CategoriesCultural and Religious Styles
Eastern Zhou Dynasty
Chinese art of 770–256 BC: inlaid bronzes, tuned bell sets, jade, and the painted lacquer and silk of the southern state of Chu.
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About
The Eastern Zhou began in 770 BC, after the Zhou capital moved east to Luoyang, and lasted until 256 BC. Royal power faded as rival states fought for supremacy, first in the Spring and Autumn period and then the Warring States, so art followed the courts of regional rulers rather than a single king.
Bronze remained the prestige material, but its look changed. The massive, sombre ritual vessels of earlier centuries gave way to lighter forms covered in dense interlacing dragons, made with reusable pattern blocks at foundries such as Houma, and to surfaces inlaid with gold, silver, copper and turquoise. The tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng, sealed around 433 BC, held a set of 65 bronze bells tuned to a scale. In the southern state of Chu, craftsmen made red-and-black lacquer cups, boxes and coffins, along with some of the earliest surviving Chinese paintings on silk.