Chinese Bronze Inscriptions金文

Inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells and inscriptions on bronze are the early representatives in the art of Chinese calligraphy.

After the Oracle Inscriptions, Chinese writing evolved into the form found on bronze ware made during the Shang Dynasty, Western Zhou Dynasty (c 1066–770 BC) and the Spring and Autumn Period (770–476 BCE), a kind of writing called jinwen ‘metal script’. Bronze wares are utensils made of copper alloys, usually with tin as main additive, on which one can not only see veins and decorative design, but also many inscriptions.

The trend of engraving and casting inscriptions on bronze ware started in mid and late Shang dynasty, flourishing in the Western Zhou, and gradually declined after the Warring States period. It last totally about one thousand years.

Most of the inscriptions on the bronze ware are cast and only a few is carved by sharp tools. Early bronze inscriptions were almost always cast (that is, the writing was done with a stylus in the wet clay of the piece-mould from which the bronze was then cast), while later inscriptions were often engraved after the bronze was cast.

The concave typeface of the characters is called as characters cut in intaglio; the raised characters are called as characters cut in relief. A lot of characters on the bronze ware are the cut in intaglio. The ancient people thought that bronze was quite firm so the inscriptions could be imperishably passed down, so the affairs that should be passed down must be cast on the bronze ware.

Most bronze inscriptions recorded the name of clan ancestors or the war, politics, largess and other important historical facts at that time. Therefore, inscriptions have become the important material for the research of the ancient history.

Along with the flourishing of stele study, calligraphers once again paid attention to bronze inscription in the Shang dynasty for practising seal script and doing research on new ways of structure forming.

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甲骨文是中国书法的最早形式。

甲骨文之后，中国文字在商朝、西周（公元前1006-700年）与春秋时期演变成为一种发现于铜器的文字形式，叫做‘金文’。铜器是用铜的合金制成，合金通常是加锡来混合。铜器上除了可看到纹与装饰设计外，还有铭刻文字。

把文字铭刻与铸于铜器，始于商朝中期与后期，盛于西周，而于战国后逐渐衰退。这种风俗持续了大约一千年。

多数的金文是铸造的，只有少数是用尖器来刻的。早期的金文几乎都是铸造的，就是说，把文字写在湿粘土铸型上后才来铸造铜器。后期金文是在铜器铸造完成后才刻上去。

文字如果是凹进去的就叫阴文，凸出来的就叫阳文。金文中阴文较多。古代人认为铜合金很坚硬，可以永久的流转后代，所以那些须要传给后世的就要铸刻在铜器上。

多数金文记录的是氏族祖先的名字、战争、政治、贡品及当时重要的历史事件。所以，金文成为研究古代历史的重要资料。

随着碑学的兴起，书法家再次注重学习商朝金文的篆书的学习并研找新的章法。