Chapter 19 The fourth section reflects the appearance of feasting, hunting and land and water attack patterns in real life

During the Spring and Autumn Period, especially in the middle and late Spring and Autumn Period, major changes took place in the decoration of bronze wares. Not only the animal face patterns since the Shang Dynasty were rarely seen, but also the stealing curved patterns popular in the middle and late Western Zhou Dynasty were also rare. , but the Pan Chi (chi Chi) and Pan Zhi patterns are the main ones.Chi is a hornless dragon in ancient myths and legends, and 虺 is a small snake.These two kinds of decorations are composed of two or more chi or 虺 intertwined to form a decoration unit, and then make a two-sided or four-sided continuous layout.This is directly related to the emergence of the casting process and the prevalence of the impression method in the Spring and Autumn Period mentioned above, that is, the two kinds of decorations are continuously printed on the outer mold with a pottery mold with a single pattern.These decorations no longer have a mysterious meaning, but become purely patterned decorations, which is also an ideological reflection of the great social changes at that time.

What is especially important is that from the late Spring and Autumn Period to the early Warring States period, bronze decorations with people's real life as the theme appeared, such as feast and dance, water and land attack, hunting, mulberry picking and other decorations.For example, the copper pot unearthed in Baihuatan, Chengdu, Sichuan in 1965 (Fig. 15), is 40 cm high and 13.4 cm in diameter.There are four layers of decoration embedded in the body of the pot from top to bottom.On the left side of the first floor is the image of shooting, which shows the scene of the nobles shooting at Buhou (archery target) with their bows and arrows, which may be a portrayal of the ancient village shooting ceremony.On the right is an image of picking mulberries, which shows that noble women are picking mulberries, some climbed to the trees to pick them, and some supported them on the ground.This may be the portrayal of the "Book of Rites Yueling": "Jichun's moon... Empresses and concubines all quit, kissing Dongxiang Gongsang".On the left side of the second floor are images of feasting, singing and dancing.In the upper hall, nobles are having banquets and entertainment, servants serve wine and offer beans, while dancers below are singing and dancing to the accompaniment of bells, drums and stone chimes.In short, it shows the scene of the nobles feasting on the guests.On the right are shooting and shooting images.Shooting shows that people are kneeling on the ground and bowing their bows to shoot swans into the sky, and there are zhuo (zhuo) threads tied to the arrows.The third layer is the image of water and land attack.On the left is the scene of land warfare, the upper layer is the scene of unarmed soldiers fighting and defending the city, and the lower layer is the scene of climbing the ladder to attack the city.On the right is the water battle scene.When the two ships met, the soldiers below were paddling hard, while the bows above were fighting hand-to-hand.This is undoubtedly a true portrayal of the annexation war at that time.The fourth layer is hunting images, hunters are using spears etc. to assassinate running wild animals.In short, the emergence of the above-mentioned patterns of feasting, hunting, and land and water battles is not only a major change in the development of ancient bronze decorations, but also an important milestone in the history of Chinese art. It marks that decorations have moved from a fantasy world of gods to reality. In the human world, artistic techniques have also developed from patterns to scenes and layers, and real paintings have emerged.This is the result of the great social change from slavery to feudalism in ancient China, which prompted profound changes in people's social consciousness and aesthetic views. It opened the precedent for portraits in the Han Dynasty and occupies an important position in the history of Chinese art.