Shang Dynasty Chinese Art

1766-1122 BC

Shang bronze pitcher, about 1300 BC
Musee Guimet, Paris

By about 2000 BC, people in China had learned from the people of West Asia how to make bronze out of copper and tin. They began to make many jars and plaques (flat pieces) out of bronze that were used for worshipping their gods. Right from the beginning, these were of very high quality. Some people have thought that the Chinese must have been practicing a long time to make such good bronze pieces, but this is really normal with any new technology: people are very interested in it at first and do a very good job, and it is only later that they try to do it cheaper and faster and not as well.

Late Shang bronze pitcher from Henan,
about 1100 BC, with inscription
(Musee Guimet, Paris)

These bronze jars and boxes were cast in molds using the lost-wax technique. Usually they were cast in several different pieces and then soldered (SOD-erd) together with melted bronze or tin.

Some of them are plain with just a few lines cut (incised) into them. Other jars and goblets have lots of fancy decoration sticking out all over them. Some are abstract designs, others show plants or animals or mythical monsters like dragons. Some show demons, or human faces.

Towards the end of the Shang Dynasty, about 1200 BC, people began to write messages on these bronze jars and cups using the earliest Chinese pictograms.

It was probably sometime during the Shang Dynasty that nomadic Indo-Europeans brought the potter's wheel to China.

The potter's wheel let artists make pots much more quickly, so that they became cheaper and more widely used.

To find out more about Shang Dynasty art, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:

The British Museum Book of Chinese Art, by Jessica Rawson and others (1996). Rawson is a curator at the British Museum, and she uses the collection of the British Museum to illustrate this book. Library Journal calls it "easily the best introductory overview of Chinese art to appear in years".

Art in China (Oxford History of Art Series), by Craig Clunas (1997). Not specifically for kids, but a good introduction to the spirit of Chinese art. Warning: this one is not arranged in chronological order. Instead, it has chapters on sculpture, calligraphy, and so on.

Next period of Chinese art (the Chou dynasty)
More on China in the Shang Dynasty
Main China page
Main Art page

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