Ye lun Da Ke ding mingwen de zhizuo fangfa: jian yi Xi-Zhou zhong-wan qi nitiaofa de pubian chengdu 也論大克鼎銘文的製作方法—— 兼議西周中晚期泥條法的普遍程度
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On the Production Technique of the Larger Ke ding Inscription:with a Discussion of the Extent of the Use of Tube-Lining during the Middle and Late Western Zhou
The last two decades have seen increasing attention to the question of how the Western Zhou bronze inscriptions were produced. The traditional “master-pattern” interpretation has been challenged by the so-called “modelling” technique, which argues that individual characters were modelled from thin lines of clay directly on the inscription block, possibly by the tube lining method. This paper uses the case of the special features of the famous Larger Ke ding inscription to compare the feasibility of the two abovementioned interpretations and argues that the inscription was beyond doubt produced by the “modelling” technique. In the next step, the article identifies several casting flaws that can serve as indicators of the “modelling” technique, such as the “ghost characters”, “intaglio characters with partially relievo strokes”, “displaced strokes” or “missing strokes”. Given the facts that 1) the ductus of the Larger Ke ding inscription is in line with the majority of contemporaneous inscriptions and 2) some of these flaws occur relatively frequently in the Middle and Late Western Zhou inscriptions, this article concludes that “modelling” was indeed the main technique to produce cast bronze inscriptions in Early China between the 10th and 8th centuries BCE. Apart from the significance for the authentication of unprovenanced inscribed bronzes, this conclusion has also important implications for Chinese palaeography: the ancient craftsmen–as pointed out by earlier proponents of the "modelling" interpretation–executed the inscriptions we admire today in mirror writing.