Chinese: The Bronze Age

The Xia/Shang/Zhou Dynasties

(much that is once thought mythical is then found to have reality in history. Or as Joseph Campbell used to sey: "Almost every mythical person has at its base some either real or idealised person. Often we find the names of ancient kings swept up into mythical stories." (not by any means an exact quote -- Pizoi) CHINESE: [General] [Neo-Lith] [Bronze] [Han] [The Six] [Sui/Tang] [Song] 8000?yago ?-1700 200bce 220-579 589/617-907 960-1279 -1100bce -200ce See also: [Art Periods] [Flying Gallop] (prance image) [Art Periods] [Art Movements] [(art) concepts] [Time Line] - space/time conveyor

Chinese Art

[General] (6000bce - 1279ce) [Neo-Lithic] (8000 years ago) You are here --> [Bronze Age
] Xia/Shang/Zhou (?-1700-1100bce) [Han] (200bce-220ce) (easy #'s) [The 6 dynasties (220-579) [Sui/Tang] (589/617-907) [Song] (960-1279) On this page: {Intro} {Xia} {Shang} {An-Yang/Zhou}

Intro

As Marilyn S. puts it (
Stockstadt, P. 405)), "Tradtional Chinese histories tell of three Bronze Age dyansties: The Xia, the Shang, and the Zhou. Modern scholars had tended to dismiss the Xia and Shang as legendary, but recent archaelogical discoveries have now fully established the existAnce of the Shang (c. 1700-100 bce) and point strongly to the historical existEnce of the Xia as well." (beauty; beauty, squared. What squaared? Beauty to the tenth power!) (ah, Lou Jacobi!) NOTE: The new-speek "zhou" is AKA the "An-yang", In this section: {General Notes} {Chrono} {Religion}

Chrono

src: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/03/eac/ht03eac.htm • ca. 2000bce Metals begin to be used throughout China to make knives, awls, bells, and jewelry. • ca. 1700–1500bce Erlitou near present-day Yanshi in Henan Province is an urban center with large temples and tombs. It may represent a center of the Xia dynasty; ca2100–1600bce, cited in early histories as the first power to emerge in China. Erlitou is noted for its use of bronze, making this site an important precursor to the metalworking traditions of the later Shang dynasty. From here and above; roughly designated as the Xia/Kia Dynasty. • ca. 1600bce The Shang dynasty controls a large area in northeast and north central China. Major sites include Zhengzhou, thought to be a cult center, and Anyang, the capital from ca1300–1050bce. This period is noted for its extraordinary bronze vessels used to hold wine and food in rituals linking rulers and their ancestors. They are cast using multiple ceramic molds, a technology that has no parallels elsewhere in the ancient world. • ca. 1200–1000bce Bronzes in the shape of humanoid figures (some lifesize) and heads, fragments of gold and jade, and elephant trunks discovered in 1986 at Sanxingdui in Sichuan Province illustrate an undocumented metalworking culture in the western part of China contemporaneous with the Shang in northeast and north central China. From here and below; roughly designated as the An-Yang Dynasty. • ca. 1046bce The Zhou, a people living in the northwest, wrest control from the Shang, establishing the Zhou dynasty. The first part of the dynasty is known as the Western Zhou; ca1046–771bce after the location of the capital in the vicinity of present-day Xi'an. The Shujing (Book of Documents), one of the earliest histories, is written in part to legitimize the Zhou takeover of the Shang realm. Another classic, the Shijing (Book of Songs), contains poems and folk songs.

Religion


Xia Dynasty

(still no direct evidence that there ever *was* a Xia Dynasty -- just legend; just legend. See note under {
Chnrono} above. )

Shang Dynasty

some v. nice an-yang era.... http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/images.html#Archeology http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/china/architecture/shangarchitecture.htm SHANG cool link site met, map http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/03/eac/ht03eac.htm (see time line from same site; below) the "bi" style chang dyn... NB: "bi" aka "pi" (natch)... britannica: http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-458984/bi Wade-Giles romanization pi (bi) in art, Chinese jade carved in the form of a flat disk with a hole in the centre. The earliest examples, which are unornamented, date from the Neolithic Period (c. 5000–2000 BC). Later examples, from the Shang (18th–12th century BC) and Zhou dynasties (1111–256/255 BC), have increasingly elaborate surface embellishment, especially in the late Zhou (c. 600–256/255... Pizo's Around China in 80 seconds! (portupori of the "pop classics" On this page: {
Religion}

The Usual Suspects

Religion

Chrono

src: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/03/eac/ht03eac.htm • ca. 2000bce Metals begin to be used throughout China to make knives, awls, bells, and jewelry. • ca. 1700–1500bce Erlitou near present-day Yanshi in Henan Province is an urban center with large temples and tombs. It may represent a center of the Xia dynasty; ca2100–1600bce, cited in early histories as the first power to emerge in China. Erlitou is noted for its use of bronze, making this site an important precursor to the metalworking traditions of the later Shang dynasty. • ca. 1600bce The Shang dynasty controls a large area in northeast and north central China. Major sites include Zhengzhou, thought to be a cult center, and Anyang, the capital from ca. 1300–1050bce This period is noted for its extraordinary bronze vessels used to hold wine and food in rituals linking rulers and their ancestors. They are cast using multiple ceramic molds, a technology that has no parallels elsewhere in the ancient world. • ca. 1200–1000bce Bronzes in the shape of humanoid figures (some lifesize) and heads, fragments of gold and jade, and elephant trunks discovered in 1986 at Sanxingdui in Sichuan Province illustrate an undocumented metalworking culture in the western part of China contemporaneous with the Shang in northeast and north central China. • ca. 1046bce The Zhou, a people living in the northwest, wrest control from the Shang, establishing the Zhou dynasty. The first part of the dynasty is known as the Western Zhou; ca1046–771bce after the location of the capital in the vicinity of present-day Xi'an. The Shujing (Book of Documents), one of the earliest histories, is written in part to legitimize the Zhou takeover of the Shang realm. Another classic, the Shijing (Book of Songs), contains poems and folk songs.

An-Yang / Jhou Dynasty

AKA: Jhou - Late Chinese Bronze Age...

Diadacts, Ducks and Pedagogy

http://www.globaled.org/chinaproject/teachingmaterials/chineseart/chinese_art.php