Chinese bronze inscriptions

Chinese bronze inscriptions
Inscription on the Song ding, c. 800 BC
Chinese name
Chinese	金文
Literal meaning	Bronze writing
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Jīnwén Bopomofo ㄐㄧㄣ ㄨㄣˊ Wade–Giles Chin1-wen2 Tongyong Pinyin Jin-wún IPA [tɕín.wə̌n] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Gāmmàhn Jyutping gam1 man4 Canton Romanization Gem1-men4 IPA [kɐm˥ mɐn˩]
Alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	鐘鼎文
Simplified Chinese	钟鼎文
Literal meaning	Bell and cauldron writing
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zhōngdǐngwén Bopomofo ㄓㄨㄥ ㄉㄧㄥˇ ㄨㄣˊ Wade–Giles Chung1-ting3-wen2 Tongyong Pinyin Jhong-dǐng-wún IPA [ʈʂʊ́ŋ.tìŋ.wə̌n] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Jūngdíngmàhn Jyutping zung1 ding2 man4 Canton Romanization Zung1-ding2-men4 IPA [tsʊŋ˥ tɪŋ˧˥ mɐn˩]
Japanese name
Kanji	金文
Hiragana	きんぶん
Katakana	キンブン
Transcriptions Revised Hepburn Kinbun Kunrei-shiki Kinbun

Chinese characters
Chinese family of scripts Written Chinese Kanji Hanja Chữ Hán
Evolution of script styles Neolithic symbols in China Oracle bone Bronze Seal Large Small Bird-worm Clerical Cursive Semi-cursive Regular Flat brush Typefaces Fangsong Ming sans-serif
Properties and classification Components Strokes order Radicals
Collation and standards Kangxi Dictionary forms (1716) General Standard Characters (PRC, 2013) Commonly-Used Characters (Hong Kong, 2007) Nan Min Recommended Characters (Taiwan, 2009) Standard Form of National Characters (Taiwan, 1982) Jōyō kanji (Japan, 2010)
Reforms Simplified characters second round Traditional characters debate Japanese script reform kyūjitai
Homographs and readings Literary and colloquial readings Kanbun Idu
Variants Zetian characters
Derived systems Kana man'yōgana hiragana katakana Jurchen script Khitan large small Nüshu Bopomofo Slavonic transcription
Transliteration of Chinese
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Chinese bronze inscriptions, also commonly referred to as bronze script or bronzeware script, are writing in a variety of Chinese scripts on ritual bronzes such as zhōng bells and dǐng tripodal cauldrons from the Shang dynasty (2nd millennium BC) to the Zhou dynasty (11th–3rd century BC) and even later. Early bronze inscriptions were almost always cast (that is, the writing was done with a stylus in the wet clay of the piece-mold from which the bronze was then cast), while later inscriptions were often engraved after the bronze was cast.^[1] The bronze inscriptions are one of the earliest scripts in the Chinese family of scripts, preceded by the oracle bone script.