香港大學美術博物館欣然呈獻「掌中造物——宋至清代中國文房青銅器」展覽，精選八十七件青銅器物，勾勒出由古代禮儀傳統至文人美學思想延展的文化脈絡。這些青銅器超越了原本的禮制功能，而是被視為藝術珍品、文人探究的對象，以及承載着道德與政治的理念。它們的形態多樣，從莊重的禮器到精緻的香爐與書齋文房，反映青銅工藝如何融入帝王與文人文化之中。 因此，器物上的植物和動物形象—無論源自神話或現實—大多承載重要的吉祥寓意，豐富了它們所源出的文化傳統。

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橫跨宋至清代的青銅器，不但展現出風格上的多樣性與技術上的創新，更反映出中國青銅工藝源源不絕的創造力。與此同時，人們對古物的尊崇，深深影響中國文房青銅器的收藏與製作，令這些器物在歷史與哲學思想的基礎上，成為建構中華文化身份的一環，也是中華文明承傳與演變的重要媒介。然而，至今只有少數博物館展覽、收藏圖錄及學術出版深入探討這些後期青銅器的歷史、藝術與禮儀意義，以展現它們從宋代到清代的多元形態與功能。 鑑於這些青銅器極為珍稀，我們特別感謝 Paul Bromberg 先生的慷慨出借——若非如此，我們無緣研究並向公眾展示這些鑄工精絕的青銅珍品，以及其所蘊含的祥瑞寓意。

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The University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong is honoured to present Handmade and Handheld: Song to Qing Dynasty Chinese Bronzes for the Scholar’s Studio. The eighty-seven objects illustrate a remarkable cultural continuum that links ancient ritual traditions to a sophisticated literati aesthetic and intellectual life. These bronzes, having transcended their original ritual functions, became prized art objects, instruments of scholarly inquiry, and emblems of moral and political values. Their diverse forms—from ritual vessels to intimate incense burners and scholarly desk pieces—reflect the deep integration of bronze into the fabric of imperial and literati culture. In so doing, many of the plants and animals—mythical or real—carry important auspicious meanings that contribute to the learned culture from which they originate.

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This stylistic diversity and the technical innovations evident across these dynasties testify to the enduring creativity of Chinese bronze craftsmanship. At the same time, the reverence for antiquity that shaped both the collecting and production of bronzes anchored Chinese cultural identity in its historical and philosophical foundations, making scholar bronzes a vital medium of continuity and transformation within Chinese civilisation. Yet only a few museum exhibitions, collection catalogues, and scholarly publications have addressed the historical, artistic, and ritual significance of later Chinese bronzes, highlighting their diverse forms and functions from the Song through the Qing dynasties. Given their rarity, we thank Mr Paul Bromberg for his generous loan, without which we would not have been able to study and share with the public these finely cast bronzes and the auspicious meanings they hold.