Cultural Relic: Square Ding with Nipple Design

Maybe you have already heard of ding, a tool for cooking and preserving meat in ancient time, as a kind of famous Chinse cultural relics. Today, we are gonna introduce more information about it to you.

Shaped like a square dou, a measure for grain in old China, and decorated with taotie and nipple motifs, this ding is the largest of early Shang’s weighty bronze wares discovered so far.

There were round ding with conical legs and square ding with columnar legs in early Shang. Both feature thin wallsand hollow legs opening into the body of the vessel.

In late Shang, the square ding evolved to one with a rectangular body and upright handles or side ears, and the round ding to one with splendid and elaborate design and three round colummar legs beautifully balanced with two handles.

The square ding of early Western Zhou was basically the same as that of Shang, but became obsolete by the middle of Western Zhou. The round ding of Western Zhou had hoof-like instead of columnar legs, a widened body with maximum width in the lower rather than middle part, and usually a long inscription.

Copyright: A Journey into China’s Antiquity– Chinese History in Cultural Relics, Blossom Press

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