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2022
Book
Weapons in Late Shang (c.1250-1050 BCE): China beyond typology and ritual
Weapons in Late Shang (c.1250-1050 BCE) China explores the large quantities of bronze and jade weapons, such as dagger-axes, spears and arrows, found at the World Heritage site of Yinxu, the late Shang capital located near today’s Anyang city in central China Qin Cao’s innovative research presents new insights into...Cao, Qin
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2022
Lecture
The Gold Cups of Eternal Stability and the Celebration of the Chinese New Year
The Gold Cups of Eternal Stability are among the most extraordinary objects in the Wallace Collection. The Qianlong Emperor ordered them especially for the First Stroke Ceremony, performed on the New Year’s Day in the Forbidden City in Beijing. Their surface is covered with kingfisher feathers, a technique also used...Cao, Qin ; de Wit, Ada
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2021
Journal article
The Ann Paludan Archive of Historical Chinese Sculptures
Anna Paludan (1928-2014) was a writer and art historian, who created an exceptional photographic archive of historical sculptures in China, accompanied by extensive research ana analysis embodied in three major books. The archive represents over thirty years of work by Ann in a subject area largely unrecognised at the time,...Cao, Qin ; Frame, Gladys
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2022
Blog post
Trade, taste and tea bowls: uncovering Chinese ceramics in our collections
Ceramic objects are useful in day-to-day life and may also be put on display, for example in people’s homes, yet they are more than just functional or decorative. They can also tell stories of manufacturing, taste and international trade. National Museums Scotland has a large and important but little-known Chinese...Cao, Qin
World Cultures, Ceramics , and China
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2018
Book chapter
Ritual or lethal? Bronze weapons in late Shang China
Large-scale bronze production is one of the most salient features of late Shang China (c.1200–1050 BC). Copper-alloy weapons were cast in extraordinary quantities and varieties as shown by the rich burial assemblages known from the period. However, their practical usages are not yet well-understood, and scholars speculate whether the weapons...Cao, Qin
Bronze weapons, Functional, Late Shang China, and Wear analysis
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2020
Journal article
Social hierarchy and the choice of metal recycling at Anyang, the last capital of Bronze Age Shang China
Anyang, the last capital of the Chinese Shang dynasty, became one of the largest metal consumers in Eurasia during the second millennium BCE. However, it remains unclear how Anyang people managed to sustain such a large supply of metal. By considering the chemical analysis of bronze objects within archaeological contexts,...Liu, Ruiliang ; Pollard, A Mark ; Cao, Qin ; Liu, Cheng ; Sainsbury, Victoria …
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2021
Conference paper (unpublished)
Yellow flag with dragon patterns – a Buddhist object with imperial associations in the National Museum of Scotland
Yuanmingyuan, also known as the Old Summer Palace, is infamous for its destruction by Anglo-French military forces in 1860. Numerous imperial objects were looted and subsequently dispersed throughout various public, private and royal collections outside China. These imperial Chinese collections had a significant impact on the perception of Chinese art...Cao, Qin
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Journal article
By the mandate of heaven': a kingfisher-feather headdress in the National Museum of Scotland
This article focuses on a kingfisher headdress selected for the new East Asia gallery at the National Museum of Scotland. Dating to the late Qing dynasty and previously thought to be part of an opera costume, new research has revealed that this intricate headdress might instead have been the property...Cao, Qin