At that time, the power to communicate with heaven and earth and worship ancestors was unique to the upper class of society, so the size and number of ding used became a symbol of aristocratic status, rank and status. During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, there were strict regulations on the number of ding, namely, emperor Jiuding, vassal seven ding, doctor five ding, scholar three ding or one ding. Different status, not only the number of ding is different, but also the sacrifices are different. Jiuding is divided into nine prisons for cattle, sheep, tapirs (pigs), fish, wax, fresh fish and fresh wax; The seven pots are divided into "seven prisons" for cattle, sheep, tapirs, fish and wax; Five ding sheng sheep, tapirs (pigs), fish, wax and skins are called "five prisons"; The three pots are divided into three parts: dolphin, fish wax and a golden dolphin, which are called "three prisons" and "one prison" respectively.
Because the Emperor of Heaven dedicated Jiuding, when offering sacrifices to the ancestors of heaven and earth, he gave the gift of nine prisons, so Ding naturally became a symbol of state power and then became a treasure spread throughout the country. "Zuo Zhuan Gong Xuan's Three Years" records: "In summer, distant objects cast nine tripod statues ... Jie Li was confused, so he moved the tripod to the topic, ... Shang and Zhou dynasties were tyrannical, and the tripod moved to Zhou." "Emperor Century" records: "Tang is the emperor's position, so it moved to Jiuding in Bo." "Zuo Zhuan Huan Gong Er Nian" also records: "Wang Wu can still move to Jiuding in Luoyi." Therefore, Historical Records of Zhou Benji said: "This tripod will determine the survival of the country, so it is a battle for kings." So a very famous "winning the championship" story happened in history.
The so-called "winning the championship" is actually to ascend the throne. In 606 BC, he conquered Rong and led a military parade in Luoyang. King Ding of Zhou had no choice but to send a king to comfort the Chu army. Chu Zhuangzi has ulterior motives to ask about the size of Zhou's royal family Jiuding. Wang was very clear about his intention, so he told righteously that the country was not in the tripod at all, but in Germany. This story certainly reflects the historical facts of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, disputes between princes, and the collapse of ceremonies, but it also shows the status in people's minds at that time.
According to the "Warring States Policy", during the Warring States period, Qin had long coveted Jiuding of the Zhou royal family. The frightened King of Zhou used the strategy of leading the minister Yan to ask Qi to help repel Qin, and promised that Jiuding would stay in Qi afterwards. Qi sent troops to repel, so he asked Zhou Wang for dominance. Seeing this, he asked, if Jiuding is given to you, how can you carry it back to China? The king of Qi said he would cross the girder. Yan rate said that Wei has tried to seek Jiuding, and if it crosses the girder, Wei will definitely detain Jiuding. The king of qi said, let's change Chu. Yan said that Chu was eager to win the tripod. King Qi asked, Which way should I go? Yan rate slowly told the King of Qi a story about the Zhou Dynasty moving its capital to Jiuding, saying that the King of Zhou used as many as 998 1 10,000 people to transport Jiuding that year. At this time, the king of Qi finally understood the intention of Yan rate and had to give up. The intention of Yan rate here is actually very clear, that is, all countries covet Jiuding. If Jiuding is really transported away from Qi, the result will be no peace all day long.
According to legend, in the second year after the Qin Dynasty was destroyed, Jiuding of the Zhou royal family moved to Xianyang. But when Qin Shihuang destroyed the six countries and unified the world, Jiuding had disappeared. Some people say that Jiuding sank in Pengcheng, Surabaya, so Qin Shihuang made a trip here and sent thousands of people to dive for salvage. The result was in vain. From Chu Zhuangwang to Qin Shihuang, Jiuding's stories are true and false, implying social unrest here.
In a word, Ding did have an irreplaceable position in people's minds at that time. Therefore, it is the common law of the country for Zheng people to "cast the punishment book on the tripod" ("Zuo Gong Six Years" Du Zhuyun); Zhu Jin Ding, a punishment book written by Fan, has been circulated for a long time (Twenty-nine Years of Zuo Gong), "Ji Wuzi got soldiers to cast Ding", sold soldiers to make Ding, and showed peace and stability (Lv Chunqiu) and so on. Today, the words related to Ding generally have the meaning of grandeur, nobility, prominence or success. Ding Yun, Ming Ding and Ding You are metaphors of emperor status or national destiny. Ding Fa, Ding Shi, Ding Gui and Ding Jia refer to noble brothers; Ding industry refers to the great cause of the emperor; Ding Yu refers to the will of the emperor; Ding ci refers to four rewards; Ding Qi refers to the prosperity of the country; Zheng, Zhi Jianguo, Ding et al. , while others include Dingsheng, Dingzhong, Dingju, Dingsheng, Dingzhu, Harmony and so on.
After all, a tripod is just a cooker used to cook food every day. At first, it was fired with pottery. The original mode was to stand three feet under the container and add firewood to cook food. This kind of artifacts originated very early, and there were bowl-shaped and pot-shaped ding in Peiligang cultural site in the early Neolithic period of Central Plains. Pot Ding Unearthed from Daxi Cultural Site in the Yangtze River Valley. Later, various forms of pottery ding were unearthed in Dawenkou culture in Shandong, Qujialing culture in Hubei, Longshan culture and Liangzhu culture.
It is precisely because Ding is an indispensable and important cooker in people's daily life, especially Ding itself "cooks without cooking"; That is to say, it is a combination of cooker and cooker, and has the advantage of standing stably. After entering the bronze dynasty, its status was promoted, that is, it eventually became a ritual vessel for nobles to feast and worship their ancestors. "Shuo Wen Jie Zi" says: "Ding, three feet and two ears, the treasure of five flavors."
"Han Shi Zhuan" says: "One yin is negative, and five flavors are mixed." It can be seen that after entering the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, I am afraid that most bronze tripod with ears will no longer be used as cooking utensils, but will be openly used as an important vessel for regulating the five flavors. As we know, bronze is an alloy of copper and tin or zinc, while tin and zinc are metals with very low melting points and are not resistant to high temperatures. As for the new four-legged Fang Ding, it is even more incredible to regard it as a cooker.
At present, the earliest bronzes in China appear in Erlitouxia cultural site in Yanshi, Henan. It is a hollow foot with ears, deep abdomen, three cones and thin walls. Its shape is relatively primitive and it is very close to the pottery tripod of Longshan culture.
In the early Shang Dynasty, the casting technology of bronze tripod made obvious progress, the wall of the tripod was thickened evenly, and the surface was generally decorated with complex decorative patterns such as animal face patterns. The abdomen is still relatively deep, generally a conical hollow foot. The newly-developed Fang Ding is a hollow column foot, and the bronze tripod wall in the middle and late Shang Dynasty is generally thick and thick, and its shape is more mature. Most of the feet are columnar feet, and the decorative patterns tend to be fine and beautiful.
1938, a generous tripod was unearthed in Wuguan Village, Anyang, Henan Province, which caused a sensation throughout the country. This is the famous Simuwu, with a height of 133cm, a mouth length of 1 10cm, a width of 78cm and a weight of 832.5kg.. It is the heaviest tripod in the world at present, and it is a bronze cultural miracle in China. Imagine that if the crucible capacity for melting copper was 12.5 kg at that time, it would take more than 70 crucibles to cast such a huge object. If each crucible needs three or four people, then at least 250 people need to work at the same time. If design, mold making, fan turning, fan assembling, fan disassembling and trimming are added, the production scene can be imagined.
Bronze Ding in Shang Dynasty appeared in large numbers and was widely distributed, stretching to Shandong Peninsula in the east, northern Hebei in the west, central Shaanxi and across the Yangtze River in the south. The famous facial tattoo Fang Ding was found in Ningxiang, Hunan.
Compared with the Shang Dynasty, the shape of Ding in the early Zhou Dynasty did not change significantly. Because the Zhou people learned the lesson of merchants' drunkenness and banned alcohol by mistake, the status of the food tripod was unprecedentedly improved. Zhou people finally established the ritual system of bronze heavy food containers headed by Ding. A number of cauldrons appeared, with huge volume, huge abdomen and thick column feet. Yu Ding can be regarded as a typical representative of cauldron at that time.
In the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the bronze ritual system of Zhou people was completely established, and the status of Ding in it was more stable and its shape was more stable. More importantly, such as wool (see Figure 9). Animals with standing ears, round bottom and short hoofs were popular in the late Western Zhou Dynasty, such as Ding.
The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were a period of great cultural turmoil in China's history. With the awakening of human nature, the sacrificial culture finally began to enter the old age, and the Sanding system inevitably declined. Due to the collapse of rites and disputes between princes, the bronze ware system gradually disintegrated, the most prominent manifestations are two points. First, it has obvious regional characteristics. At this time, Ding Can is basically divided into two systems: the northern system is represented by Sanjin, and its shape is round cover, round belly, high feet or short feet; The southern department is represented by Chu Feng, whose belly is deep, the bottom is flat and the cover is flat, and the three are left out in the cold. Secondly, a large number of pottery ritual vessels similar to bronze have been unearthed, especially pottery ding.
With the appearance of ironware and Niu Geng, the disintegration of feudal lords and the establishment of bureaucratic autocracy, bronze ritual vessels finally completed their own history. This ritual vessel with a long history gradually entered the history museum and basically disappeared after the Western Han Dynasty.
We mentioned Zuo Zhuan for three years, and Wang replied, "Painting things far away, paying tribute, and casting ding as things." What does this mean? Wang Xia painted all kinds of distant objects, and cast the objects on the tripod with Kyushu tribute gold, which actually revealed an important problem, that is, the decorative patterns on bronze watches have specific content and special significance.
We can further confirm this from the following passage of Wang. The king went on to say, "Everything is prepared for it, so that the people can know the treachery of the gods. Therefore, as soon as the people met, they entered Zeshan Forest in Sichuan and were fascinated by each other. If they don't meet, they can use their energy to cooperate with each other to inherit the sky. " In other words, bronzes are decorated with images, which makes everything in the world complete and aims to make people know what is God and what is evil. In this way, no matter where people go, nothing bad will happen to them, and neither will monsters.
Only in this way can the society be peaceful and harmonious and bear the blessings given by God. So on the bronze ritual vessels of Shang and Zhou Dynasties headed by Ding, we saw such colorful patterns. Such as pictographic patterns of animals, dragons, Feng Niaowen, fire, cicadas and silkworms, as well as geometric patterns such as stolen songs, twists and turns, and hooked mine patterns, are rich and colorful. These patterns, especially dragons, phoenixes, cicadas and silkworms, have profound cultural significance and connotation. To put it simply, it is said that the dragon pattern "Kao Gong Ji" is obviously a unique product of China's agricultural civilization.
Finally, I have to talk about the inscription on the inner wall of the bronze tripod. The inscriptions on bronzes began in the late Shang Dynasty. At first, it was just the title of the performer's father, ancestor, mother or brother, and even the family emblem. Later, it developed into a long inscription of three or four crosses, praising the nature of merit. Such as "Sun Zuozu is married", eleven characters. One of the biggest differences between Western Zhou bronzes and Shang bronzes is the appearance of a large number of long historical inscriptions, such as Ding Xiaoyu's record of Kang Wang's conquest of ghost faces; Kang Wang's Da recorded the historical experiences and lessons such as the death of Yin and the death of Zhou Xing. Another example is the sacrifice to Hou Ding, which makes the book generous, generous, generous, and generous.
Mao's inscription in the west is 499 words long, which is the bronze ware with the largest number of inscriptions so far. These inscriptions can undoubtedly make up for the shortcomings of historical documents. It is of irreplaceable significance to study the history and culture of the Western Zhou Dynasty. By the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, long inscriptions were rare, such as the Ding of Zeng and the Ding of Ding in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. The inscription is nothing more than four or five crosses, which is nothing more than the wish of the governors and doctors in troubled times to cast a tripod for health and longevity.
China culture is both metaphysical culture and ritual culture. The ancient philosophers in China experienced the secrets in the universe with a tacit attitude. (Tagore) This secret is rhythm and harmony, and rhythm is order, which is the basic spirit of the ceremony; Harmony is the spirit of happiness. China people not only permeated this spirit into real life, but also decorated it with utensils used in daily life, so that metaphysical objects inspired metaphysical ways.
The most realistic musical instrument is endowed with lofty significance and beautiful form, which makes it not only a practical musical instrument, but also a dialogue with people, thus achieving the realm of harmonious coexistence between man and nature. The tripod, which is extremely ordinary and then extremely brilliant in history, is such a cultural product that embodies rhythm and harmony and is based on the unity of man and nature. Therefore, even if it fades out of the historical stage today, as a direct carrier of China culture, it will still leave a bright future in the minds of China people and play an irreplaceable special role forever.