Ancient Asian Bronze Vessels

The development of bronze metallurgy in ancient civilizations meant a settled and organized society, for bronze-making required locating, protecting, mining, and smelting the ores that contain copper and tin, the two metals that are alloyed to produce bronze. Bronze was customarily used to make better tools for agriculture and better weapons for waging war. In ancient China, the talents of bronze workers were put to a third, very special use: the casting of drinking vessels and food containers which played central roles in ancestor worship and state rituals.
Chinese civilization in the early Bronze Age was a highly stratified slave society ruled by an all-powerful king and his nobles. According to the religion of the Shang dynasty (1600-1100 BC), the king derived his power from his divine ancestors, whose spirits could influence the course of events if they were propitiated with offerings and sacrifices. Bronze vessels were used to contain the wine and food which were offered up in ceremonies performed at the altar of the ancestral shrine. Their possession and use seems to have been restricted to the king, the royal family, and the aristocracy.
Bronze thus was related to power and divinity. According to legend, King Yu, founder of China's first dynasty, the Xia, around 2200 BC, had nine monumental food cauldrons cast to symbolize the nine provinces of his realm. when the Xia dynasty fell, the nine vessels, the "Auspicious Bronzes of the State," passed to the victorious Shang dynasty and then, in the 11th century BC, to the Zhou. In 1976 a bronze vessel was discovered whose inscription records that it was commissioned only eight days after the defeat of the Shang and the capture of the Auspicious Bronzes. These bronzes, however, have not yet been discovered. The oldest vessels discovered thus far are dated to 1800 BC.
While retaining their significance as symbols of power, the bronze vessels changed in form, purpose, and decorative style during each succeeding dynasty. The Shang are reputed to have made much use of wine in their rituals, and they had many wine vessels created. The Zhou, who felt that overindulgence in wine offended Heaven, made fewer wine vessels and produced new types of food cauldrons and containers.
The decorations on vessels from the Shang seem rich with meaning, yet they resist our attempts to identify their inspiration or meaning. Often the emphasis is on a protruding eye, which seems to animate the vessel. The most frequently used decoration is the "animal mask," which actually is composed of two creatures shown head-to-head in profile. Each contributes an eye, an ear or horn, and a jaw to the frontal presentation of a mysterious, awe-inspiring "animal." In succeeding ages, this powerful form became increasingly abstract, sometimes dissolving into elaborate ornamentation. Gradually the religious significance of bronze artifacts decreased, and they were used as symbols of personal wealth and prestige--as homage to the living. By 210 BC, bronze craftsmanship was turned to making luxury items in complex shapes that were inlaid with silver and gold.