What is the "Jiuding" cast by Dayu, what is it like, and why is it mysteriously missing?
Ding, for a Chinese, is not strange at all!
From the perspective of ordinary people, Ding is just a tool for the ancestors to cook rice. To put it in connotation, Ding is also a tool for temple sacrifice.
For the ordinary Ding, everyone is actually not very interested, but before 4000 BC, after the success of Dayu Zhishui, the Chinese social system underwent tremendous changes, starting from Dayu, the Xia Dynasty was established.
After the establishment of Xia, the tribal alliance became a dynastic rule, and Dayu divided the entire country into nine states.
Subsequently, Xia Yu ordered the casting of Jiuding as a symbol of Kyushu and the king's power.
Xia Yu's division of the world into nine states was a remarkable political move.
The Left Biography records this:
Mang Mangyu Trace, painted as Kyushu, via the Nine Paths of Enlightenment. The people have sleeping temples, and the beasts have thatch. Each has its own stakes, and morality is not disturbed.
Translated as the current words:
After Dayu established the Xia Dynasty, he divided the country into nine states, thus carrying out hierarchical and effective management. On this basis, nine more avenues were built to connect them.
Since then, the people have had a fixed dwelling, a temple for sacrifice, and wild beasts have lush wild grasses. The people and the beasts, moving in their respective regions, coexist in harmony with each other and do not disturb each other.
Dayuhua Jiuzhou, this incident is not a figment, and there are a large number of historical materials to confirm.
The "Poems, Shang Song, and Xuan Bird Chapters" says: "After Fang Ming's death, there are nine of them. The same book, "Long Hair", says: "The imperial order style is in the nine surroundings." ”
The "nine haves" and "nine sieges" here mean Kyushu.
In addition, in the Spring and Autumn Period, the "Shuyi Bell Inscription" said: "Hehe chengtang, there is Yan zai emperor, Pu received the mandate of heaven, cut the xia, defeated the spirit master." Yi Xiaochen Weifu, Xian has Kyushu, and yu is blocked. ”
The general meaning of this historical record is that Chengtang was protected by the Heavenly Emperor, cut off the Xia Division, obtained the right to rule Kyushu, and even relocated the capital of the country to the place where Dayu lived.
From another point of view, the Shang Dynasty followed the Xia Dynasty and divided the world into Kyushu.
Xia Yu cast the "Jiuding", which is recorded in detail in the Zuo Zhuan:
The side of the former Xia has virtue, distant pictures, tribute and nine pastures, casting ding elephants, and preparing a hundred things for them, so that the people know that the gods are adulterous. The old people entered the mountains and forests of Kawazawa, and it was not bad. The charms are two, and there is no way to meet them. Use energy to cooperate with the upper and lower levels, in order to inherit the heavens.
Roughly speaking, it means:
On Jiuding, the cast image "has the name of the country, there are mountains and rivers, there are gods and strange things," and the name of the country is the name of Kyushu. The image has a more meaning of "using energy to cooperate with the upper and lower levels, in order to inherit the heavens and rest", that is, people on the earth can communicate with heaven and earth and human gods and obtain protection. This latter point is actually the real purpose of Xia Yu's casting.
The role of Jiuding is not only to communicate with heaven and earth, but also to be a magic weapon of the religion of man and god, and it is also a symbol of Kyushu and royal power in the world. As the heirloom of the three dynasties of Xia and Shang, when did it disappear?
After the Shang Dynasty destroyed Xia, it moved its capital to Xi bo.
In the "Left Biography", it is recorded that there are four dim virtues, Ding Moved to Shang, and carried 600 ancestors.
The Bamboo Book Chronicle says: "Shang Tang 'twenty-seven years, moved jiuding to Shangyi'. ”
The "Shangyi" here is also known as Xi bo.
Obviously, Jiuding continued from the Xia Dynasty to the Shang Dynasty, and with the continuous changes in the capital of the Shang Dynasty, Jiuding also migrated.
In 1046 BC, king Wu established the Zhou Dynasty after cutting down the Zhou Dynasty.
The "Left Biography" records: "King Keshang of Wu moved Jiuding to Luoyi. ”
Obviously, after the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty, the Jiuding royal system was still continued, and the capital was prepared to be established in Luoyi.
In later historical documents, Jiuding appeared several times!
For example, the king "dingding in the eucalyptus", the king of Chuzhuang "asked for the ding" Zhou Jiang, the qin xingshi "asked for the nine dings", the king of Qin Wu held the ding "died of absolute limbs", and the king of Qin Zhao "took the nine treasures".
Then later in the "Records of History", it was recorded that in the last year of the Warring States, the rule of the Zhou Dynasty existed in name only, and in 256 BC, King Qin Zhao destroyed the Western Zhou and obtained the Nine Ding Treasures.
Regrettably, since then, there has been no record of Jiuding, whether it is hidden or annihilated, it is unknown!
So far, the Xia Dynasty has a history of 4,000 years, what exactly does Jiuding look like, and what is its size? Nowadays, it is difficult to know, we can only glimpse its shape and size from the excavated Bronze Ding of the Xia Shang Zhou Period!