Sung Hu
Reign of King Hsuan
Late Western Chou (ca. 827-782 B.C.)

Mao-kung Ting
Reign of King Hsuan
Late Western Chou (ca. 827-782 B.C.)

Special Exhibition of Bronze Inscriptions from the Western Chou
Gallery 111
Opening 06/30/2001

This exhibition focuses on ancient calligraphic forms and the beauty of the characters found in the inscriptions on Western Chou bronzes.  On display and bronze vessels and associated inscriptions (including color-enlargements and rubbings) form the early, middle, and late Western Chou, as well as comparative diagrams of related character forms and stylistic variations.  Together, these illustrations describe the process, fundamental to the history of Chinese writing, by which inscribed forms were borrowed from late Shang inscriptions and codified into what came to be known as "large seal script".