Note sur la postérité du masque de Liangzhu à l'époque des Zhou orientaux

In this note I intend to demonstrate that the face motif on the guards of a number of Eastern Zhou swords was copied around the 6th cent. B.C. or slightly earlier from Liangzhu jades. This appears to be part of a larger phenomenon, in which various ancient jades from the Neolithic period were reused or copied during the Shang and Zhou periods. The swords that are reviewed here were decorated with a face represented on only one side of the guard. Their round pommel is decorated with concentric thin circles. In the majority of examples found two rings encircle the cylindric handles. The rings are sometimes ornamented with relief scrolls or inscribed. The guards have two rounded shoulders and a rhomboid cross section, so that the face is divided into two symmetrical parts which meet at an angle, just like the Liangzhu faces at the corners of the cong. Many of the swords possess inscriptions indicating that they were cast for important persons from the states of Wu, Yue and Xu (present day Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui). In recent years many discoveries of weapons have been made in the area surrounding the lake Taihu, precisely where the Liangzhu culture (c. 3400-2200 B.C.) is known to have flourished. With the weapons are daggers, dating to the late Western Zhou, which are clearly prototypes of the swords with shouldered guards, a type unknown in the other parts of China before the 6th cent. B.C. Many swords with the Liangzhu face have in fact been discovered in this area, providing further clues to the early development of this type of weapon. It seems now that all of the swords with the face pattern we have described earlier originated from this area. Those swords with the Liangzhu face discovered in large number in Chu tombs were therefore possibly cast also in the Wu-Yue area and removed during battles fought with the Chu, ultimately to be burried with their last owners. Why did such a revival of the Liangzhu face occur during the Eastern Zhou period in the Wu-Yue area ? Was the face intended by the elites to be a symbol of cultural identity ? Was the face associated with death ? A few tentative answers to these questions are provided at the end of the note.Thote Alain. Note sur la postérité du masque de Liangzhu à l'époque des Zhou orientaux. In: Arts asiatiques, tome 51, 1996. pp. 60-72