Houmu Peng Da Fang Ding (formerly known as Si Mu Peng Ding) is the largest bronze ware unearthed in the world today, and is a bronze Fang Ding used for royal sacrifices in the late Shang Dynasty of China (about 16th century BC to 11th century BC). It is full of the history and culture of China's Shang Dynasty, but also full of puzzles.
The discovery of Yin Ruins made Anyang, Henan, famous overnight, and scholars from all over the world came one after another, which made local farmers gradually realize the great value of cultural relics, and "treasure hunting" became their favorite thing to do in their spare time. In March 1939, Wu Peiwen, a villager in Wuguan Village, found a huge Statue of Fang Ding during a "treasure hunt". He secretly organized dozens of people and secretly dug fang Ding out. However, the news of Fang Ding's excavation reached the ears of the Japanese army.
After that, Wu Peiwen spent 20 oceans to buy a bronze forgery from an antique dealer and hid it in his family's Kang Cave. Soon after, the Japanese soldiers and puppet troops entered the village again, rushed straight into the backyard of the Wu family, opened Wu Peiwen's sleeping kang, and snatched the fake bronze. However, the Japanese still keep an eye on Wu Peiwen's whereabouts and continue to search for him. In order to protect Dading's safety, Wu Peiwen secretly entrusted Dading to his brothers and took refuge away from his hometown until the victory of the Anti-Japanese War. In order to protect the national treasure, Wu Peiwen and other villagers transferred the burial place three times in the Wu family compound, and finally buried it in the east house of the Wu family compound to avoid being plundered by the Japanese.
It was not until the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression that Fang Ding reappeared in June 1946 and was transported to Nanjing as a birthday gift for Chiang Kai-shek's 60th birthday. This huge Fang Ding is the world-famous Stepmother Peng Da Fang Ding.
In 2005, Dading returned to Anyang", and Wu Peiwen, who was 83 years old, finally met With Dading again after 59 years at the entrance of Yin Xu. At a glance, he recognized Dading as "when the soldiers are in chaos, and when the country is rich and the people are strong when they are goodbye." The old man always felt that protecting Dading from falling into the hands of the Japanese was the most valuable thing he had done in his life. On that day, as the discoverer and protector of Dading, he was licensed to touch Dading.
The Hindustrogen is 133 cm high, 110 cm long, 78 cm wide and weighs 875 kg, with a rectangular abdomen, two vertical ears on the top, four cylindrical feet underneath, and dense stripes in many places on the body. According to research, houmu peng dafangding is the largest bronze ware found in the world. In the Shang Dynasty, where technology was relatively backward, how was this huge bronze fangding cast?
Some people believe that the stepmother Peng Da Fang Ding is not cast as a whole. The craftsmen cast the ding-ear, ding-foot and ding-body respectively, and then fused several parts together to form the final dafang ding. At that time, craftsmen smelted bronze from ceramic crucibles, and each crucible could only melt more than a dozen kilograms of copper. After casting such a behemoth as the Mother Peng Da Fang Ding, it takes hundreds of people to operate more than 70 crucibles at the same time to melt copper casting, which is very difficult and the failure rate is extremely high. Therefore, it can only be cast separately.
It is also believed that the houmu penta dafangding is cast as a whole. The craftsmen first made the shape of a ding from clay, then smelted copper juice, and poured the copper juice into the mold along the three dingzu mouths, leaving only one dingzu mouth to exhaust. After the body is cast, the ear is cast from the mouth above. Archaeologists have found a huge site of casting in Anyang, showing that the Shang Dynasty already had the technology to cast huge bronze dings as a whole, which also indirectly proves that the Houmu Peng Dafang Ding was cast as a whole.
"Si" or "Hou", because in the late Shang dynasty of the casting division (hou) mother, there were positive and negative generalizations in both oracle bones and gold characters.
That is to say, the glyph in the inscription that looks like "Si" is actually a variant of "Hou". It is precisely for this reason that the naming of si (hou) mother Peng Ding has been in controversy from the beginning.
In 1946, the paleographer Zhang Feng published an article in the Central Daily entitled "Interpretation of the Fangding Inscription Unearthed in Anyang Military Officer Village", arguing that the inscriptions in Dading should be interpreted as "Simu E", a view that was later officially adopted.
However, although the official collection agency has always adopted the name "Simu Pengding", the debate has never stopped.
Opponents question the name "Simu Pengding" on the grounds that in addition to the glyphs, "Si" can also be interpreted as "Hou", but more importantly, many scholars believe that from the interpretation of the meaning of the inscription, "Houmu Pengding" is also more reasonable than "Simu Pengding".
Interpreting the inscription as "Simu E", it is generally believed that the "Si" here is the same as "祀", and the meaning of the inscription is "sacrifice mother E". However, this interpretation does not conform to the convention of the content of bronze inscriptions, and in the bronze inscription system of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, which indicates the author or recipient of the instrument, there was no sentence form of moving-object relationship.
However, if it is interpreted as "post-mother", it is completely in line with the convention. In 2010-2011, the National Museum officially renamed the original "Simu Pengding" to "Houmu Pengding" in a catalogue and special exhibitions.
Although the National Museum has renamed "Simu Pengding" to "Houmu Pengding", it cannot be regarded as conclusive because there is still a large element of speculation in the basis of its name change.
As a result, the new name "Stepmother" has not been universally accepted, and controversy in the academic community continues.
Casting such a huge bronze square requires a lot of manpower and resources. So, who is the owner of the stepmother Peng Da Fang Ding? Why did people cast such a huge square for it?
There is an inscription with the words "Houmu Peng" on the inner wall of the abdomen of the Houmu Peng Da Fang Ding, which is why Fang Ding got its name. "E" is the name of a person, and "post-mother E" refers to the mother queen named E. Archaeologists went through a large number of oracle bone materials and found four Shang Dynasty kings named E, namely Taiding, Wuding, Zujia, and Wuyi. After preliminary investigation, archaeologists first excluded Tai Ding and Wu Yi. So which Shang King's wife, this Queen E, is Wu Ding and Zu Jia? The staff began further research.
Simu Xinding
Archaeologists have found numerous royal tombs in the Yin Ruins. In one of the large tombs, a bronze Fangding statue was also excavated, which was named Simu Xinding. The alloy ratio of Simu Xinding and Houmu Peng Da Fang Ding is extremely similar, and one can conclude that the two originated in the same era. Simu Xinding's master was a good woman, and according to historical records, she was the wife of Wuding, the King of Shang. Therefore, it is believed that E is also The wife of Wu Ding.
Archaeologists have identified the owner of the stepmother Peng Da Fang Ding, but a new mystery has emerged. According to the oracle bones and relevant historical records, Nühao was an extremely important figure in the Shang Dynasty, presiding over sacrifices, organizing hunting, and even leading soldiers to fight. However, the Fang Ding cast for her weighed only more than 100 kilograms.
The stepmother Pengding on display in the exhibition hall of the National Museum of China
In the oracle bones and various historical materials, people can not find any record of E's great achievements. Why did the stepmother Peng Dafangding cast for her weigh more than 800 kilograms? According to the provisions of the Shang Dynasty, E's contribution to the country should be far greater than that of women. Is the relevant historical information missing? Or is there some other secret that no one knows? This mystery still awaits archaeologists to solve.