| Houmuwu ding | |||||||||
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| Chinese | 后母戊鼎 | ||||||||
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TheHoumuwuding (Chinese:后母戊鼎;pinyin:Hòumǔwù dǐng), also calledSimuwuding (司母戊鼎;Sīmǔwù dǐng), is a rectangular bronzeding (sacrificial vessel, one of the common types ofChinese ritual bronzes) of the ancient ChineseShang dynasty. It is the heaviest piece of bronzeware to survive from anywhere in the ancient world.[1] It was unearthed in 1939 in Wuguan Village,Anyang, Henan, nearYinxu, the site of the last Shang dynasty capital.
The naming of bronzeware generally follows this principle: the last character is usually the type of the ware, e.g.ding,dou,hu,pan, orzun. Since this bronzeware is ading, it is called XXding. The specific type ofding depends on whether the ware has an inscription. If there is an inscription, the character in the inscription that can reflect the name of the owner of the ware is used as the name of theding. There are a total of three characters inscribed on the vessel.[2]
Theding is named for the inscription inbronzeware script on the interior wall, which reads "Queen Mother Wu" (后母戊;Hòumǔwù).[3] This is thetemple name ofFu Jing, queen and primary wife ofWu Ding.[4] Theding was made after her death, presumably by her son,Zu Geng of Shang.[5] While theding itself was unearthed in 1939, in Wuguan Village (五官村),Anyang, Henan,[6]Fu Jing's tomb (tomb 260 atYinxu) was not located until 1959, and was found to have been looted.[5]
The Ding was unearthed in Anyang,Henan in 1939. In October 1946, after an on-site interview by reporter Shao Shenzhi, it was confirmed to be a bronze vessel from theShang Dynasty. The inscription was interpreted as "Queen Wu" or "Wife Wu". In November, scholar Zhang Feng interpreted the inscription as "Simu Wu". It was named "Simu Wu Large Square Ding". In 1959, Guo Moruo believed that "Si" is the same as "Si", which means that the tripod was cast by Wu's son to worship his mother. So it was named "Simu Wu Ding".[7]
Theding is of the rectangular type, with four legs. It is 133 cm (52 in) high, 110 cm (43 in) wide, 79 cm (31 in) deep, and weighs 832.84 kg (1,836.1 lb).[3] Compared to earlierding, such as theDulingfangdings (杜岭方鼎), it is wider and its walls are thicker, making it much more massive.[8] Each side has a blank space in the middle, surrounded by a band of decoration featuringtaotie (animal faced creatures) andkuilong (one-legged dragons).[8] There are two handles, each decorated on the exterior with two tigers facing each other, their jaws closing around a human head in between them, an image which is also found onFu Hao battle axes.[8]
The vessel is the largest and heaviest ancient Chinese bronzeware yet discovered. It is the only one of its kind in the world, and is a representative work of Shang bronzeware.[9]
The inscription was originally written assīmǔwù (司母戊).[10] After 1949,Guo Moruo, then president of theChinese Academy of Sciences, interpreted the inscription assīmǔwù. Guo interpreted the wordsī as meaning "sacrifice" and "Wù" as the temple name of the owner of the tomb.[11] In 1977,Li Xueqin proposed that the first glyph in the inscription should be read ashòu (后; ''queen''), rejectingsī becausesimuwu is a verb-object construction rare in the epigraphic record.[12] Such interpretation caused widespread concern in the academics.[11]Sun Ji pointed out that manyoracle bone inscriptions can be written in horizontal reflection, andhòu (后; ''queen'') is the horizontal reflection ofsi (司).[13][14] In March 2011, after the renovation of theNational Museum of China reopened, in the special display of "ancient Chinese bronze art",Sīmǔwù has been renamed asHòumǔwù.[15]
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