State of Zhongshan

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role played by material objects, such as court luxuries, ritual objects, and mortuary objects, in the political life of the Zhongshan state. The Zhongshan artifacts had undoubtedly been an integral part of court activities as well as ancestral and mortuary rituals that are essential to the survival and operation of Zhongshan as a state. On this level of investigation, material objects can be viewed as emblems or symbols of political power. When analyzed on a finer scale, these artifacts prove to have served as social agents that mediated social and political relations and actions in at least two aspects. On the one hand, these artifacts facilitated the process of constructing cultural identities for the Zhongshan rulers that were beneficial to the state in both internal and external political relations. On the other hand, Zhongshan artifacts, along with their inscriptions, often acted as carriers or reminders of political messages that aimed at legitimizing and strengthening political power in times of transition and crisis. Both the construction and the use of artifacts and the bronze inscriptions and their political rhetoric will be analyzed in relation to power and identity in China in the third century BCE.

The sparse and contradictory historical records concerning Zhongshan make its history puzzling and mysterious. The ethnicity of the Zhongshan kings has been an issue of confusion and debate in historiography since the Han dynasty. Even today we have to admit that the early history of Zhongshan is still shrouded in mystery. Most scholars have accepted the opinion that Zhongshan was founded by the White Di and was a continuation of the Xianyu of the Spring and Autumn Period. In the Zuozhuan, records mentioning Zhongshan first appeared under the year 506 BCE, while those concerning Xianyu disappear after the year 489 BCE; between 506 BCE and 489 BCE, Xianyu and Zhongshan both appear alternatively under different years. The names Xianyu and Zhongshan seem to refer to the same political entity because of three observations. First, their engagements with states such as Jin and Qi are similar; second, the two political entities were located in roughly the same area; and third, there is no record mentioning the elimination of Xianyu by Jin or another state. It appears that both Xianyu and Zhongshan were names of the same entity; Xianyu changed its name to Zhongshan during the early fifth century, and after 489 only the name Zhongshan was used. Xianyu probably represents an earlier confederacy of Di tribes, while Zhongshan was a state with more centralized political power, more fixed territorial borders, and a political structure closer to those of the Huaxia states. After Zhongshan as the name of the new state started to take root in the collective consciousness among the Huaxia states, the old ethnonym Xianyu slowly faded out of historical memory. However, no direct evidence is available to identify the two as one and the same; we cannot completely rule out the possibility that Xianyu and Zhongshan were separate political entities and that Xianyu was annihilated by the Jin after 489 BCE.

Sites of the Shang and Western Zhou periods abound in the area east of the Taihang mountains, which later became Xianyu and Zhongshan territory. Shang sites were found in Gaocheng 藁城, Shijiazhuang 石家莊, Zhengding 正定, Wuji 無極, Lingshou, Pingshan, Quyang 曲陽, Wanxian 完縣, and Mancheng 滿城 counties, and yielded assemblages of Shang-style bronze vessels and weapons, some inscribed with prominent Shang clan names. Shang (or Yin) people must have settled in this area from the Middle Shang period. Western Zhou period sites were found in Gaocheng, Wuji, Quyang, Tangxian 唐縣, and Mancheng along the eastern foot of the Taihang mountains. Typical Western Zhou-style bronzes from these sites include ding 鼎, li 鬲, gui 簋, hu 壺, pan 盤, and yi 匜. No northern-style items of this period have been found in this region. The Xianyu that existed in this region during the Western Zhou period was probably a state established by the Shang (Yin) people who had already settled here since the middle Shang period.

However, Eastern Zhou period remains (mainly from mid-Spring and Autumn to early Warring States, i.e. sixth to fifth centuries BCE) clearly reflect a culture different from the Shang–Zhou tradition. These archaeological remains, mainly tombs, have been identified with the Xianyu, often considered a sub-group of the White Di. They were found in the same general area as the earlier finds, including Pingshan, Lingshou, Xingtang 行唐, Xinle 新樂, Tangxian, and Mancheng counties. These tombs display characteristics of both Zhou and northern traditions in mortuary practice and grave goods. Personal ornaments made of gold, including buttons, earrings and bracelets made of wire, and tiger-shaped plaques (Figure 2.1), are common artifacts found on the bodies of the deceased in these tombs. Two types of bronze often coexist in the same tomb; one type includes ritual vessels that resemble those of the Central Plain area and display sophisticated casting techniques; the other, simpler type comprises of vessels, weapons, and tools like those used by the pastoralist and agro-pastoralist cultures along the northern frontier. They suggest distinct casting techniques and places of production, as well as different means to acquire them. What does the coexistence of these culturally distinct artifacts suggest about the cultural identity of their owners? In any case, it seems that using either Zhou-style ritual bronzes or northern-style artifacts does not seem to conflict with their own cultural identity. Zhou-style bronze ritual bronzes were found in most tombs of the elite in the north. What did these ritual vessels buried in tombs of the elite mean to them?Traditionally these vessels have been used as a means to establish a relative chronology, and as a gauge for the extent to which an outsider group interacted with and assimilated into Zhou culture. A new approach, suggested by archaeologists studying cultural identity in Iron Age Europe, is to consider the imported objects an expression of the identity of their users. During the process of producing, acquring, and using these ritual vessels, the owners changed the original meaning of these objects and used them to restructure their own identity. If these ritual bronzes were imports through trade or raiding, their inclusion in elite burials might not suggest as much a cultural affiliation to the Zhou states as a strong marker of personal identity and status difference. However, if these ritual vessels were cast locally, then a Zhou cultural identity or an affiliation to that identity might be intentionally expressed by the burials. Not knowing the place of production for these artifacts, I will examine both historical and archaeological evidence to see what pictures about the material culture and identity they can help construct for this region."

The distribution of these tombs suggests that the two regions along the upper reaches of the Hutuo river in Shanxi and central Hebei had close contact with each other during the late Spring and Autumn and early Warring States Periods. However, it does not follow that these remains represent the same ethnic group. The occurrence of these unique features is not consistent in either group. One tomb might have one, two, or three of these features, but none of these unique features appeared in all tombs of either group. Therefore it is still not possible to single out “Xianyu artifacts” to serve as identifiers of the ethnicity. In other words, even tombs in the same group are not culturally homogeneous; they are grouped together according to geographic location, but their mortuary practice and style of bronze artifacts display great diversity. This situation illustrates the difficulties in matching particular material culture or archaeological remains with ethnic groups, because ethnic groups do not correlate with material cultures. The Jin had been the main enemy of the Di, including the Xianyu, as shown by the various entries in the Zuozhuan about Jin’s military campaigns in this area; the local tombs nevertheless exhibit strong borrowings from the Jin culture. We do not know by what criteria the ancient writers in China distinguished peoples to their north who were different from themselves. If the Xianyu as a distinct group did exist during the Spring and Autumn and early Warring States Periods, then consistent indicators of ethnicity cannot be found in the archaeological remains purportedly identified with them. Their burial practices and grave goods are not consistent within either group, and the shared features in those two regions could also be caused by exchange of goods and customs, instead of migration of peoples.

In addition, archaeological evidence from the Hebei tombs also suggests close cultural connections with people to the northeast, in the Yanshan 燕山 mountain and Jundushan 軍都山 mountain area along the Sanggan 桑干 river just north of Beijing. Although different opinions still exist concerning the precise dates of individual tombs, the Yanshan–Jundushan tombs and the “Xianyu tombs” were basically coeval; the former is dated to eighth–fourth centuries bce, 18 while the latter is slightly later, dated to seventh–fifth centuries bce. Gold ornaments that were often identified with the Xianyu, such as earrings made of coiled gold wire and the tiger-shaped gold plaques, were mostly found inthe Hebei group. 19 These gold bodyornaments wereprobably the result of borrowing from peoples from the northeast, represented by the remains in cemeteries in Beijing and northern Hebei. At these sites, over 800 tombs have been excavated which share similar burial customs and grave goods. 20 The material culture in this area, manifested through burial remains, ischaracterizedbystraight-edgeddaggers,decorativeplaques,andhorsegear. 21 Based on scattered mentions in ancient Chinese texts, many scholars associated these burials with the Shan Rong 山戎, or “mountain barbarians.” 22 Other opinions attribute the Yanshan–Jundushan tombs to the Bai Di, or Dai (an entity established by a branch of the Bai Di). 23 Both the “Xianyu tombs” and the Yanshan–Jundushan tombs are rectangular earthen pits, and many have a chamber lined with rocks (not the stone slab graves typically seen in north- eastern China and Siberia). Most Yanshan–Jundushan tombs yielded earrings made of coiled bronze or gold wire, while many “Xianyu tombs” also contain gold earrings. 24 The characteristic tiger-shaped plaques, made of bronze or gold, were found in many of the Yanshan–Jundushan tombs, and they were also found in some “Xianyu tombs.” 25 Straight-edged daggers were also found in both “Xianyu” and Yanshan–Jundushan tombs. Other shared grave goods include fu cauldrons and sharp-tipped knife coins in tombs of later phases. Therefore it is impossible to pinpoint ethnicity-specific artifacts among these remains, or in any other archaeological setting.

The city of Lingshou (Map 0.2) is located in Sanji 三汲 Township, Pingshan County, Hebei Province, some fifty kilometers northwest of the present-day provincial capital, Shijiazhuang 石家莊. It was discovered in 1976, and surveyed in the following three years for its layout and contents, and salvage excavations were carried out intermittently from 1980 to 1987. The relevant historical records about the city and the archaeological finds suggest that Lingshou was built around 380 BCE and served as the capital of Zhongshan until 296 BCE, when Zhongshan was annexed by Zhao. The site is situated againsttheTaihangmountainsonitsnorthern,western,andsouthernsides,and faces the open plain to the east....

Eleven burial sites were discovered outside the city walls of Lingshou, to its northeast, northwest, west, and southwest (Map 0.2). Through auger-probing, hundreds of tombs have been identified, but only a small portion of them have been excavated. The earliest tombs, dated to the middle and late Spring and Autumn Period, are located to the northwest of the city. Eight tombs of this period have been excavated so far, and only one of them remained intact before excavation (M8004). All eight tombs have an earthen pit with a wooden coffin (guan) and four of them also have a wooden burial chamber (guo 槨). Three of the tombs have a layer of stone piled around the wooden chamber, about 0.35 meter in thickness (M8004, M8006, M8515); five have a ledge along the inner walls of the grave pit (M8002, M8503, M8507, M8212, M8515), two of which include sacrificed humans on their ledges (M8002, M8515), mostly young females (Table 2.1). Two basic types of tomb structure can be detected: simple rectangular earthen pits and rectangular earthen pits filled with stones. Throughout the Eastern Zhou period, the largest tombs in the Jin system (Jin and later Zhao, Wei, and Han) have layered protective structures of stone and charcoal around the wooden burial chamber, a practice called jishi jitan 積石積碳 (accumulated stone and charcoal in tomb fill) in ancient texts such as the Lüshi Chunqiu. The piled stone walls are probably status markers since their construction entails more labor and resources; however, charcoal was not found in these early tombs at Lingshou. Two tombs with stone chambers (M8004 and M8006) are each furnished with one bronze ritual vessel, a ding in M8004 and a yan in M8006. Both vessels are placed under the piled stones at one corner of the grave pit, and both show signs of use, such as soot on the bottom.

M8004, the only undisturbed tomb of this period from Lingshou, may serve as an example of a type of burial often identified with the Xianyu by Chinese archaeologists. Its grave pit is relatively small, 2.74 by 1.3 meters, with only one coffin, and piled stone walls around the coffin. The deceased, a male around forty to forty-five years of age, is buried in a prone position. Near his head and neck were two earrings made of coiled gold wire, a bronze hairpin, and a necklace of turquoise beads and short tubes made of bird’s bones. Bronze tools were placed on his back, including an ax, a drill, and a chisel. A bronze knife, a plain bronze mirror with a handle, and two bronze bars of unknown use were found at his waist, probably carried on his belt. Around his waist and between his legs were also twenty-two round bronze buttons; they were decorations on his belt and clothes, which had already decomposed. Outside his coffin and under the stone wall were a bronze ding and a bronze ladle at the northwest corner, and a bronze ge dagger-ax and a horse bit on the south end. Above the coffin in the fill were twelve bronze arrow heads and another horse bit. Since all the items buried in the tomb are objects for practical use, it is reasonable to picture the deceased as a mounted warrior wearing gold earrings, a turquoise and bone necklace, and cloth decorated with bronze buttons, distinct from the Zhou aristocracy who rode in chariots and wore jade pendants. The bronze ding, however, was probably an object of prestige acquired from the states within the Zhou cultural sphere. The shape and decoration of this ding is identical to two ding vessels excavated from two tombs (M2415 and M1) at the Zhongzhoulu 中州路 site in Luoyang, dated respectively to the early and the middle Spring and Autumn Period. Since the Zhongzhoulu tombs were located at the Eastern Zhou royal capital, the ding in M8004 at Lingshou might have been acquired from the Zhou metropolitan area to assert the social status of its owner by referencing a symbol of social rank in Zhou culture. Meanwhile, how he dressed himself clearly marked him as distinct from the traditional Zhou social elite; if he was to be seen by a person from within the traditional Zhou cultural sphere, such as Confucius, he would not have been considered “sinicized.” But to him and his community, their unique, non- Huaxia dress and their use of Zhou ritual vessels were obviously neither contradictory nor inappropriate.

Earthen pit tombs filled with sand only include two examples, M8101 and M8102, both found underneath city walls. Both tombs are located at the Mujiazhuang site, only two meters away from each other. Both tombs yielded a set of bronze ritual vessels with ding, dou, and hu as the basic assemblage, and some bronze weapons. Neither was furnished with any pottery. The bronze artifacts from the two tombs, such as the lidded dou with a tall stem and three circular handles on the lid, the hu with rope net patterns, the serpent-pattern dagger similar to the one from M8221, and the tiger-shaped plaques in gold foil, are characteristic finds from this area and are often considered typical Xianyu artifacts. In contrast, tombs of this period without stone or sand fill (category 1) generally contain pottery utensils, and the most common assemblage of pottery vessels are li, dou, guan, and pen. Bronze vessels are very rare among tombs in this category; among both looted and intact tombs, only one yielded bronze vessels, a ding and a dou.

At the capital, Lingshou, two locations were used as burial sites for three generations of Zhongshan rulers (Map 0.2). The earlier location is in the northern part of the west city, protected by city walls on all four sides. This cemetery, taking up about one-eighth of the whole city of Lingshou, contains the tombs of two Zhongshan rulers and their auxiliary tombs. The group of tombs in the north, still unexcavated, includes the tomb of a Zhongshan ruler (M7), three outlying horse-and-chariot pits to its south, six auxiliary tombs to its northwest, the tomb of his primary consort to its east (M8), and an auxiliary tomb to M8. The group of tombs in the south is centered on M6, identified as the tomb of King Cheng of Zhongshan, which has two outlying horse-and-chariot pits and three auxiliary tombs. Three tombs (M3, M4, and M5), identified as those of Zhongshan royal family members, are lined up to its west; each of the three tombs has a horse-and-chariot pit and two of them (M3 and M4) have an auxiliary tomb each. All tombs in the southern group have been excavated, but the main tombs had all been severely looted.

The second location is around 1,500 meters to the west of the city, at the southern foot of a low hill, and has two huge tomb mounds. One of them and its auxiliary tombs and sacrificial pits were excavated in the 1970s and it has proven to be the resting place of a Zhongshan king named Cuo based on epigraphic evidence from the tomb. The equally imposing tomb mound to its east, resting on the same manmade terrace on which Cuo’s tomb was built, is identified with his main consort, Ai Hou 哀后, and is still awaiting excavation. The tombs of King Cuo and Ai Hou, therefore, were separated from the royal cemetery inside the capital city. Cuo’s tomb signaled the transition from the “centralized state cemetery” (jizhong gongmu 集中公墓) system to the “independent funerary park” (duli lingyuan 獨立陵園) system that took place during the mid-Warring States Period, when rulers in the regional states started to build monumental funerary structures consisting of enclosing walls, huge tomb mounds built on high terrace foundations, and above-tomb architecture. Such funerary parks have also been found in Handan, Hebei Province, and Xinzheng, Henan Province, belonging to Zhao and Han kings respectively. Paired tombs of the ruler and his main consort arranged side by side are the norm at the cemetery of the Jin rulers at Beizhao 北趙 Village, Quwo 曲沃 County, Shanxi Province (Western Zhou period) and the tombs of the kings of the Wei State at Guweicun, Huixian County, Henan Province (late Warring States Period). In Zhongshan, however, King Cuo was the only one among the Zhongshan rulers buried at Lingshou whose tomb was accompanied by an equally monumental tomb of his consort.

In addition to the two chariot-and-horse pits, a third burial pit was added to their west. This pit, named the “mixed sacrificial pit” (zaxunkeng 雜殉坑) by the excavators, is a feature unique to the tomb of Cuo. Judging from the surviving remains, it should have contained two chariots, six horses, ten goats, and two dogs, along with tents, weapons, and signal bells. The two chariots in this burial pit were probably used for hunting, and this point was supported by the remains of dogs and tents found beside the chariots. Some historical texts (such as Han shi wai zhuan 韓詩外傳 ) inform us that Zhongshan had good dogs that were desired by the Wei ruler Marquis Wen (Wei Wen Hou 魏文侯). Two dogs wearing torques made of alternating gold and silver tubes (Figure 3.1) were buried beside the chariots in this pit. The chariots, dogs, and tents in this pit were probably used by the king for hunting. Burying dogs in or beside the tomb chamber was ac ommon mortuary practice for the elite during the Shang and Western Zhou periods, which started to disappear after the Western Zhou. While earlier dog burials might have some ritual significance, the two dogs buried for King Cuo were probably meant for his afterlife hunting expeditions.

The main burial chamber usually contained a wooden chamber room and outer and inner coffins. Since Cuo’s main burial chamber was looted and burnt and most of its contents were gone, some important information concerning his burial ritual is missing. The remaining grave goods found in the burial chamber include hundreds of bronze attachments for burial furniture (such as 112 decorative ring-handles, or pushou 鋪首 (Figure 3.2), for wooden chambers and coffins), traces of decomposed lacquer vessels, bronze weapons including a ge and a sword, private utensils such as a mirror and a silver belt hook (Figure 3.3), silver and gold buttons and tube-shaped ornaments, gilt bronze buttons, silver cowry shells, numerous jade plaques (furniture decoration and body plugs, and probably parts of a jade garment), and jade pendants. The most unusual find in the main chamber is probably the bronze panel with an architectural plan of Cuo’s tomb rendered in gold and silver inlay, which will be discussed in Chapter Six.

Artistic motifs are another difference between the animal representations from King Cuo’s tomb and those of other states. Scenes of predators and their prey were not common in the Central Plain area. In contrast, they were favored artistic motifs among the peoples in the northern zone of China. These representations of animals were probably related more closely to the artistic tradition on the northern frontier of China than to the traditional Zhou ritual artifacts. During the Warring States Period, tigers and their prey appeared often on belt plaques excavated from an area arching from Eastern Gansu and Southern Ningxia, through the Ordos region and south central Inner Mongolia, to northern Hebei, where various forms of mobile pastoralism emerged during the period between the ninth and third centuries BCE. Surrounded by this area, the Zhongshan state existed for around 100 years from around 414 to 296 BCE. Many sites yielding open-work representations of tigers and victims were dated earlier than or contemporary with the Zhongshan state; a plaque (Figure3.20) from Chenyangchuan, Xiji County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, is among the closest parallels to the tiger screen stand of King Cuo. The wavy stripe patterns on the body of the Ningxia tigers could be the prototype of the more formalized gold inlay stripe patterns on the Zhongshan tiger. A silver plaque with a tiger eating a deer from Shihuigou (Figure 3.21) might also be related to the tiger stand of King Cuo. Its coiled tail and pronounced claws, and the spiral pattern representing the muscles on its thighs, are all similar to those of Cuo’s tiger stand. It is often suggested that motifs like the tiger devouring a deer and the winged felines indicated the non-Huaxia heritage of the Zhongshan kings. However, artistic motifs are not ethnically specific and are often borrowed, and they do not necessarily reflect the ethnic identity of their owners, which could be multiple, subjective, and negotiable. Therefore possession of a non-Huaxia item or iconography does not naturally lead to membership in a non-Huaxia group, given that the textual evidence for their non-Huaxia origin is tenuous. However, it does tell us that King Cuo embraced this northern motif and displayed it with its widely known cultural connection with non-Huaxia societies.

The Zhongshan tiger differs from the tigers on the belt plaques from Inner Mongolia and Ningxia, because it is cast in the round and served a different function, and because its representation is more realistic and animated. It also differs from the earlier tiger-shaped gold plaques from the Zhongshan area discussed in the previous chapter (Figure 2.1), and cannot be considered a continuation of a local artistic motif. It seems, therefore, that the inspiration for the naturalistic, three-dimensional representations of wild animals in King Cuo’s tomb did not come directly from either the Central Plain or the north, and the distinctiveness of those bronzes resulted from a hybrid form of various traditions from more than one region, such as the predator-and-prey motif of the northern zone, and the bronze casting and decorative techniques of the Central Plain. The result is a distinctive and innovative artifact that emanates an air of sophistication, wealth, and power. While the creativity of the Zhongshan artisans and patrons must have played an important role in their production, the significance of those artifacts needs to be understood in relation to their role in visualizing the power of their patron and user, King Cuo, who framed his persona with these powerful symbols. Gold and silver inlay on bronzes was used in the Central Plain area as early as the mid-Spring and Autumn Period. This decorative technique flourished during the Warring States Period and was used on bronzes of many kinds. A chariot fitting from Guweicun, Huixian, Henan Province, dated to the fourth century BCE (Figure 3.22), was shaped like an animal head and was decorated with gold and silver inlay in various patterns. Fine parallel lines of gold represent the eyebrows of this animal, and the same decorative vocabulary was also used on the eyebrows for the bronze animals from King Cuo’s tomb. The gold and silver inlays decorating the bodies of the bronze animals from King Cuo’s tomb are made up of geometric patterns, such as spirals. They resemble the designs of gold and silver inlay on some bronze vessels, such as a dou excavated from Fenshuiling, Changzhi County, Shanxi Province, and a bian hu in the Freer Gallery of Art dated to the early Warring States Period.

The adaptation of the raptor-head motif during the late Warring States Period can also be seen on artifacts from tombs of other traditional Zhou states, such as Yan. A gold scabbard end decorated with two rows of raptor-head motifs was found in tomb M30 of the Xinzhuangtou 辛莊頭 cemetery, at the lower capital of Yan in Yixian, Hebei Province (Figure 3.32). These raptor heads were finished by chasing, and their necks, ears, eyes, and beaks were clearly represented. Together they represent a deer antler whose tines turn into raptor heads, a motif with predecessors in the Ordos region, Central Asia, and the Eurasian steppe. This object decorated a wooden scabbard for an iron sword with a gold handle. The pommel and handguards of the handle were shaped as paired goats/ibexes, and seven eagle-shaped images of gold foil decorate the two sides of the scabbard.

Raptor-head appendages appeared on bronze belt plaques and other body ornaments in the latter half of the fourth century BCE among the northwest neighbors of China, and mythical animals involving raptor-head body parts are associated with nomadic tribes located further west. Archaeological sites where artifacts with raptor-head attributes were found cluster mainly on the northern and western edges of China’s cultural frontier, in the eastern part of the Hexi corridor, the Ordos region and its neighboring regions to the east (northern Shaanxi and south central Inner Mongolia). For instance, raptor-head appendages appeared on bronze belt plaques and on pommels of bronze daggers as early as the fifth century BCE at the Maoqinggou cemetery in north central Inner Mongolia (Figure 3.33). Images of raptors abound on artifacts buried in tombs in the Ordos region; the gold foil eagles on the Xinzhuangtou wooden scabbard are almost a copy of the eagle on the golden crown from a tomb at Aluchaideng 阿魯柴登 in the Ordos region (Figure 3.34). A fourth- century BCE golden headdress found in Nalin’gaotu 納林高兔 in northern Shaanxi Province, also in the Ordos region, features a hoofed animal with a raptor’s beak and antlers whose tines terminate in raptor heads. Both headdresses and their raptor-related imagery were indicators of high status, and they were probably made by the Huaxia states for the new pastoral peoples living in northwest China and the Ordos. A newly discovered tomb of a bronze caster near Xi’an contains ceramic models for casting both Zhou-style artifacts and “steppe-style” belt plaques typical of the Ordos region, and this finding further attests to the fact that northern-style objects were also made in workshops of the Zhou regional states, and northern motifs were adopted as well.

During the fifth and fourth centuries BCE, winged felines appeared as a new motif in a vast area on the steppe from Central Asia to the northern and western border of China. They were found on a variety of gold, silver, and bronze ornaments that were buried with their owners. In Xinjiang and the Semirechiye region of Kazakhstan, for example, winged felines were found standing on bronze altars. They resemble animals such as lions and leopards, and usually have short wings behind their necks, reminiscent of the extension of a lion’s mane. The coexistence of other fantastic animals, such as hoofed animals with raptor heads, further indicates the supernatural character of those felines. In Xinjiang, winged tigers appear on gold decorative buttons from the fourth- and third-century tombs at Alagou 阿拉溝, east of the Tianshan 天山 Mountains (Figure 3.35). These winged-feline ornaments are mostly small and flat items attached to other materials, such as cloth.

Four winged felines made of bronze and cast in the round were found in the tomb of King Cuo (Figure 3.14). Geometric patterns and two stylized fantastic birds formed by silver inlay adorn their smooth bodies. Unlike winged felines from the steppe, the bodies of these beasts are so imaginative that it is impossible to identify them with any real animal. Their wings are much longer and extend toward the end of their body. Their flowing contour and ascending elegance are reminiscent of the animal representations of the Chu regions, such as the fantastic animals supporting a set of stone chimes in the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng. These winged animals reflect the cultural contact Zhongshan had maintained with regions to the north and south and its success in combining cultural features from different regions and making them its own.

The method of decor also changed dramatically in the fourteenth year. All bronzes inscribed with a date earlier than the fourteenth year have smooth, undecorated surfaces except for two pushou (animal-face fittings used for ring handles) on some water and wine containers. The bases of some of these bronze objects have an intricate openwork design, such as the interlacing dragons on the bases of the basin and lamp, made in the eighth and tenth year respectively; the openwork bases and the pushou were often decorated with delicate relief patterns. Several new decorative technologies were first adopted by the Zhongshan workshops in the fourteenth year and changed the overall look of Zhongshan products. Gold and silver inlay was first used in this year; no artifact inscribed with a date earlier than the fourteenth year has gold and silver inlay. Inlay suddenly became the dominant decorative method for bronze artifacts, and the surface decoration of these bronzes abandoned the monochromatic appearance and textured relief patterns seen on earlier examples, and began to emphasize contrasting colors created by inlaid materials on a smooth surface. For instance, on the base of the lamp, relief and intaglio lines depict skin or hair texture on the surface of the beasts, dragons, and human figures; while on the tiger screen stand, patterns of gold and silver inlay were used to represent the colored fur patterns of the tiger and deer.

Gold and silver surface decorations marked a departure from the earlier decorative vocabulary for bronzes in Zhongshan, and this new decorative technique required a change of the working process in bronze workshops. The use of gold and silver inlay altered the production process and the way the molds are prepared, because grooves had to be created on the surface of a bronze artifact when it was cast so that gold and silver strips could be filled in afterwards. The new production process required the artisans to be trained in this new technique, and new artisans with the knowledge and skills needed had to be brought into Zhongshan workshops. In addition, the gold “inlay” on some of the Zhongshan bronzes, especially wide bands of gold decoration, was probably gilded directly onto the bronzes, because prepared grooves for inlay were not found underneath the damaged gold decoration. Instead of using gold wire or strip to fill the prepared grooves, artisans must have used a gold paste (gold dust mixed with mercury), as in the gilding process. After the mercury-gold amalgam was applied evenly on the surface of bronzes, it was probably heated while being pressed against the bronze with a steel or agate tool; the mercury evaporated and the gold stayed on the surface. This reconsideration was confirmed by an examination of one of the two mythical animal sculptures (Figure 3.13). The sculpture was damaged and part of its gold inlay had peeled off, revealing a silvery surface underneath. The silvery color is probably the remains of mercury resulting from this process. Mercury-amalgam gilding is a sophisticated new technique developed in China during the Warring States Period, and many bronze objects were partially gilded in certain areas to accent details for aesthetic purposes.

The reason for the sudden adoption of these new decorative methods is an issue worth more discussion. The absence of gold inlay before the fourteenth year cannot be explained by lack of gold, because gold foil was already used in the thirteenth year to wrap bronze buttons, a traditional decorative technique called baojin 包金 (see Figure 4.4b). Gold foil was probably in use in Zhongshan workshops earlier than the thirteenth year, although this year is the earliest in which artifacts with gold decoration are dated by inscription. When they appear, bronzes with gold and silver inlay were made by different artisans and workshops, and only one of these artisans appeared on inscriptions earlier than the fourteenth year. But how were King Cuo’s official workshops able to produce all of these objects of revolutionary new styles in one year? It is therefore likely that the new techniques were due to immigrant metalworkers, and this proposition can be further validated by a historical event recorded in the Zhongshan bronze inscriptions.