Notes on Karlgren's “New Studies on Chinese Bronzes”

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

In the first part of his “New Studies on Chinese Bronzes,”1 Dr. Bernhard Karlgren presents an evolution of early Chinese ritual bronzes which requires reconsideration. Karlgren's theory, in brief, is that motives of the early Shang style were composed in part of zoomorphic forms which are recognizable as functioning organisms. He contends that toward the end of the Shang dynasty a more abstract style of zoomorphic motive began to supplant the organic type and during the early Chou period the abstract motive dominated the style of the ritual bronzes.