商代玉雕分期研究－中國古玉斷代研究之二

A Study of Jade Carving of the Shang Dynasty by Stages

楊建芳(Yeung Kin Fong)

《中國文化研究所學報》 16卷 (1985/01) Pp. 179-199

https://doi.org/10.29708/JCS.CUHK.198501_16.0011

並列摘要

According to archaeological findings and researches, the six hundred years of Shang culture can be divided into early and late stages, namely as the Erh-li-kang Stage 二里岡期 and the Hsiao-t'un Stage 小屯期. The time P'an-kêngl 盤庚 moved his capital to Yin 殷 marked the division of the two stages. The latter stage can be further divided into the stages of Early Yin-hsü 殷墟前期 (from P'an-keng to Tsu-chia 祖甲) and Late Yin-hsü 殷墟後期 (from Emperor Lin 帝廩 to Emperor Hsin 帝辛). Broadly speaking, the stages correspond to different phases of development of jade carving. The characteristics of jade carving in each phase are as follows: 1. Jade articles in the Early Shang (Erh-li-kang Stage) were only found in Cheng-chou of He-nan 河南鄭州, Tai-hsi ts'un in Kao-ch'eng hsien of He-pei 河北藳城縣台西村 and P'an-lung-ch'eng in the Huang-p'i hsien of Hu-pei 湖北黃陂縣盤龍城 etc. Excavated articles are few in both quantity and type. They include ch'an 鏟, huang 璜, ke 戈, ya-chang 牙璋, hsüan-chi 璇璣, hua-hsing-shih 花形飾, etc. Articles are incised in single lines and carry a pattern of a series of circles. The latter bears a strong resemblance to that on the bronze vessels in the same period. Animal eyes engraved in the articles look like the character mu 目 (eye) inscribed on the oracle bones. 2. Jade articles in Early Yin-hsü are most numerous. The so called Shang jade in the past normally refer to products of this stage. Besides the site in An-yang 安陽 of He-nan, articles were also unearthed in He-pei, Shan-tung 山東, Kan-su 甘肅, etc. Jade handicrafts (over 700 in number) yielded from the tomb of Lady Hao 婦好墓 are the most representative. The species of articles at this stage are numerous, including agricultural tools, weapons (ritual), articles for daily use, ritual vessels, ornaments, knickknacks and sundries. The three-dimensional animal-shaped articles assume rectangular or cylindrical forms. As for the thin slices of animal figures, they appear in the form of circular arcs (four-tenth of half the length of the circumference), rectangles or squares. Few thick slices of animal figures resemble circular carving. These animal-shaped jade articles possess stylistic patterns. The daggers are of fine craftmanship, with prominent ridges at the middle of the blades. Jade birds are portrayed in standing posture. Flanges were popular then. Most animal figures bear bottle-shaped horns. As for the carving, there are patterns of animal face, standing animal, big spiral, lozenge, irregular clouds, villus, joints, scale, eye which looks like the character mu written on the oracle bones, human figure, dragon, snake, cicada, petal, concentric circles and parallel winding lines, etc. The linework looks plain and tough. Most of it is crude, incised double lines. The sculptures look like low relief at a sudden glance. 3. Jade articles in Late Yin-hsü were relatively few in number. They were mainly excavated from Yin-hsü of An-yang. Animal-shaped articles in slices sometimes aired a realistic style. Jade birds are modeled in reclining or flying poses. Incisions on the fins of jade fishes are more delicate. A special kind of engraving emerged: articles engraved in accordance with the streaks and colours of jade. Jade daggers either have curved yüan 援 (blade) and crooked nei 內 (tang, which takes the shape of bird-head) or are very short. The motif is finer, single-line incisions.