Scott No: 783-790
Serial number: S63
Values in set: 8
Date of issue: August 25, 1964
Denomination: 84 fen
Designer: Shao Bolin
Engraver: Kong Shaohui, Tang Linshen, Gao Pinzhang, Sun Hongnian
Size of stamps: 26.5*36mm
Perforation: 11.5*11
Sheet composition: 50(10*5)
Printing process: Engraving and photogravure
Printing House: Beijing Postage Stamp Printing Works

S63 "Bronzes of the Yin (Shang) Dynasty" special stamps were issued on August 25, 1964. The set consists of 8 stamps, printed by photogravure combined with engraving, designed by Shao Bolin, engraved by Sun Hongnian, Kong Shaohui, Gao Pinzhang, and Tang Linkun, and printed by the Beijing Stamp Factory. Stamp size 30 mm × 40 mm, perforation gauge 11.5 × 11, 50 stamps per sheet (10 × 5), with a total face value of 0.84 yuan for the set; circulations: 3 million copies each for Fu Wu Zhou Jue and Ya Gu, 4.5 million copies each for Yi Fu Yi Gong and Jia, 1.5 million copies each for Four-Ram Square Zun and Yue Fu You, and 1 million copies each for Dragon-Tiger Zun and Simuwu Ding.

Theme of the Set

The Shang dynasty, called Yin in historical records, was the heyday of China's bronze civilization. The Shang royal house and nobility cast large numbers of bronze ritual vessels, wine vessels, and food vessels, with majestic forms and elaborate decorations, commonly adorned with taotie masks, kui-dragon patterns, and cloud-thunder patterns; many vessels bear inscriptions and are concentrated carriers of ancient ritual systems, casting techniques, and artistic thought. This set selects eight national-treasure-level Shang bronze masterpieces, covering wine vessels, ritual vessels, and containers, most of which are now in the National Museum of China. The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications used the photogravure-plus-engraving process to reproduce the original appearance of the bronzes, intending to display the superb piece-mold casting skills of China three thousand years ago and present the vigorous and antique ancient art. It is also New China's first special stamp set systematically displaying Shang dynasty bronze masterpieces.

Stamp Designs and Historical Background

Fu Wu Zhou Jue

The jue is the most typical Shang dynasty ritual vessel for warming and drinking wine. This Fu Wu Zhou Jue bears inscriptions; the body is slender, with a spout for pouring wine at the front, a pointed tail at the back, a handle on one side, two mushroom-shaped posts standing on the rim, and three legs below. The surface is covered with fine cloud-thunder ground patterns interspersed with animal-mask motifs; the form is expansive and crisp—a classic early Shang style of jue. The stamp's angle selects the front view, clearly presenting the balanced, symmetrical structure of the spout, tail, posts, and three legs.

Ya Gu

The gu is a wine vessel used in sets during the Shang dynasty, often unearthed in pairs with jue. The Ya Gu's rim flares outward greatly, the body narrows to form a slender waist, and the base is a high ring foot, with an outline like a trumpet. The body is decorated in layers with animal masks and kui-dragon patterns, with fine, neat lines. "Ya" is a common Shang dynasty clan emblem; this vessel is an important piece in the ritual vessel sets of the Shang nobility, with slender, beautiful lines, calm and elegant.

Yi Fu Yi Gong

The gong is a wine vessel, also used for penalty drinking, and belongs to the bird-and-beast-shaped vessels. This gong is shaped overall as a divine beast: the front is a beast's head with horns, eyes, and nose, the body is round and full, with a lid, a hanging tail at the back, and a handle on one side. The whole body is covered with relief-style animal masks and bird patterns in rich layers—a fine piece of late Shang bronze ritual vessels. The bird-and-beast combined form is full of imagination, strange and solemn, embodying the Shang dynasty's mythological aesthetic in bronze.

Jia

The jia is a large wine-warming ritual vessel, larger than the jue, mostly used in sacrifices to hold wine and offer to the gods. This bronze jia has a broad rim, likewise with two thick post knobs, a bulging body, a handle on one side, and three legs below. The belly has a cloud-thunder pattern ground with neat animal-mask decorations, and the vessel form is vigorous and steady. Shang nobles used jia in major sacrificial ceremonies, symbolizing the scale of the sacrifice; the vessel is thick and imposing, full of a sense of power.

Four-Ram Square Zun

The Four-Ram Square Zun is the pinnacle of Shang bronze craftsmanship, unearthed in Ningxiang, Hunan. The body is square, with four curled ram heads protruding from the four corners; the front halves of the rams are attached to the zun body, their horns curled and their expressions serene, and the shoulders of the zun are also decorated with coiled dragons. The whole vessel integrates round sculpture, relief, and line engraving, combining piece casting and joined casting, with motion and stillness in harmony—exquisite beyond compare. It is the most representative treasure of southern Shang bronze civilization.

Yue Fu You

The you is a ritual vessel specifically used to hold aromatic millet wine, mostly used in solemn sacrifices. The Yue Fu You has a domed lid with a knob on top, a full body, and a handle on both sides for carrying and moving. The surface is fully covered with dense animal-mask and kui-dragon patterns, with the lid, belly, and ring foot decorated in layered zones and a full composition. Inside the vessel is cast the inscription "Yue Fu," the clan to which the vessel belonged; the form is dignified and weighty, and the handle structure is also a typical feature of Shang dynasty you.

Dragon-Tiger Zun

The Dragon-Tiger Zun was unearthed in Funan, Anhui, and is a major bronze vessel of the southern Shang dynasty. The zun has a wide mouth, a contracted belly, and a high ring foot. The main pattern on the belly is a large relief dragon, with a fierce tiger on each side; beneath the tigers' mouths is held a human figure—the famous "tiger devouring man" motif—surrounded by cloud-thunder ground patterns. The dragon and tiger patterns have strong tension, mysterious and solemn, representing the Shang people's primitive worship of gods and fierce beasts, with extremely strong artistic impact.

Simuwu Ding

The Simuwu Ding, later called the Houmuwu Ding, is the largest and heaviest surviving Shang bronze ritual vessel, cast by the Shang king to sacrifice to his mother. The ding is rectangular, with two upright ears and thick four-column legs, and the vessel walls are thick and vigorous. The outer sides of the ears are carved with a double-tiger-devouring-man pattern, flanges rise at the four corners of the body, the whole body has a cloud-thunder ground with taotie and kui-dragon decorations, and inscriptions are cast inside the belly wall. The set uses this as its finale, fully displaying the majestic dignity of the Shang dynasty and representing the highest level of Shang bronze casting technology.

Artistic Design Features

The set uniformly adopts a vertical stamp format, with a white background setting off the ancient bronze vessels and no superfluous background, so that the visual focus falls entirely on the bronzes themselves. It adopts photogravure combined with engraving: the engraved plates are responsible for the vessel outlines, relief decorations, inscriptions, flanges, beast heads, ram horns, and other raised and recessed details, with firm, solid lines, completely reproducing the hard, weighty texture of the bronze vessels and the relief effect of layered decorations; the photogravure plates set off the blue-green patina and the light and shadow of the bronzes, expressing the antique, warm patina of the vessels with a strong three-dimensional effect.

The eight vessels are arranged in sequence by wine vessels, bird-and-beast ritual vessels, large heavy zun, and the giant ding, transitioning from the light, delicate jue and gu to the vigorous great ding, with size going from small to large and temperament shifting from lively to solemn, with an orderly, progressive narrative rhythm. The face values were set to suit domestic communications and international mail at the time; the two high-denomination stamps, Dragon-Tiger Zun and Simuwu Ding, have the smallest circulations and are the key stamps of the set. This set has an extremely high level of engraving and holds a prominent place among the old Ji-te cultural-relic-themed stamps, long admired by philatelists.