Liyu

A village near Hunyan in northern Shanxi, China, where a large hoard of bronzes of the 6th and 5th centuries BC was found. The name Liyu has since been applied to a style of decoration shared by many bronzes from the hoard and characterized by an interlace of dragons whose ribbonlike bodies are textured with fine meander and volute patterns. Its borrowings from steppe art are common to much Chinese art of the period.

[Li-yii]. A village near Hunyuan in northern Shanxi, China, where a large hoard of bronzes of the 6th and 5th centuries bc was found in 1923. The name Liyu has since been applied to a style of decoration shared by many bronzes from the hoard and characterized by an interlace of dragons, whose ribbon-like bodies are textured with fine meander and volute patterns. Despite the northern location of the Liyu site, near the Great Wall, and the borrowings from nomadic art seen on some of the bronzes, such as naturalistic animal motifs, the Liyu style cannot be regarded as provincial in any sense. Its borrowings from steppe art are common to much Chinese art of the period, and recent excavations in Henan and Shanxi, notably at Fenshuiling near Changzhi and at the Houma foundry site, show the style to have been a familiar part of the metropolitan caster’s repertoire. See also Huai style.