Houmuwu ding

The Houmuwu ding, also called Simuwu ding , is a rectangular bronze ding (sacrificial vessel, one of the common types of Chinese ritual bronzes) of the ancient Chinese Shang dynasty. It is the heaviest piece of bronzeware to survive from anywhere in the ancient world. It was unearthed in 1939 in Wuguan Village, Anyang, Henan, near Yinxu, the site of the last Shang dynasty capital.

Owner
The naming of bronze ware generally follows this principle. The last character is usually the type of the ware, such as Ding, Dou, Hu, Pan, Zun, etc. Since this bronze ware is a Ding, it is called XX Ding. The specific type of Ding depends on whether the ware has an inscription. If there is an inscription, the character in the inscription that can reflect the name of the owner of the ware is used as the name of the Ding. There are a total of three characters inscribed on this large Ding.

The ding is named for the inscription in bronze ware script on the interior wall, which reads "Queen Mother Wu". This is the temple name of Fu Jing, queen and primary wife of Wu Ding. The ding was made after her death, presumably by her son, Zu Geng of Shang. Whilst the ding itself was unearthed in 1939, in Wuguan Village (五官村), Anyang City, Henan Province, Fu Jing's tomb (tomb 260 at Yinxu) was not located until 1959, and was found to have been looted.

Discover
The Ding was unearthed in Anyang, Henan in 1939.In October 1946, after an on-site interview by reporter Shao Shenzhi, it was confirmed to be a bronze vessel from the Shang Dynasty.The inscription was interpreted as "Queen Wu" or "Wife Wu".In November, scholar Zhang Feng interpreted the inscription as "Simu Wu". It was named "Simu Wu Large Square Ding". In 1959, Guo Moruo believed that "Si" is the same as "Si", which means that the tripod was cast by Wu's son to worship his mother. So it was named "Simu Wu Ding".

Description
The ding is of the rectangular type, with four legs. It is 133 cm high, 110 cm wide, 79 cm deep, and weighs 832.84 kg. Compared to earlier ding, such as the Duling rectangular ding, it is wider and its walls are thicker, making it much more massive. Each side has a blank space in the middle, surrounded by a band of decoration featuring taotie (animal faced creatures) and kuilong (one-legged dragons). There are two handles, each decorated on the exterior with two tigers facing each other, their jaws closing around a human head in between them, an image which is also found on Fu Hao battle axes.

The Ding is the largest and heaviest bronze ware discovered in ancient China so far. It is the only one of its kind in the world and is a representative work of Shang Dynasty bronze ware.

Inscription debate
The inscription was originally written as sīmǔwù (司母戊), but since the 1970s scholars have reached the consensus that the first character should be read as hou, which is the horizontal reflection of si (司), which is found in oracle bone script before. The National Museum of China has officially corrected its name. The original reading of the inscription would have meant that the owner of the ding was a wife of Wu Yi of Shang (reigned c. 1147–1112 BC), and the dedicator her son, Wen Ding (reigned c. 1112–1102 BC). However, understanding the first character as hou makes it the temple name of Fu Jing, who lived earlier.

“HOU” explanation in ShuowenJiezi is: "The successor of the emperor". The successor of the emperor is the legitimate son who succeeds the previous emperor.