Chapter 4 Section 3 Place Names Cast on Bronze Vessels

With the development of social life, the history of Chinese civilization entered the "Bronze Age" from the Shang and Zhou dynasties.Inscriptions on oracle bones in the Bronze Age decreased day by day, and characters inscribed on bronze vessels appeared.Due to the large size of bronze wares, hundreds of characters can be inscribed on them (for example, there are as many as 497 inscriptions on the famous Maogong Ding).The bronze wares of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties were divided into two categories: ritual vessels and musical instruments.Among them, tripods are the most ritual vessels, and bells are the most musical instruments, so "Zhong Ding" became the synonym for pre-Qin bronze wares.The characters on the bronzes are also called "Zhong Ding Wen", also known as "Jin Wen".These inscriptions are arranged horizontally and vertically, which are quite neat and eye-catching.Of course, the place names in these inscriptions also increased accordingly.