Metalworking in Bronze Age China: The Lost-Wax Process By Peng Pe ...

Chapter 2

Metalworking in Bronze Age China

Documentation of lost-wax casting in China does not appear until many centuries after the start of the Common Era, and ethnography likewise contributes almost nothing to the study of early bronzes, because no casting tradition known to ethnographers approaches ancient Chinese bronze casting in scale or complexity. For Bronze Age China, questions surrounding lost-wax casting can be answered only by artifacts and other related archaeological materials. A brief review of metallurgical history in Bronze Age China is therefore an essential preliminary.

Was Lost-wax Encountered by China’s First Bronze Founders?

The origin of metalworking in China has long been debated. Although the “independent invention versus diffusion” argument still remains unresolved in the specific case of China, more and more evidence seems to support the hypothesis that metalworking in early China was introduced or stimulated from external sources.¹ Fitzgerald-Huber’s 1995 article, a