Chinese bronze inscriptions

Chinese Bronze inscriptions are writing in a ''variety of '' on Chinese bronze artifacts such as zhōng s and tripodal cauldrons from the to the and even later. Early bronze inscriptions were almost always cast , while later inscriptions were often engraved after the bronze was cast.

Terminology

For the early to early Warring States period, the bulk of writing which has been unearthed has been in the form of bronze inscriptions. As a result, it is common to refer to the variety of scripts of this period as ''bronze script'', even though there is no single such script. The term usually includes bronze inscriptions of the preceding dynasty as well.
However, there are great differences between the highly pictorial emblem characters on bronzes , typical bronze graphs, writing on bronzes from the middle of the , and that on late Zhōu to , and subsequent period bronzes. Furthermore, starting in the Spring and Autumn period, the writing in each region gradually evolved in different directions, such that the script styles in the Warring States of , and the eastern regions, for instance, were strikingly divergent. In addition, artistic scripts also emerged in the late Spring and Autumn to early Warring States, such as Bird Script , also called Bird Seal Script , and Insect Script . The comparison below of one graph and three graphs, all from bronzes but clearly in four different scripts, illustrates why talk of “bronze script” as if it were one entity is meaningless, even when referring only to the period. Such vague references make discussions of etymology particularly problematic:
Image:Shang dynasty bronze Chinese character 寅 yin2.gif|Shāng dyn.
Image:Chinese character 寅 Yin2 from late W Zhou bronze.gif| late W. Zhōu
Image:Chinese character 寅 yin2 in early Warring States bird script from bronze vessel.gif|Bird Script, early Warring States
Image:Chinese character 寅 yin2 from late Warring States bronze.gif| late Warring States

When precision is needed, bronze may be viewed as a ''medium'', and more specific reference may be made to a script by naming one of the periods, areas, or script styles, e.g.:

* By period: bronze script, or even its early, middle or late phases

* By region or lineage: -lineage Spring and Autumn script; or script

* By script style: seal script ; or Bird Script, Insect Script, etc.

Inscribed Bronzes Found

Over ten thousand inscribed bronzes have been uncovered which date to before the , with roughly a quarter dating to the and three quarters dating to the . These have been periodically unearthed ever since their creation, and have been systematically collected and studied since at least the . The inscriptions tend to grow in length over time, from only one to six or so characters for the earlier examples, to forty or so characters in the longest, late- case, and frequently a hundred or more on bronzes, with the longest up to around 500

In general, characters on ancient Chinese bronze inscriptions were arranged in vertical columns, written top to bottom, in a fashion thought to have been influenced by bamboo books, which are believed to have been the main medium for writing in the Shāng and Zhōu dynasties . The very narrow, vertical bamboo slats of these books were not suitable for writing wide characters, and so a number of graphs were rotated 90 degrees; this style then carried over to the Shāng and Zhōu oracle bones and bronzes. Examples:

Shāng bronze inscriptions

Inscriptions on bronzes are of a fairly uniform style, making it possible to discuss a “ bronze script”, although great differences still exist between typical characters and certain instances of clan names or emblems. Like early period oracle bone script, the structures and orientations of individual graphs varied greatly in the bronze inscriptions, such that one may find a particular character written differently each time rather than in a standardized way . As in the oracle bone script, characters could be written facing left or right, turned 90 degrees, and sometimes even flipped vertically, generally with no change in meaning. For instance, and both represent the modern character 戌 xū , while and are both 侯 hóu ‘marquis’. This was true of normal as well as extra complex identificational graphs, such as the 虎 hǔ ‘tiger’ clan emblem at right, which was turned 90 degrees clockwise on its bronze.

These inscriptions are almost all cast , and are relatively short and simple. Some were mainly to identify the name of a clan or other name, while typical inscriptions include the maker's clan name and the posthumous title of the ancestor who is commemorated by the making and use of the vessel. These inscriptions, especially those late period examples identifying a name, are typically executed in a script of highly pictographic flavor, which preserves the formal, complex writing as would have primarily been written on bamboo or wood books, as opposed to the concurrent simplified, linearized and more rectilinear form of writing as seen on the oracle bones. A few inscriptions have been found which were brush-written on pottery, stone, jade or bone artifacts, and there are also some bone engravings on non-divination matters written in a complex, highly pictographic style; the structure and style of the bronze inscriptions is consistent with these. The soft clay of the piece-molds used to produce the to early bronzes was suitable for preserving most of the complexity of the brush-written characters on such books and other media, whereas the hard, bony surface of the oracle bones was difficult to engrave, spurring significant simplification and conversion to rectilinearity. Furthermore, some of the characters on the bronzes may have been more complex than normal due to particularly conservative usage in this ritual medium, or when recording identificational inscriptions ; some scholars instead attribute this to purely decorative considerations. bronze script may thus be considered a ''formal'' script, similar to but sometimes even more complex than the unattested daily script on bamboo and wood books and other media, yet far more complex than the .

Western Zhōu script on bronzes

Western Zhōu dynasty characters basically continue from the Shāng writing system; that is, early W. Zhōu forms resemble Shāng bronze forms , without any clear or sudden distinction. They are, like their Shāng predecessors in all media, often irregular in shape and size, and the structures and details often vary from one piece of writing to the next, and even within the same piece. Although most are not pictographs in function, the early Western Zhōu bronze inscriptions have been described as more pictographic in flavor than those of subsequent periods. During the Western Zhōu, many graphs begin to show signs of simplification and linearization , with the result being a decrease in pictographic quality, as depicted in the chart below. Some flexibility in orientation of graphs continues in the Western Zhou, but this becomes increasingly scarce throughout the Zhōu dynasty. The graphs start to become slightly more uniform in structure, size and arrangement by the time of the third Zhou sovereign, , and after the ninth, , this trend becomes more obvious.

Some have used the problematic term ’ to refer to the script of this period. This term dates back to the , when seal script and clerical script were both in use. It thus became necessary to distinguish between the two, as well as any earlier script forms which were still accessible in the form of books and inscriptions, so the terms ‘’ and ‘small seal’ came into being. However, since the term ‘large seal’ is ''variously'' used to describe , ''or'' inscriptions on both late W. Zhōu bronze inscriptions and the , ''or'' all forms predating small seal, the term is best avoided entirely.

Eastern Zhou scripts on bronzes

Spring & Autumn period scripts on bronzes

By the beginning of the , in the Spring and Autumn period, many graphs are fully linearized, as seen in the chart above; additionally, curved lines are straightened, and disconnected lines are often connected, with the result of greater convenience in writing, but a marked decrease in pictographic quality.

In the Eastern Zhōu, the various states initially continued using the same forms as in the late Western Zhōu. However, regional forms then began to diverge stylistically as early as the Spring and Autumn period, with the forms in the remaining more conservative. At this time, and minted coins, both probably primarily of bronze, were already in use, according to traditional documents, but none of the extant seals have yet been indisputably dated to that period.

By the mid to late Spring and Autumn period, artistic derivative scripts with vertically elongated forms appeared on bronzes, especially in the eastern and southern states, and remained in use into the Warring States period . In the same areas, in the late Spring and Autumn to early Warring States, scripts which embellished basic structures with decorative forms such as birds or insects also appeared. These are known as Bird Script and Insect Script , and collectively as Bird and Insect Scripts, ; however, these were primarily decorative forms for inscriptions on bronzes and other items, and not scripts in daily use. Some bronzes of the period were incised in a rough, casual manner, with graph structures often differing somewhat from typical ones. It is thought that these reflected the popular writing of the time which coexisted with the formal script.

Warring States Period scripts on bronzes

have been found from the Warring States period, mostly cast in bronze, and minted bronze coins from this period are also numerous. These form an additional, valuable resource for the study of Chinese bronze inscriptions. It is also from this period that the first surviving bamboo and silk manuscripts have been uncovered.

In the early Warring States period, typical bronze inscriptions were similar in content and length to those in the late to Spring and Autumn period. One of the most famous sets of bronzes ever discovered dates to the early Warring States: a large set of ' bells from the , unearthed in 1978. The total length of the inscriptions on this set was almost 2,800 characters.

In the mid to late Warring States period, the average length of inscriptions decreased greatly. Many, especially on weapons, recorded only the date, maker and so on, in contrast with earlier narrative contents. Beginning at this time, such inscriptions were typically engraved onto the already cast bronzes, rather than being written into the wet clay of piece-molds as had been the earlier practice. The engraving was often roughly and hastily executed..

In Warring States period bronze inscriptions, trends from the late Spring and Autumn period continue, such as the use of artistically embellished scripts on decorated bronze items. In daily writing, which was not embellished in this manner, the typical script continued evolving in different directions in various regions, and this divergence was accelerated by both a lack of central political control as well as the spread of writing outside of the nobility. In the state of Qín, which was somewhat culturally isolated from the other states, and which was positioned on the old Zhōu homeland, the script became more uniform and stylistically symmetrical, rather than changing much structurally. Change in the script was slow, so it remained more similar to the typical late Western Zhōu script as found on bronzes of that period and the compendium of ca. 800 BCE. As a result, it was not until around the middle of the Warring States period that popular writing gained momentum in Qín, and even then, the vulgar forms remained somewhat similar to traditional forms, changing primarily in terms of becoming more rectilinear. Traditional forms in Qín remained in use as well, so that two forms of writing coexisted. The traditional forms in Qín evolved slowly during the , gradually becoming what is now called seal script during that period, without any clear dividing line . Meanwhile, the Qín vulgar writing evolved into early clerical in the late Warring States to period, which would then evolve further into the clerical script used in the through the - periods.

Meanwhile, in the eastern states, vulgar forms had become popular sooner; they also differed more radically from and more completely displaced the traditional forms. These eastern scripts, which also varied somewhat by state or region, were later misunderstood by , author of the Hàn dynasty etymological dictionary , who thought they predated the Warring States Qín forms, and thus labeled them .