A Review of the History of Research in Lost-Wax Casting in Bronze Age China Over the Past Century

This study analyzes in detail the last century of scholarly study, in China and internationally, into China's Bronze Age lost-wax casting techniques. It finds that research beginning in the early twentieth century has differentiated five lost-wax casting research periods, linked to different research methods and new archaeological discoveries of bronzes and casting relics. The methods that can be identified with a particular research period are: complete lost-wax (before 1931); semi lost-wax (1931–1959); complete piece-mold (1960–1977); both casting technologies (1978–2018); hollowed lost-wax (after 2019). Research shows that piece-mold casting was the dominant casting technology in the territories of the Shang and Zhou dynasty (before 221 BC) kings, but craftspeople used lost-wax casting skillfully at the latest in the Qin dynasty (before 210 BC). Lost-wax artifacts influenced by other cultures are occasionally seen in the border areas of the Shang and Zhou kingdoms. Research on organic constituents in the clay cores of hollowed lost-wax artifacts may provide a definite answer to this question.