Mao Dinggong is now in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, and it is a classic of Jin Wen. Daoguang was unearthed in Qishan, Shaanxi Province in the late Qing Dynasty. It is 53.8 cm high and 47.9 cm in diameter. Round, two ears, deep belly and bulging outside, three hooves and three feet, dignified and steady shape. The neck is decorated with heavy ring patterns and chord patterns, and the simple Zhuang Mao Ding Gong is rigorous. There are 32 lines of 499-word inscriptions on the abdomen. Mao Dinggong, named after the author Mao Gong, is a long one among the existing bronze inscriptions.
The full text first traces the great achievements of Wu Wen, the monarch of the Zhou Dynasty, lamenting the current turmoil, and then describes that Xuanwang appointed Taigong to manage internal and external affairs and had the right to announce the king's life. King Xuan repeatedly taught Taizu to be diligent and love the people, cultivate one's morality and cultivate one's character, and gave him some utensils to show his encouragement. Mao Gong was cast on a tripod to commemorate and spread to future generations.
This is a typical inscription of the Western Zhou Dynasty, but it is not limited to the traditional style of the inscription. It is divided into five paragraphs, each of which is from Wang Ruoyue, apparently written by historians at that time (Zhou Chengwang time,1165438bc+05-1079). The whole inscription is exquisite and complete, ancient and mysterious, and it is a famous prose in the Western Zhou Dynasty, such as the first paragraph of the article:
Wang Ruo said: "My father is sincere, and I am proud of my civil and military skills. God is tired of my virtue. I should have a week. I have a big order now. I will die if I am impolite. Only heaven will take your life, and only the first one is just and just. This is a great life, the emperor will die, and I will be protected for a week. The first king of Pi Gong will be appointed, and he is afraid of heaven and disease. Traces are everywhere, big and quiet. Oh! I am afraid to be a boy and always be a king. "
Its calligraphy is a mature bronze inscription style of the Western Zhou Dynasty, with symmetrical and accurate structure and rectangular knot, which is slightly more complete than Sanskrit plate. The lines are vigorous and steady, the layout is proper and full of rational colors, which shows that the bronze inscriptions have developed to an extremely mature position. When Li Ruiqing wrote Ding, he said, "Mao is the handwriting of Zhou Temple, and its writing is also a history. Reading does not learn from Mao Dinggong, and even Confucian scholars do not read history. "
Ducktin (with explanation)
Dakeding was an artificial product in the period of Wang Xiao in the Western Zhou Dynasty. 1890 unearthed in Fufeng County, Shaanxi Province, as well as Ding and Zhong, all belong to a nobleman named Ke. This tripod is huge, with a height of 93. 1 cm and a weight of 20 1.5 kg. The mouth edge is decorated with animal face lines, and the abdomen is decorated with smooth wave lines. There are 290 inscriptions on the inner wall of the abdomen, with neat fonts and round strokes, which is a model of bronze inscriptions in the middle and late Western Zhou Dynasty. Exquisite in layout writing and lettering effect, uniform font size without losing agility, mellow and Gu Zhuo without losing strength, showing a sense of fashion.
The content of the inscription "Da Dingke" in Qing Dynasty is mainly about the achievements of ancestors, which was awarded by the king of Zhou with a large amount of land and slaves. It is an important historical material for studying the economic system of the Western Zhou Dynasty.
Fishing Ding (with explanation)
The cauldron is 10 1.9 cm in height and 77.8 cm in diameter. Round, upright ears, deep belly, three feet, neck and upper feet decorated with animal facial patterns. Sacrificial vessels made for aristocratic jars in Kang Wang period. According to legend, Daoguang was unearthed in Lishan Village, Qishan, Shaanxi Province in the early Qing Dynasty.
Dayu Ding has a vigorous shape and exquisite craftsmanship. The inscription 19 with the words "29 1" is cast on its inner wall, which describes Kang Wang's life urn to manage soldiers, giving them fragrant wine, life clothes, chariots and horses and slaves 1700 people, which is an important historical material for studying slavery in the Western Zhou Dynasty. When the original was unearthed, it was owned by Song Jinjian, a strong man in Qishan. Later, due to the decline of family wealth, this tripod was transferred to Xi 'an for 720 silver by later generations. Later, it was owned by Zuo. A few years later, Zuo thanked Pan Zuyin for his great kindness and gave it as a gift. Since then, the cauldron has become a treasure handed down from generation to generation by the Pan Shi family, and it is enshrined in Suzhou Pan Shi Family Hall. 1952 was presented to the country by Pan Shi's descendants and is now in the Chinese History Museum.
The inscription contains Kang Wang's account of Zhou Wenwang and Zhou Wuwang's founding experience. It is believed that the outstanding achievements of Wen Wang and Wen Wang mainly lie in their subjects never drinking too much, and they are serious and respectful when offering sacrifices, while the lesson of Shang Wang's national subjugation lies in binge drinking. Therefore, I told myself to follow the example of my ancestors, faithfully assist the royal family, and give life clothes, horses and chariots, wine coupons, people and so on. In the inscription, the jar shows that it was also made as a sacrifice to his grandfather Nangong. The inscription of Dayu Ding is an important historical material for historians to study the feudal system of Zhou Dynasty and the relationship between Zhou Wang and vassal states, which has always been valued by historians.
Da Dingyu, also called Yu Ding, is called "Da" to distinguish it from Xiao Dingyu. These two pots were produced at the same time, but the original small pot has been lost, leaving only the rubbings of inscriptions. His calligraphy style is rigorous, the shape and layout are simple, and Fiona Fang has both skills of using a pen, which has a rigorous and dignified artistic effect. It is a masterpiece of bronze calligraphy in the early Western Zhou Dynasty.
Zhong Dingwen: "Zhong Dingwen" refers to the inscription on the bronze wares of Yin and Zhou Dynasties, also called "Zhong". Shang and Zhou Dynasties were the bronze age, with the tripod as the representative ritual vessel and the bell as the representative musical instrument. "Zhong Ding" was synonymous with bronze ware. Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin. China entered the Bronze Age in Xia Dynasty, and the technology of copper smelting and bronze ware manufacturing was very developed. Because copper was also called gold a week ago, the inscriptions on bronzes were called "bronze inscriptions" or "auspicious words"; This bronze ware was called "Zhong Dingwen" in the past because it had the largest number of characters on Zhong Ding. The application time of bronze inscriptions is about 1200 years, from the early Shang Dynasty to the Qin Dynasty's destruction of the Six Kingdoms. According to Rong Geng's Jin Wen Bian, there are 3,722 inscriptions, of which 2,420 can be identified.
The earliest Oracle Bone Inscriptions disappeared with the death of Yin, and bronze inscriptions took its place and became the mainstream of calligraphy in the Zhou Dynasty. Because it is engraved on the Zhong Ding, it is sometimes called Zhong Dingwen. According to the investigation, the bronze wares of Shang Dynasty were engraved with inscriptions similar to pictures, and then continued to evolve. The inscriptions at the end of Shang Dynasty were also consistent with those of Oracle Bone Inscriptions. This bronze inscription reached its peak in the Zhou Dynasty and lasted until the Qin and Han Dynasties. However, there were few artifacts and inscriptions in the Shang Dynasty, and the Qin and Han Dynasties reached the end, which should be regarded as the mainstream of the Zhou Dynasty.
According to statistics, there are about 3,005 words on inscriptions on bronze, of which 1804 are known, slightly more than Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Bronze inscriptions inherited from Oracle Bone Inscriptions, and began with Xiao Zhuan in Qin Dynasty. Most of the books circulated are engraved on Zhong Ding, so they can preserve the original text better than Oracle Bone Inscriptions, and the style is simple.
The heyday of bronze inscriptions was the Zhou Dynasty, which moved eastward and was divided into the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. The Western Zhou Dynasty tended to be complete and vigorous, resulting in the golden age of bronze inscriptions. The regional characteristics of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty were formed by the separatist regimes of various countries-so they are introduced separately.
Western Zhou dynasty:
The Western Zhou Dynasty inherited the calligraphy style of the late Yin Dynasty, and it was not until it became a queen that it produced a unique style, and the calligraphy style was magnificent. After Zhao Mu, he became rigorous and correct.
The development of academic culture will be influenced by social and political factors to some extent. In the early Western Zhou Dynasty, from Yin Ke, the king of Wu, to Kang Wang, due to the unification of the world, social stability and the rites and music of the Duke of Zhou, it was a peaceful and prosperous time, and calligraphers were able to show their vigorous and elegant style, and their contents were gradually lengthened. For example, The Great Yu Ding is the most typical representative work of this period.
After Zhao Mu, the style of calligraphy changed gradually, and the strokes became unified from coarse to fine. The pen-receiving and pen-starting also changed from Fiona Fang to round pen; The lines are even and square, and the book style is extremely rigorous and correct. The representatives of this period are the elegant ode tripod, the elegant big tripod and the Mao Gong tripod with a little early style.
Eastern Zhou Dynasty: After moving eastward, Qin moved the capital to Yong and inherited the hometown and culture of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Because of this, the characters of Qin in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period are in the same strain as those of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Because of this, when the characters in eastern countries have horizontal variation due to regional characteristics and cultural reasons, the culturally backward Qin characters have become the orthodoxy of Chinese characters (even if we don't consider the fact that China was finally unified by Qin, we can think that in the history of Chinese characters development, Qin characters represent the mainstream of Chinese characters development, while the six-country characters represent the tributaries. Therefore, the characters in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period can be divided into two categories: Qin characters and Six Kingdoms characters. (The Qin script is from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period, and the Six-country script refers to the eastern countries in the Warring States Period. ) General philologists are also called "western languages" and "eastern languages".
After the Qin dynasty unified the six countries, it began to standardize the writing, which is the so-called "same language writing". The standardized characters in the Qin Dynasty were based on the Qin language, and the evolution of Chinese characters after the Qin Dynasty was also developed on the basis of the standardized Qin Xiaozhuan and Qin Zhuan's daily writing form. After the Qin Dynasty, the six-nation script was eliminated, and Qin Wen became the real mainstream. Therefore, Qin Shu is an important link in inheriting the ancient prose of the Western Zhou Dynasty, creating official script of the Han and Wei Dynasties, and even regular script. Its change can be regarded as a part of the evolution of Chinese characters according to their own internal structural laws. Therefore, as far as philology is concerned, the study of western languages in the Qin Dynasty is more important than that in the six countries, because they are direct blood relatives of Chinese characters, while the six countries are collateral branches, although they also influence and absorb each other.
The bronze inscriptions in the Qin dynasty gradually came to an end, and there were not many stone carvings. After Qin Shihuang unified the whole country, testimonies, scales and stones were carved or cast on copper and iron and promulgated in the world. It is a masterpiece of Biography, which is characterized by smooth curves, strong sense of hierarchy, neatness and changeability, and unrestrained momentum. It also provides the most reliable and complete information for future generations to learn Biography.