In Zhengzhou in September 1974, the temperature plummeted, but the enthusiasm of the people to dig tunnels did not cool down at all. At the construction site of Duling Street and Zhangzhai South Street, a sanitation worker named Yuan Haijun was working with an iron pickaxe when he suddenly felt that he had touched a hard object. He immediately shouted, "There's something here!" The workers immediately rushed over, and after cleaning up the surrounding dirt with their hands and feet, two ancient cultural relics in the shape of incense burners appeared in front of them.
The news did not go away, the Zhengzhou Museum is only one kilometer away from here, Yang Yubin of the Henan Provincial Cultural Relics Task Force immediately arrived with three staff members and protected the scene. At the end of the tunnel he saw several scattered bronzes, but very neatly arranged. The two so-called incense burners are actually two bronze dings, east and west side by side, put together in a dignified manner.
Because there is no inscription, they named the Land Duling Fangding, one large and one small, in order to make the two copper dings with different heights look generally high, the buriers deliberately dug the soil under the taller copper dings down a little. The shape, appearance and even ornamentation of the two square dings are very similar. The larger one was named "Duling One", weighing 86. 4 kilograms, sent to the collection of the National Museum; the smaller one is called "Duling II", weighing 64. 25 kilograms, has become the treasure of the Henan Provincial Museum.
Duling Fangding is indeed very solemn and beautiful, it is a four-legged square ding, it looks very primitive, in the upper part of its abdomen is a beast face pattern, slightly vicious, the lower half and both sides are milky stripes. According to the analysis, the animal face pattern is gluttonous, a greedy beast, symbolizing eating. The meaning of the milk nail pattern, I believe everyone can also understand, that is also the representative of the most primitive needs of human beings. More importantly, studies have shown that the Duling Fangding belongs to the cultural relics of the middle Shang Dynasty, and is the earliest Chinese ceremonial vessel with decorative food patterns and milk nail patterns found so far.
Later, the significance of Duling Fangding is even more astonishing, we have unearthed so many bronzes, but it is the earliest, the largest, the most perfect casting, the most complete preservation of the heavy weapon. It is no exaggeration to say that Duling Fangding is the first landmark cultural relics created by human beings after entering the Bronze Age.
However, for the city of Zhengzhou, Duling Fangding has more important significance. As early as 1959, Guo Moruo wrote a poem while inspecting the ruins of Zhengzhou Shangcheng, which read:
Zhengzhou is also a Yin Ruins, the capital of Ding in the Doubtful Book.
The underground ancient city is deep and thick, and the relics in the tomb are rich.
Originally, the "shang" of "Zhengzhou Mall" did not mean business, but Yin Shang. Because this was originally the land of the Central Plains and one of the origins of the Chinese nation, it was quite important in ancient times. For a long time, many Shang Dynasty bronzes have been excavated in Zhengzhou, so it has been called "Shangcheng". It is also suspected that this place may have once served as the capital of the Shang Dynasty. However, there is no ironclad evidence for this claim, especially the excavated bronzes are not enough in status, and they are scattered, and many archaeologists believe that the Shang Dynasty nobles temporarily abandoned them because they escaped the war.
The excavation of two Duling Fangding finally put forward new arguments for this proposition. They are majestic and majestic, and they are obviously the weapons of the king, and they are not ordinary nobles who can make and use them. Moreover, the state in which they were deliberately placed when they were buried was obviously not hidden during the escape, but was itself used as a ceremonial vessel. Therefore, these two pieces of Fangding may raise Zhengzhou from the status of an ordinary "shopping mall" to a "commercial capital".
Guo Moruo had suspected that Zhengzhou might be the capital of Yin moved by the Shang king Zhongding. However, at that time, the evidence was scarce, and Guo Lao could only use "doubt" to express his speculation. The appearance of Duling Fangding strongly proves Guo Lao's conjecture and restores the truth of the facts step by step. Of course, later in 1982 and 1996, Zhengzhou unearthed two batches of 6 bronze fangdings. Their buried state and form are no different from Duling Fangding's, which once again proves Guo Lao's conjecture and sends Zhengzhou into the ranks of the "Eight Ancient Capitals of China".