmosphere It is also extremely thin. However, it is undeniable that there are many readers who have roughly and correctly interpreted the inscriptions on gold during this period. The Han Book · Suburb Sacrifice Annals, as mentioned earlier, records the event that "Meiyang got the tripod" in the Han Dynasty, and Zhang Chang, a good ancient writer at that time, took the tripod (that is Corpse minister tripod ）Roughly and accurately interpreted. According to the place where the tripod came from, he concluded that it was a Zhou ware, and according to the inscription, it was King of Zhou In order to praise the minister, his descendants engraved his ancestors' work and hid it in the temple. His dating method and inscription interpretation were basically correct, and had an impact on the research of later scholars. In fact, he has entered the research category of Jinwen. In addition, those who have made contributions to the study of bronze inscriptions and have ancient books to examine, besides Zhang Chang of the Han Dynasty Li Daoyuan Liu Xian and Liu Yaohe in the Southern and Northern Dynasties Liu Zhilin 、 Jiang Yan , as well as Feng Yan and Lu Guangwei of the Tang Dynasty. Although there is no detailed description of their specific interpretation methods, the correctness of their interpretation results also reflects their research method It should include many reasonable factors. In the Five Dynasties Liang Dynasty During this period, there was a prevailing trend of collecting and researching ancient artifacts. Textual Research on Liu Yao Recorded in Liang Shu Liu Yao's Biography Zheng Xuan so-called Elephant statue Although the result is inaccurate However, it proved that the trend of textual research had risen at that time. Beam has been Yes Antiquarian Compiling , such as flooded《 Bronze Sword Praise 》Among them, there are many people who agree with the historical facts. It can be seen that at this time, the study of epigraphy was at least in its infancy. Although the study of bronze inscriptions in the Han and Tang dynasties was sporadic chance In particular, no monographs have been published, but these sporadic studies and their contributions should not be ignored in the academic history. The great prosperity of the study of gold and stone in the Song Dynasty was by no means a water without a source or a tree without roots. It can be said that it was the discovery and collection of bronzes in the Han and Tang dynasties, as well as the attempts and efforts of some researchers to interpret and research the inscriptions on gold, to a large extent Northern Song Dynasty The initial study of inscriptions on bronzes finally formed specialized knowledge, which was the academic accumulation and foreshadowing, and was an inevitable achievement due to long-term accumulation. the Qing dynasty Wu Shifen The Shang and Zhou Dynasties Bronze inscription Compilation《 Ancient recorded inscriptions 》A book has collected a lot of data, rigorous textual research and great influence, so the word "Jinwen" came into being definition 。 At this time, the so-called inscriptions on gold refer to the whole inscription, not single words. 1925 Rong Geng Edited《 Jin Wenbian 》According to the characters in the bronze inscriptions of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties《 Analytical Dictionary of Characters 》From then on, Jinwen became a kind of calligraphic name. Jinwen is Shang dynasty In the middle period, although there are few materials, they are all older than Yin Ruins Oracle Good morning! The lower limit of inscriptions is broken at Qin destroyed six countries , that is, Qin Yong Xiaozhuan When unifying Chinese characters. People in the Song Dynasty attached great importance to inscriptions when collecting bronze wares, such as Lv Dalin 《 Archaeological map 》Etc; There are also special inscriptions, such as Wang Qiu 《 Ancient Records of Xiaotang Collection 》Etc; Wang Chuhe made a dictionary of the words in the inscription Xue Shanggong Zhongding Zhuanyun. In the Qing Dynasty《 Shuo Wen 》The school is thriving sound The research on exegesis is deepening day by day. Under the influence of this style of study, the research on inscriptions has made rapid progress, and experts such as Wu Daxuan have constantly appeared Zishuo 、《 Shuo Wen Gu Zhou Bu 》， Sun Yirang 《 A Collection of Ancient Zhou 》On Ancient Zhou《 Primordial name 》And so on, all have original ideas, and surpass the predecessors. The inscriptions on bronze are long in age and widely used. If the materials are not sorted out, the research work will not be effective. Scholars have understood this in the past. Wang Guowei The concept of time and place is very clear in the Preface to the Rhythm Reading of Two Zhou Epigraphy. Guo Moruo said in his Preface to the Two Zhou Dynasty Jinwen Ci Series: "It should be consistent with the time and the country,... more than one hundred sixty and two articles can be collected or nearly collected in the Western Zhou Dynasty.... The articles based on the country are also consistent with the time among countries, and the articles of other countries are collected in one hundred sixty and one article." This is an epoch-making initiative in the study of Jinwen. Rong Geng in 1985《 Jin Wenbian 》The fourth revised edition adopted 3902 inscriptions, including 2420 words in the text (recognizable words) and 1352 words in the appendix (uncertain words), totaling 3772 words. This is the total number of visible inscriptions. The pre Qin written materials are not limited to the inscriptions on gold, but the inscriptions on gold are the main ones after all, which reflect the use of the Qin Dynasty Xiaozhuan Basic information about the development and changes of Chinese characters over 1000 years before the unification of characters. 
"Huainanzi Talks about Mountain Training" by Dou Zhongliang The development of inscriptions on bronze promoted The art of calligraphy Development of. The inscriptions on gold in the Western Zhou Dynasty were a mature calligraphy art, which was valued by calligraphy historians. It rewrote the long held view that only from Li and Kaishu, and after the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, can there be a true traditional understanding of calligraphy, and traced the history of Chinese calligraphy to more than 3000 years ago. The calligraphy style of inscriptions on gold is generally called Big Seal Script or Zhou Script, and also called Ancient Zhou Script. Zhou is King Xuan of Zhou At Historiographer , and the Zhou Shu is written by him Calligraphy 。 Bronze inscription Inscription models were first carved according to the original ink script Pottery model , and then turned over the mold to cast it. because Shang and Zhou Dynasties The bronze of the period is very advanced Foundry technology Therefore, the recast inscriptions on gold can generally reflect the brushwork of ink calligraphy to a considerable extent. Therefore, the bronze inscriptions of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties were actually a kind of calligraphy art of ink calligraphy. The bronze inscription calligraphy of the Shang Dynasty was Oracle Based on. It has a small number of characters, long and thin font, powerful and beautiful strokes, Promoting qi It is dense, well structured, dignified, and each has its own charm. Someone once summarized it into two styles, one is vigorous and plump, with sharp strokes from beginning to end, and the other is Transport pen Powerful, thin and muscular, with straight strokes and little or no edge. After Zhou destroyed the Shang Dynasty, the craftsmen who forged bronze wares in the Shang Dynasty returned to Zhou one after another. The people of Zhou Dynasty inherited the bronze inscription calligraphy of the merchants and developed it into a unique style of bronze inscription calligraphy.
Ascending Yueyang Tower in gold by Hong Yunkai Western Zhou Dynasty From the perspective of calligraphy style and calligraphy style, the general situation of early inscriptions on gold is beautiful and elegant, with sharp strokes at the beginning and end, obvious waves, rigorous structure and style Constitution Freedom. Its prophase Style Simple and plain, more upright Suspensory needle The brushwork still has the influence of oracle bone inscriptions. As in King Wu's time Li Gui and Heavenly Death Gui (or called Dafeng Gui ）The font is simple and primitive, and the strokes are square and round, which is concise and straight. Li Gui recorded the important historical events of King Wu acting as the Shang Dynasty in just 32 words, so he was called Wu Wang Keshang Gui (Gui), the earliest bronze ware with inscriptions in the Western Zhou Dynasty, set a precedent for the calligraphy of inscriptions on gold in the Western Zhou Dynasty. The style of the later period is dignified and bold, showing the unique art of Jinwen. Such as the decree of the king Channel protection ， Kang Wang At Big Yu Ding , Dafang Ding, etc. The calligraphy is concise and ancient, majestic, straight, vigorous and gorgeous. From the characters with human shape or human side, Wang characters, etc., they use fat pens with obvious weight, which is called "wave body" by calligraphers. In particular, the gold inscription of Dayu Ding, with 19 lines and 291 words, records the great achievements of King Kang in tracing his civil and military orders and conquering Yin's founding. Its characters are dignified and elegant, its size is appropriate, and its shape is vivid. It is the highest level of gold inscription calligraphy in the Chengkang era, and its rubbings are still treasured by calligraphers. 
