Cover News Reporter Liu Kexin Li Yuxin Xu Yuyang Wu Yong Deyang Report
How to cast bronzes in Sanxingdui? What kind of craftsmanship can achieve the complex and slender shape of bronze branches? At the 2025 Sanxingdui Forum held in Deyang on September 27, a new study on Sanxingdui bronze casting technology officially met with the public.
Press conference siteRan Honglin, the stationmaster of the Sanxingdui Site Work Station of the Sichuan Academy of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and deputy director of the Sanxingdui Museum, announced that after joint research by the Sichuan Academy of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, the Palace Museum, Beijing University of Science and Technology and Joseph Needham, the Needham Institute of Cambridge, England, a new understanding of the bronze casting technology was established: Sanxingdui bronzes formed an innovative casting technology system with segment casting as the core and both moist casting and forging in the late Shang Dynasty. The unique “core bone-striped core support” technology effectively solves the molding problem of slender and curved objects and has become an indispensable “meanor” in the casting of Sanxingdui bronze sacred trees.
The core bones in bronze ware (Photo according to Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology)In the production of bronze ware, the inner core (clay core) and the outer ware jointly cast the ware shape. Core bone refers to organic or metal strips added to reinforce and support the mud core during the process of making the mud core, similar to the “reinforced bars” used to reinforce and support the mud core. The core support refers to the support used in the casting mold to maintain the opposite position of the inner core and the outer range, and avoid misalignment and adhesion between the inner core and the outer range. Guo Jianbo, an associate researcher at the Cultural Relics Protection Center of Sichuan Academy of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, once introduced in the article “A Brief Analysis of the Application of Core Bone and Bar Core Stand Technology in Sanxingdui Bronze Warehouse” that Bar Core Stand is an innovation and transformation based on the shape of the vessel.
Previously in an interview with a reporter from the cover news, Guo Jianbo mentioned that before the discovery of this technology in Sanxingdui, the core bone and strip core support technology in China was first seen in the Terracotta Warriors and Horses unearthed from the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang, as well as the necks of bronze waterfowls. Therefore, this is also the earliest case in the country to use core bone and strip core support technology. The “core bone-striped core-striped joint technology” is only found in bronzes unearthed in Sanxingdui, which shows that the people who cast Sanxingdui bronzes already have flexible and skillful craftsmanship.
“In the existing technical framework, Sanxingdui shows unique technological innovation and localized expression. This achievement not only deepens the overall understanding of the ancient Chinese bronze casting system, but also provides new evidence for revealing the diverse and integrated pattern of Chinese civilization and the mechanism of world bronze technology and cultural exchanges.” Ran Honglin concluded.