Page 40 - Deydier VOL.2 Meiyintang Collection of Chinese Bronses

At the beginning of the Shang dynasty, during the Erligang period, ding are
very thinly cast and have a deep, rounded body, two small vertical handles,
and either hollow cylindrical legs or, extremely rarely, flattened legs.
During the Yinxu period, the vessel’s body grows more rounded to become a
complete round bowl shape, its vertical handles become thicker, and its legs
become cylindrical and full-bodied. In exceptional cases, the ding’s legs are
flat in the shape of simple blades or shaped like stylized dragons or birds, or,
extremely rarely, like tigers. The animals on such legs are always shown in
profile.
During the Zhou dynasty, the ding is the most popular bronze
vessel and becomes more massive and less deep; its vertical
handles are now fixed on the sides of its body and not on
the rim as in earlier periods. During the Spring and Autumn
and Warring States periods, ding sometimes have covers
decorated with small animals or birds in the round, handles
fixed on the walls of the body, and sometimes curved legs
looking like stylized animals.
Dou 豆
This hemispherical cup supported by a high flared foot, was
used to hold and display food offerings during ritual banquets.
The vessel’s cover, when turned upside-down, serves as a
second food receptacle with its own legs.
Known in pottery since the Longshan culture (龍山文化)
(3 - 2,000 bc.) in the Neolithic Period and discovered in white
pottery at the Yinxu period Shang dynasty archeological sites
in modern-day Anyang, the dou seems to have first appeared
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in bronze only around the 9 century bc.
This bronze vessel was most popular during the Spring and Autumn and
Warring States periods of the Eastern Zhou dynasty.
Dui 敦
This round vessel which is surmounted by a cover or top
section of the same shape and often the same size, and which
was most probably used both to hold and to serve food, has at
various times been called either a gui, dui or zhan.
Although the dui is already described in the Erya (爾雅)
(‘Literary Exposition’, a compilation of commentaries on
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the classics, the meanings of words, etc. produced by scholars between the
Qin and the early Western Han dynasties) as ‘entirely spherical’, it was the
antiquarians of the Song dynasty who began using the term dui exclusively to
refer to such spherical vessels.
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First appearing towards the end of the 6 century bc., this type of vessel
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disappears towards the middle of the 4 century bc.
Fangding 方鼎
This important and quite common cooking vessel is, as its
name indicates, a variation of the ding. This rectangular
vessel with two vertical handles fixed on the rim is supported
by four legs, usually cylindrical, but, in some rare cases,
blade-shaped.
Known in pottery as early as the Erlitou culture period,
the fangding appears cast in bronze for the first time at
the beginning of the Shang dynasty during the Erligang
period. Its casting is already extremely sophisticated with
thin walls and hollow cylindrical legs and hollow vertical
handles. Sometimes the fangding of the period can be of an
extremely large size, like the two fangding excavated in 1974
in Zhengzhou city, Henan province, one of which is 1 meter high, 61 cm wide
and 62.5 cm long and weighs 86.4 kg, while the second is 87 cm high, 61 cm
wide and weighs 62.25 kg.
During the Yinxu period small morphological changes appear in the fangding;
its legs and handles are no longer hollow, but are now full-bodied. The vessel
is more heavily cast with thicker walls and more powerful legs. Sometimes
fangding may be of a huge size. The largest Shang fangding known, excavated
from one of the sites at modern-day Anyang is the Si Mu Wu (司母戊)
fangding, dating from the reign of the Shang King Wen Ding (商王文丁). It
has a height of 133 cm and weighs 875 kg and was cast as a memorial to
king Wen Ding’s mother. The most spectacular fangding in design is the He
Da (禾大) fangding found in 1959 at Ningxiang, Hunan province. This very
unique vessel, from the late Shang dynasty, and of quite medium size, being
38.5 cm high and 29.8 cm long, is decorated on each of its four sides with a
large human mask, the rarest motif in the corpus of Shang bronze designs.
The shape of the fangding undergoes no major changes during the Western
Zhou dynasty, but sometimes flanges appear on the vessel’s body and legs;
at other times the legs are thinner and higher. The major changes are in the
vessel’s decoration which follows the typical motifs used in this later period.
Fangding disappear during the Western Zhou dynasty.
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