proclaimed that cire-perdue casting came to China sometime between 200 BCE and 600 CE, and that the section-mold process formed all previous castings (Casting and Bronze Alloys in Ancient China, 108–109). This rash argument will be disproved by my research, based on certain lost-wax castings from the Eastern Zhou period (see the following).

51. As Wilma Fairbank also stated, the flanges “along the vertical joins of the mold segments” were expressly meant to “delineate the basic piece-mold assembly of a bronze vessel”; “Evolved from the practical requirements of craftsmanship, they (the ‘flanges’) became a characteristic and unique aesthetic feature of early Chinese bronze design. But it should be kept in mind that their uniqueness derived from an ingenious technical solution to problems presented by a molding system unique at the time” (“Piece-mold Craftsmanship and Shang Bronze Design,” 12–15). As convincingly as Fairbank has argued here, readers should be cautious, for the flanges did not originate as a way to conceal mold marks (for detailed discussion of this issue, see Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, 27–28).

52. For details, see Gettens, “Joining Methods in the Fabrication of Ancient Chinese Bronze Ceremonial Vessels,” 205–217.

53. Gettens regarded the “evenly and symmetrically spaced narrow ridges of metal” on Chinese bronzes as “characteristic of any object cast in a piece mold and are caused by molten metal running into the narrow crevices marking the joins in the mold or in the build-up of the original model” (The Freer Chinese Bronzes, 60, 64). It is far too sweeping a judgement to consider any casting with the “mold-join marks” as indicative of “piece-mold” casting (considered as an alternative the possibility of the indirect lost-wax casting); Gettens’s argument here applies to almost all early Chinese ritual bronzes.

54. Li, “Yinxu Chutu Qingtong Liqi zhi Zong Jiantao,” 526–527.

55. Guo, Shangzhou Tongqiqun Zonghe Yanjiu, 124; Hua, “Shilafa de Qiyuan he Fazhan,” 63–81.

56. Based on the study of archaeological stratigraphy and ceramic typology, “Erlitou Culture” can roughly be fitted between the Neolithic Henan Longshan culture (c. 2600–2000 BCE) and Erligang culture (c. 1500–1300 BCE). It is commonly divided into four phases. A series of radiocarbon determinations on samples showed that the Erlitou Culture from Phase 1 to Phase 4 should fall within the range of 1900 to 1500 BCE (with each phase roughly lasting 100 years for the sake of convenience). An alternate range of dates recently obtained from Erlitou and the contemporaneous