Giant Rectangular Ding-Vessel in Yin Ruins

The Giant Rectangular Ding-Vessel in Yin Ruins is called "司母戊大方鼎" (Si Mu Wu Da Fang Ding) in Chinese. It was found on a farmland in Anyang in central China's Henan Province in March 1939. However, due to the extreme heavy weight of the ding-vessel and the fear of being stolen by the invading Japanese army, locals buried it in its original place after it was excavated. People excavated the relic again after the war, in June 1946, but the ding had lost one "ear" ! 

The giant bronze ding-vessel is the largest and heaviest of this kind found in China hitherto. It is weight 832.84 kilograms, height 133 centimeters, the length and width of the open are 110 and 78 centimeters respectively. The legs are length 46 cm each and the thickness of bronze of the ding body is about 6 cm. The largeness of the vessel is comparable with the size of a manger, so it is also called "Manger Ding-Vessel".

The ding is carved the images of ferocious and gluttonous animal, except the parts that are rectangular in the middle of the vessel. The "ears" is with two tiger patterns each. They are face to face and there is a human head in the mouth of each animal, quite a terrible image. The sides of the ears are with fish images. The legs are having great designed patterns too. 

As early as 7,000 years before present, the Chinese had first made ding-vessel, and in the Shang and Western Zhou Dynasties about 3,000 years ago, ding making was at the pinnacle time. The ones, which were for application to rituals, manufactured in the Shang Dynasty, are the most famous. At that time, ding-vessels represented classes and ranks, also the sovereignty of a nation. Bronze vessels were originally for daily drinking, later they had been using as "holy vessels" for sacrificial ceremonies to the gods and ancestors. For ancient Chinese people, ding meant "storing the holy things in the vessel". Sometimes, dings were used as mortuary objects when wealthy or powerful people had died. Chinese believed their souls would live forever after death of bodies. 

The artistic giant ding is the magnum opus in the Shang Dynasty. Aesthetical excellence and the tremendously bigness mean the vessel has not been for daily use. So, by what ideas and notions to which people would make such a large ding-vessel, and, what are the meanings of the inscription "司母戊" inside in vessel ? 

"母戊" (Mu Wu) was the temple name, which was honored to the mother of Emperor Wen Ding (reigned 1112 BC – 1102 BC) of the Shang Dynasty. And "司" (Si) read "祀" (Si) in ancient China, the latter word meant "offer sacrifice to". Therefore, the inscription "司母戊" inside in vessel means "Offer Sacrifice to the King Mother". 

However, archeologists disproved this saying. They discovered that the born of the giant vessel was about a century earlier. Generally, to judge the time of an ancient thing, it should know the relations between the thing and other ancient relic seen at the location, where the thing has been excavated. However, there was no other relic had been found at the site where people discovered the giant bronze ding-vessel, and no ancient tomb was seen too. Therefore, to judge the age of the ding, the archeologists just could research the shape and pattern of the relic. 

There is another saying that the character "司" should be translated as "后" (Queen), which is seen as a laterally reversed form of the former one, because "母戊" was a queen in the Shang Dynasty. And she was not the mother of Emperor Wen Ding, but the mother of Emperor Zu Geng or Zu Jia in early twelfth century BC. 

In 1976 the tomb of Fu Hao (妇好), who was a queen of Emperor Wu Ding (武丁, reigned 1259 BC – 1200 BC). She was also the first female military general in ancient China. Archeologists found a ding in her tomb. The shape, pattern and the inscription style in the vessel are very similar to the giant bronze rectangular ding-vessel. This evidence helped researchers to know the character "戊" (the fifth of the ten heavenly stems in Chinese era), which was supposed to be the name a queen of Wu Ding. Obviously, the giant ding-vessel had been for holding memorial sacrifices to King's mother.