Page 279 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

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Bronze huoding tripod, pair of lifting hooks, bly in use from early times but have rarely left
and ladle traces in the archaeological record.
Hinged lifting hooks were found hooked onto
5
a. ding: height 57 (22 Vs), diam. 57.4 (22 A)
the rim of the two large ding — either directly be-
b. hooks: length 24.5 (9%) neath the handle or next to it. According to the
3
c. ladle: length 158.5 (62 / 8)
Han dictionary Shuo wen jie zi, such hooks (termed
Warring States Period (c. 433 BCE)
yu) were used to lift the ding onto the fire. Similar
From Leigudun, Suixian, Hubei Province
hooks have been found in a number of tombs, but it
Hubei Provincial Museum, Wuhan is rare that their function is so clearly indicated by
3
their placement. The long ladle (bi) was discovered
From the Shang period forward, ding tripods con- lying across this vessel and the second large ding; it
stituted the core of the ritual vessel set. The tomb was probably used to transfer their contents to flat-
of Marquis Yi yielded twenty ding, numerically the bottomed tripods (called sheng ding), which were
largest category of ritual vessels found in the tomb placed next to the two large ding. 4
and the most complete recovered group of such Seams still visible on the body of the ding show
vessels. This example 1 is one of the two largest in that it was cast in a four-section mold. The legs
the tomb. In the ritual texts, large ding were termed and handles were cast in two-section molds and
huo, defined as vessels for boiling meat and fish. 2 inserted into apertures cut into the molds for the
Ox bones found within the vessel and soot still body; they were locked into place when molten
visible on the base indicate that it had been used bronze was poured to form the body. This precast-
for that purpose — probably during the funerary ing of the legs represents an advance compared
ritual itself. The ding was found with a woven bam- with Shang and Western Zhou foundry methods,
boo lid, largely disintegrated; such lids were proba- which usually cast legs in the same pour as the

278 CH U AN D O T H E R C U L T U R E S