This paper consists of two parts:one is on ancient clay sectional molds; the other on a simulated experiment of bronze casting techniques with such molds. On the basis of experiments,a series of questions are explained theoretically or practically. They include the formula and treatment techniques of mold material;the poor air permeability and the good filling ability of ancient pottery molds;the reason of the poor baking of molds ; the need of slow drying and repeated beating of mold pieces in their making process; and casting with outer molds as the main method of making inner cores. In addition,the author expounds the discovery that the exact number of mold pieces cannot always be determined by the mold lines alone left on bronzes, the main method of inscription-casting and the relationship between the principal bronze-casting techniques with clay molds and pottery making methods. Thereby the author clarifies and proves scientifically how bronzes fine and meticulous in decoration,even and thin in body and complex in shape could be made in Bronze Age China. Through the simulated experiment, the bronze jue cup, zhi vessel, gu beaker, swing handle you vessel,ear of ding tripod and so on were reproduced. Meanwhile,burning casting, a new casting method,was revealed and simulated,which was proved to have been invented in the late Shang period. Based on the clear inheritance of bronze casting techniques with clay molds from pottery-making techniques, the evolutionary process of the casting method from simple to complex,and the unique developmental course of the lost wax casting method from casting with sectional molds through burning casting to the final formation of the lost wax method, the author draws his conclusion that the Chinese bronze civilization originated"mainly in the development of its indigenous foundation".
