Friends born before the millennium may remember that our primary school history textbook highlighted a national treasure called "Simu Pengding", which is also the cover illustration of the primary school history textbook, which is a genuine national treasure-level cultural relic, representing the highest level of Bronze ware in the Shang Dynasty.
I don't know if you have noticed that since 2011, the name "Simu Pengding" rarely appears in books and the media, and is replaced by the name "Houmu Pengding". Why is it that a national treasure that we have been calling for decades suddenly changed its name?
Simu Pengding
In 1939, a giant fangding statue was unearthed in the village of Wuguan in Anyang City, Henan Province, which weighed more than 800 kilograms and required 10 or so laborers to lift it. Since The Village of Wuguan in Anyang City has been the site of the Yin Ruins since ancient times, and many Shang Dynasty bronzes have been excavated in local history, the villagers concluded that this huge bronze statue is the Baoding of the Shang Dynasty and a national treasure passed down from generation to generation.
Soon, the Japanese learned that Anyang had dug up a Shang Dynasty bronze statue. They first sent a small group of Japanese troops to search the village, but the villagers learned in advance that the Japanese army was coming to grab the bronze ding, they hid the bronze ding, and the Japanese army searched fruitlessly and returned without success.
After the Japanese army left, the villagers felt that the Japanese army would definitely not give up, so the villager Wu Peiwen went to Zhengzhou to buy a fake ding, and hid the fake ding in his own Kang cave. Unsurprisingly, a few days later, the Japanese army came to the military attaché village again to search baoding, and they quickly found the fake ding, and happily took the fake ding with it. In order to prevent Zhending from being taken away by the Japanese army, the villagers decided to bury Zhending back into the ground after deliberation.
In June 1946, the Central Museum of the Nationalist Government decided to dig Fang Ding back. After digging it out again, everyone found that Fang Ding was missing one ear. After asking for instructions, Fang Ding was transported to the Preparatory Office of the Central Museum in Nanjing for preservation.
In 1949, the Kuomintang Central Museum transported a large number of national treasures to Taiwan by plane. Because the bronze ding was so heavy that the plane could not pull the national treasure, they threw the bronze ding on the side of the flight runway of Nanjing Airport. After the People's Liberation Army discovered Fang Ding, it sent it to the Nanjing Museum.
In 1959, the bronze ding was transferred to Beijing and was collected in the Museum of Chinese History (today's National Museum). Guo Moruo, president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences at the time and an expert in literature and history, after viewing the bronze ding, named the bronze ding "Simu Pengding" according to the three-character inscription of "Simu Pengding" in the ding.
The height of Simu Pengding is 133 cm, the length of the ding mouth is 110 cm, the width of the ding mouth is 79 cm, and the total weight is 832.84 kg. The body is rectangular, and the four sides of the body are cast with exquisite gluttonous and dragon patterns; the upper part of the ding has a circle of folding edges; there is a pair of ears on both sides of the ding; (one of the standing ears was lost when it was excavated, which was later imitated according to the other standing ear that remained); the lower part of the ding body is four columnar supporting feet, and the feet are cast with exquisite cicada patterns; and the inscription with the word "Simu Peng" is cast on the inside of the ding abdomen. It is based on these three words that Guo Moruo named it "Simu Pengding".
Simu Pengding is huge and majestic, and it adopts advanced and complex processes such as shaping mud film, turning the pottery fan and hefan infusion in the production process, representing the highest level of bronze production in the Shang Dynasty in mainland China. Simu Pengding is the heaviest piece of bronze unearthed on the mainland so far, and it is a veritable "heavy weapon".
Stepmother Pentadydon
In 1976, the tomb of the Shang Dynasty's women was found in the Yin Ruins of Anyang. Nuhao was the first female military commander recorded so far, and was the queen of Wuding, the Shang King. A large number of cultural relics have been excavated in the tomb of the woman, and one of them, "Empress Xinding", has attracted the attention of experts. Whether in terms of shape, inscription, or ornamentation on Ding's body, the Houmu Xinding is extremely similar to the Simu Pengding unearthed decades ago.
As we all know, Simu Pengding is a statue cast by The Shang King Zu Geng or Zu Jia to sacrifice his mother, the wife of the Shang King Wuding. By coincidence, historical records record that The Woman was one of the more than 60 wives of the Shang King Wuding, and was also the wife of Wuding.
Since Simu Pengding and the later unearthed Stepmother Xinding are the same period of Ding, some experts have overturned the name that Guo Moruo gave to Simu Pengding before, believing that "Simu Pengding" should be renamed "Houmu Pengding".
As for the matter of the renaming of Simu Pengding to Houmu Pengding, scholars were divided into two factions. A school of experts who called it Simu Pengding believed that the word "Si" was synonymous with the word "祀" of the sacrifice at that time, and "E" was the temple number of the mother of the Shang King Wending, so the three words "Simu Peng" together can be understood as: the copper Ding of the sacrifice of mother Peng.
Another school of scholars believes that the word "Si" was the same as the "Hou" character at that time, in the Shang Dynasty, the writing method of the font was relatively free, and the partial head had not yet formed a format, and could be placed at will, so "Si" could be written orthographed, and to the left it read "Si" and to the right it read "Hou"; In addition, combined with the houmu Xinding excavated from the tomb of the woman, the word "Hou" was connected with the word "Huang", which had the meaning of "Empress", which was a noble honor, so this part of the scholars preferred to rename "Simu Pengding" to "Simu Pengding". Stepmother Pentad".
epilogue
On March 6, 2011, the CCTV news channel officially issued an announcement in the "News 30 Minutes" program: "Simu Pengding" was renamed "Houmu Pengding", and since then, the nameplate of Simu Pengding in the exhibition of the National Museum has been changed to Houmu Pengding, and an academic dispute has come to an end.
In fact, whether it is called "Simu Pengding" or "Houmu Pengding", there is no mistake, because this word may be called "Si" or "Hou" in the Shang Dynasty, and the only blame can be blamed on the academic rigor of the ancients. No matter which name this Statue Fang Ding is called, it does not affect its position in the cultural history of the mainland, and Fang Ding's name is irrelevant to us ordinary people.
So, which name are you more interested in? Welcome to leave a message to discuss!