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The mesmerizing yet enigmatic zoomorphic motifs found on Shang and Western Zhou bronze ritual vessels have captivated the imaginations of generations of scholars and generated interminable debates as to their meaning (or lack thereof). Less often appreciated is the fact that these ancient Chinese bronzes were only part of larger assemblages of ritual paraphernalia or tomb offering and their décor was an instantiation of a wider visual culture. Even more radically, I would argue that they are but one manifestation of an alternative, relational ontology of representation and being. I will use the concept of skeumorphy to open a window into the sets of relations between representations and things at the Shang capital in the last centuries of the 2nd millennium BCE, proceeding through the play of form, substance, ornament and writing across of an array of Shang material culture.