Ming Ritual Bronzes

Timeline

1. 1368–1398Nanjing · NanjingAfter establishing his capital at Nanjing, Zhu Yuanzhang decreed the sacrificial rites for the altars of heaven and earth and the ancestral temple, ordering the Ministry of Works to cast ding, gui, and other vessels according to the Rites of Zhou; bronze ritual vessels inscribed with era names survive from the Hongwu reign.
2. 1403–1424Beijing · BeijingAfter the Yongle Emperor moved the capital to Beijing, he rebuilt the Temple of Heaven, Temple of Earth, and Imperial Ancestral Temple, commissioning large-scale casting of matching bronze ritual vessels with precise craftsmanship and archaistic decoration, making this the representative period of Ming ritual bronzes.
3. 1426–1435Beijing · BeijingCourt casting techniques reached their peak during the Xuande reign; some ritual vessels employed precision methods such as lost-wax casting, and inscriptions read "Made in the Xuande Reign of the Great Ming," later becoming the model for archaistic bronzes.
4. 1500China · ChinaAfter the Jiajing reign, court casting of ritual vessels continued according to ancestral precedent but on a reduced scale; Ming ritual bronzes entered the Qing imperial collection and modern museums, becoming core material for the study of bronze studies and ritual history.