The Cultural Connotations of Rare Shang and Chou Bronze Types: The Significance of “Marginal” Cultural Research

The present paper focuses on “marginal” bronze types that differ from the mainstream typologies of the Central Plains (also known as the Huaxia region) during the Shang and Zhou periods. Among the common typologies of bronze vessels, the tripod vessel and two-eared jar types recovered from the Shanxi cemetery of the Western Zhou Marquis of Jin are strikingly unusual; as for weapons, the curved, short-handled sword with high median ridge of the Xiajiadian culture in the Northeast is distinct from the spears and flat-handled, straight-bladed, pommel sword type common throughout the Central Plains. These bronze types were peripheral to the mainstream of the Yellow and Yangtze River valleys, ephemera on the stage of the dominant material culture - both temporally and spatially limited. They confronted and distinguished themselves from the culture of the Central Plains, and even participated in a certain degree of exchange, thereby playing a significant role in the diversity of the Yellow and Yangtze River civilizations of the Bronze Age.