Page 397 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

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Bronze ding tripod with bear-shaped legs Han practices have yet to be fully explored. It may
be that the plain ding and hu found in many tombs
?
Height 18.1 (jVs), diam. 20 (j /%)
were intended for this purpose.
Western Han Dynasty, late second century BCE
(c. 113) While this bronze has many similarities with
From the tomb of Liu Sheng at Lingshan, earlier Eastern Zhou ding vessels, particularly those
its successors, it
Jin state
from
in Shanxi and
the
Mancheng, Hebei Province
also has several characteristics that point to a later
Hebei Provincial Museum, Shijiazhuang manufacture: the locking device (which suggests
that the container was filled with something impor-
Numerous bronze vessels were found in the tomb tant that merited extra security in cooking or serv-
of Liu Sheng, most of them plain utensils — basins, ing) is not seen during the earlier period, while
cauldrons, steamers, and flasks — intended for the the bear-shaped feet are a feature common to many
day-to-day preparation of food. This example, 1 Han bronzes. (Freestanding bear-shaped feet seem
however, evokes an ancient tradition of ritual ding to have been intended to support lacquered vessels
2
food vessels. Between each of the two U-shaped that have since decayed and disappeared. )
handles on either side of the body, fastened on a Bears are somewhat unusual in the repertoire
small pin, an animal-like peg can be slotted beneath of ancient Chinese animal motifs, and no bronze
two of the four animals standing on the lid to hold examples are known from the Shang or the Zhou
the lid in position, or removed from this locking periods. While the bear figure may have been a Han
position and lifted backward. innovation, part of a repertoire of new designs, two
It seems unlikely that this ding and the hu from other sources for the image have also been pro-
the tomb of Liu Sheng (cat. 132) were intended for posed. It may have been borrowed from Western
ritual ancestor offerings, although late Zhou and Asian, Central Asian, and Siberian images of "the

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