Role of the Bronzes

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Bronze played a irreplaceable role in the early development of china as a civilization. From providing the earliest rulers with the “mandate of heaven”, to serving as a crucial staple of china’s growing material culture, bronze shaped china as a nation, and was the material of national treasures revered even today.

First, bronze provided the material to create beautiful ritual statues, creations monopolized by the royalty of China. The writing on the bronze, an alloy of tin and copper, traces back to the lineage of the reader’s ancestors. The leaders of china kept the possession of bronze (and the sculptors that could fashion it into works of art) mainly to themselves. When accompanied by necessary rituals, rulers were the only ones with access to the knowledge the ancestors were believed to have, giving them the “mandate of heaven”, or the legitimation of authority from divine figures.

However, The artifacts created by bronze ranged beyond access to ancestors. Many weapons were fashioned from bronze, used to increase the power of various swords, spears, and daggers. Due to the exclusivity of bronze, it became associated with members of higher class, further promoting material culture by attaching materials to a status often sought by members of the lower class. The main set of bronzes were found at Anyang, an archaeological site. Bronzes were also used to replace real sacrifices. Instead of cutting off the head of a real person, the offerer used the bronze statues. In these ways, bronze nurtured the development of China as a nation, and prepared their culture for the rapid advancements that would soon be advancing upon them.

-Max Westmark

-A bronze container, with a patina, or blue coating that occurs when bronze oxidizes.

Works Cited

Class notes from April 24, 2013

Video Notes from "Mandate of Heaven"

CF Manual, Page 186

"Ancient Chinese Bronze." Cultural China. Cultural China, n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2013. <http://arts.cultural-china.com/en/30Arts2225.html>.

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