殷周青铜容器上鸟纹的断代研究

RESEARCH ON THE DATING OF THE BIRD DESIGNS ON BRONZE VESSELS OF THE YIN AND ZHOU DYNASTIES

对于殷周青铜容器上装饰纹样的分析与研究,在学者中大致有两种不同的倾向。一种是探讨花纹本身的含义,例如从宗教、神话的角度,论述某种花纹所反映的当时人们的意识形态。另一种则主要讨论花纹的型式以及它在铜器断代上的作用。所谓花纹在铜器断代上的作用是指:确立花纹本身的发展序列;揭示花纹的发展序列和铜器的发展、衍变的关系;进行论证花纹的发展序列在推断铜器年代上的作用。本文即以殷周青铜容器上的鸟纹为例,试作分析和排比,用以阐明装饰花纹在铜器断代上的意义和作用。

The bird design is one of the principal decorations on the Yin and Zhou bronze vessels.Theobject of the research is to determine the order of development of the design itself and its relationswith the development and evolution of the bronzes bearing them so that the dates of the bronzescan also be determined.For the study we selected 233 pieces of bronze vessels with bird designs and had these designsclassified and compared.We found they could be divided into three classes,that is,(1)small-birddesgins,(2)large-bird designs and(3)long-tailed-bird designs.And each of these three classesmay be subdivided into a number of groups.Of the bird design,the small-bird one appearedthe earliest and were found on the bronzes from the tomb of Lady Hao.They were generally usedas accessory decorations on bronzes and Type Ⅰ-6 and Type Ⅰ-7 of them were most widely used.They made their first appearance in late Yin Dynasty and were in vogue in early Western ZhouDynasty.The large-bird design first appeared in late Yin Dynasty and early Western Zhou Dynasty,and they might have been evolved and developed from the small-bird desgins.Type Ⅱ-6 andType Ⅱ-7 of such designs represent their most flourishing period which probably dated first half ofthe Western Zhou Dynasty.The long-tailed-bird design may be divided into two kinds by the different forms of theirtails.One of the two tails is S-shaped,similar to that of the kui-dragon,which shows that thetwo must have been closely related.The tail of another appears in the form of'C',which laterevolved into the meander design.The first type was first seen on bronzes of the late Yin Dynastyand early Western Zhou Dynasty,and the second,on bronzes of the early Western Zhou Dynasty.The final stages of both kinds coincided with the late Western Zhou Dynasty.On the basis of our reseach,we have drawn an atlas of bird designs on bronzes,and forreference,we have also a list of the bronzes selected for our study.