Chinese bronze inscriptions, also commonly referred to as
Bronze script or
Bronzeware script are writing in a variety of
Chinese scripts on
Chinese ritual bronzes such as
zhong bells and
ding tripodal cauldrons from the
Shang dynasty to the
Zhou dynasty 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.