Production and circulation of bronzes among the regional states in the Western Zhou Dynasty

Abstract The production and circulation of bronzes among the regional states of the Western Zhou Dynasty are an important way of understanding the political and ritual systems of the dynasty. This paper studies the production and circulation of bronzes from three points of view: the cultural background, techniques, and raw materials of bronzes. First, the authors classified the bronzes excavated from the Zhouyuan Site, Yejiashan Cemetery, the Cemetery of the Lords of Jin, and Yu State Cemetery based on shapes and techniques. On this basis, a trace element analysis and lead isotope analysis were conducted to investigate the quality of the raw materials. The three aspects used for classification—cultural background, technologies and raw materials—complement each other during the discussion of the issues of interest. The authors conclude that high-quality bronzes from Ji-surnamed regional states represented by those excavated from Yejiashan Cemetery and the Cemetery of the Lords of Jin show consistency with Zhouyuan bronzes in the royal court in terms of raw materials, shapes, and techniques, therefore indicating their origin from unified workshops. However, low-quality bronzes produced in these places, and also bronzes from non-Ji-surnamed regional states, represented by those excavated in Yu State and Peng State, possess unique shape and technique characteristics, and included different copper materials and partly the same lead materials, reflecting the degree of independence that regional states enjoyed in terms of bronze production. The imperial court uniformly made high-quality bronzes, and distributed them to all regional states, while the regional states independently produced some low-quality bronzes; this system probably came into being during the early Western Zhou Dynasty. However, from the middle period of the Western Zhou Dynasty, some regional states increased their independence in the production of bronzes, and the distribution system of the imperial court began to collapse gradually.