Preliminary Study On The Dragon Pattern Of Gu Shou And Kui On The Shang And Zhou Bronzes

There are many back-facing kui(?)on the Shang and Zhou bronzes,and their shapes are changeable.They appeared in the second period of Yin Ruins,and lasted through the late Shang and Western Zhou Dynasties,and continued to the late Spring and Autumn Period.They are one of the common decorative patterns on Shang and Zhou bronzes.The full text is divided into the following five parts:Introduction,defines the research object of this article,and introduces its research status quo,significance,and research method of the full text.The first chapter is the typological analysis of back-facing kui(?)motifs.According to the existence pattern and the number of heads of back-facing kui(?)motifs,they are divided into three types.Among them,Class A is one-head backing,which can be divided into four types.Class B is two-heads backing,which can be divided into three types,and Class-C is banana leaf back-facing kui(?)motifs,which can be divided into two types.The first type is Class A,that appeared in the Yin ruins period,and were popular in the middle and late Western Zhou Dynasty.They declined in the early spring and autumn and died out after the middle of the spring and autumn.The double-headed type back-facing kui(?)motifs appeared in the early Western Zhou Dynasty,Prevalent in the late Western Zhou Dynasty to early Spring and Autumn,and died out after the middle of Spring and Autumn Period;Class C back-facing kui(?)motifs mainly found in the late Shang Dynasty to the early Western Zhou Dynasty,and basically disappeared after the middle Western Zhou Dynasty.According to the characteristics of back-facing kui(?)motifs development,it can be divided into five periods and seven segments:the first stage of the initial period,which is equivalent to the late Shang Dynasty to the early Western Zhou Dynasty.back-facing kui(?)motifs has complete parts,and its decorates ground patterns,but it is comparatively small in quantity;the second phase of the transition period,which is equivalent to the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty,and back-facing kui(?)motifs has undergone a drastic change.Most of the early popular patterns were eliminated during this period,and the decoration was generally free of land patterns.The third phase was the equivalent of the late Western Zhou Dynasty to the early spring and autumn,back-facing kui(?)motifs had the largest number,and the decorative shapes also changed.The fourth period of decline,which is equivalent to the middle of the spring and autumn,the shape began to be geometric;the fifth period is the extinction period,and the age is late Spring and Autumn.At this time,back-facing kui(?)motifs is simpler,and it is almost no longer seen on the bronze table.The second chapter is the regional characteristics of back-facing kui(?)motifs.As a whole,the distribution of the dragon pattern of Shang and Zhou bronzes back-facing kui(?)motifs extends from north to Liaoning and south to Lingnan,and is concentrated in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.The first phase of back-facing kui(?)motifs is the most widely distributed,but it is the largest in Shaanxi and Henan.The second phase its mainly popular in Shaanxi and has developed in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.The third phase its development in Henan area;the fourth phase its still mainly distributed in Henan area,and other areas have been basically disappeared.Judging from the differences in the shape characteristics of back-facing kui(?)motifs in various regions,except for Anhui,Jiangsu Shandong,and Lingnan regions,others regions are consistent with Henan and Shaanxi.So there are six regiongs(Central Plain,North of the Central Plains,Yangtze River Basin,Yangtze—Huaihe river,Haidai,Lingnan).The third chapter is decorative features and artistic features of back-facing kui(?)motifs.They mainly decorated on food utensils,wine vessels,musical instruments,and water vessels,weapons,and vehicles.Because of its many decorative types,the decorative positions are also different,but the main decorative positions are the abdomen,neck,and drum;in addition to the existence of the back-facing kui(?)motifs on the surface of the Bronze wares,it is also combinate to the animal face pattern,Bird pattern,vortex pattern and others patterns.The exaggeration,omission,and symmetry of the pattern body in different periods highlight the different ideology and aesthetic ideas of the people;and its unified composition form shows the people's yearning for stable order in the Shang and Zhou dynasties.The fourth chapter analyzes the origin and connotation of back-facing kui(?)motifs.back-facing kui(?)motifs originated from animal face patterns and early dragon patterns,In the course of its development,some forms disappeared directly,some forms were reduced to simple patterns such as streaking patterns,cloud patterns,etc.and the remaining forms developed into "flat pattern" during the decline,and had been popular until the Warring States period.Although back-facing kui(?)motifs belongs to the dragon pattern,it is only a decorative pattern developed in the Western Zhou Dynasty.Therefore,its cultural connotation and symbolic meaning may be different from the dragon pattern in the general sense.It is preliminarily believed that the decoration of Back-facing kui(?)motifs on the bronze wares reflects the sacrificial ideology of the people of the times,and may imply the "Roy of Rites and Music" during the Western Zhou Dynasty.