NEW YORK, NY.- Eternal Offerings: Chinese Ritual Bronzes from the Minneapolis Institute of Art will be on view from March 6 through July 13, 2025 at China Institute Gallery at 100 Washington Street. The exhibition will showcase one of the world’s greatest collections of ancient Chinese bronzes outside of China from a crucial period in the history of human civilization. Traveling from the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the extraordinary Bronze Age vessels for food and wine as well as imaginative animal sculptures, are on view for the first time in New York City.

The emergence of the culture of bronze—an alloy of copper, tin, and lead—remains a crucial chapter in the history of human civilization. Although China was not the first country to enter the Bronze Age, its bronzes from this period are unique in world history because of their variety and intricacy, the ritual context in which they developed, and the sheer number that have been unearthed over China’s vast territory. The people of Bronze Age China believed in the hierarchy of beings, from the heavens to the king to the royal courts to the people. They created their art to maintain this order on earth and in the afterlife. They made a wide range of bronze vessels to acknowledge the powers invested in those of high rank in ceremonies and sacrifices.

More than 70 objects will be on view at China Institute Gallery ranging from a wine vessel in the form of a double-owl from the Late Shang dynasty, 12th century BCE, to a celestial horse sculpture from the Han dynasty, 1st to 2nd century CE. Eternal Offerings: Chinese Ritual Bronzes was on view at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) from March 4 through May 21, 2024.

“These magnificent objects were crucial to many rituals in China for nearly 3000 years,” said Willow Weilan Hai, Senior Vice President of China Institute in America and Director and Chief Curator of China Institute Gallery. “Together, these creative artworks provide extraordinary clues about early humans in China including how they honored their ancestors, worshipped their deities, and prepared for the afterlife.”

“The Minneapolis Institute of Art's collection of ancient Chinese bronzes is considered one of the finest in the United States. This exhibition provides viewers with a unique window into the extraordinary artistic creativity, masterful craftsmanship, and captivating belief systems of ancient China,” said Dr. Liu Yang, Chair of Asian Art and Curator of Chinese Art at Mia.

Bronze in Ancestral Rites and the Afterlife

In Ancient China, ancestor worship, a practice based on the belief in life after death and the connection between the deceased and the living, played a significant role in daily life. Communal good depended on showing respect to ancestral spirits. This practice led to the establishment of ancestral temples to accommodate such rituals. Bronze vessels were made and then used to offer food and wine to the dead in elaborate ceremonial banquets. Their mystical surface decorations, particularly animal images, served as a means to communicate with spirits and deities. Ritual bronze vessels also gave the living an opportunity to acknowledge their debt to their ancestors, as well as the deeds and virtues of the deceased. In this way, ritual bronze vessels enhanced the sacredness and power of a temple.

Ritual bronzes were also used as funereal objects, buried in the tombs of nobles to provide the deceased with the same material environment they enjoyed in life, thus assuring immortality. When placed in the tomb, the bronze vessels were grouped in arrangements befitting the social status of the deceased.

Bronze Musical Instruments

Musical instruments, especially massive sets of bronze bells, became important elements in the ritual ceremonies that allowed the living to connect with the dead. This is evidenced by the inscriptions on many musical instruments excavated in the past several decades from sites dating to the Western Zhou dynasty (1046–771 BCE). An inscription on a bronze bell dating to the early 900s BCE reads, “I made this set of harmonically tuned chime bells. Use it so as to please and exalt those who arrive in splendor and to let the accomplished men of former generations rejoice.”

There were profound political implications in linking ancestral rites and music. During the Western Zhou dynasty, the Zhou maintained a strict hierarchy based on a patriarchal clan system. An individual’s duties, power, and term of service were defined by his social status. Without musical harmony, society itself would become discordant. Therefore, music was emphasised as a means to help the populace follow the moral and social order and to regulate their conduct. Rites were for differentiating and regulating hierarchies, and music promoted harmonious synthesis between different social classes.

Bronze Inscriptions: Tracing the Evolution of Rituals

Inscriptions cast on bronze vessels typically identified the person who had it made or the ancestor or event to which the vessel was dedicated. Most often the inscription describes the objects as sacrifices to satisfy ancestral spirits. But the function and importance of bronze inscriptions changed over time. Inscriptions in the Shang dynasty (c.1600–1046 BCE) consisted of simple identifying information; it was the object’s form and decoration that announced status. By the Western Zhou dynasty (1046–771 BCE), inscriptions were used more frequently. These longer inscriptions, marking the merit or status of the owner, demonstrate that bronzes had become objects of increasing personal or clan importance. A system of rites related to military campaigns, feasts, and assemblies gradually evolved, and commemorative inscribed vessels accompanied them. Compared to the fragile materials of other historical texts, inscribed bronzes serve as crucial firsthand evidence of ancient political events and ritual activities.

Luxury Items and Art Objects

The Eastern Zhou dynasty (771–256 BCE) saw important changes in the function, shape, decoration, and style of bronzes. Due to advances in casting technology, changes in social conditions, and evolutions in regional taste, new fashions in ritual bronze casting arose. During the Shang and Western Zhou dynasties, bronze vessels were primarily used for sacrifices to ancestors. During the Eastern Zhou, however, bronze vessels diverged from the realm of religious ritual and began to be seen as luxury items in their own right, used by their owners to show off their wealth and power. Bronzes became more ornate in appearance, with extensive use of three-dimensional pendants.

Aspiring to Immortality: The Epilogue of the Bronze Age

The Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) marks the epilogue of the Chinese Bronze Age. During this period, the concept of immortality—the physical departure from human society and the achievement of eternal life—became a national preoccupation. This idea, influenced by Daoist teachings on eternity, had a tremendous impact on daily life and extended to representations in works of art, including bronzes.

Daoist references have enriched the form and decoration of bronzes. A goddess known as Queen Mother of the West was the most popular deity during that time, and her image is seen in the decoration of bronze mirrors. It was thought that fervent devotion to these deities could translate into eternal life. Bronze horses such as the one in this exhibition were placed in elaborately furnished aristocratic tombs to provide transportation for the deceased in the afterlife. Emperor Wu’s (r. 141–87 BCE) fascination in the “heavenly horse” that could accompany one in the afterlife largely accounts for the popularity of the cast-bronze horse throughout the Han dynasty.