The Bronze Age is a significant stage in human history, whose hallmark is the casting and use of bronze vessels.
China is one of the earliest states to enter the Bronze Age. A bronze culture had already matured by the Xia dynasty (21st – 17th century B.C.), and reached its apex during the Shang-Zhou period (17th – 3rd century B.C.). Shanxi lies in the heartland of Chinese civilization. Copper products from the Taosi site and mining and smelting sites dated to the Xia-Shang period in the Zhongtiao Mountains region reveal a major achievement in the development of early Chinese civilization. The Shanxi bronzes have brought to life the main cultural current of the Shang-Zhou court, reflecting the progress in the evolution and development of China’s ritual civilization, while geographic connections fused agricultural and steppe civilizations, resulting in a unique cultural appearance. From the mid Spring and Autumn period (770 – 476 B.C.), methods of casting bronze in the State of Jin underwent continuous innovations and transformations, arriving at a technical and artistic peak that exerted a wide-reaching and profound influence on the politics, economy, society, military and culture of the Eastern Zhou period.