Da He ding

Not to be confused with Da Ke ding.

The Da He ding or Da He fangding (Chinese: 大禾方鼎; pinyin: Dà Hé fāngdǐng) is an ancient Chinese bronze rectangular ding vessel from the late Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC). Unearthed in Tanheli, Ningxiang, Hunan in 1959, it is on display in the Hunan Museum. Uniquely decorated with a high-relief human face on each of its four sides, it is the only known ancient Chinese bronze cauldron to use human faces as decoration.^[1][2]

Da He ding
Material	Bronze
Height	38.5 cm
Created	c. 1300 BC
Discovered	1959 Hunan, China
Present location	Changsha, Hunan, China

Description

Bronze inscription inside the vessel: Da He (大禾)

The Da He ding is named for the inscription in bronzeware script on its interior wall, which reads "Da He" (Chinese: 大禾), or "Great Grain".^[1][2] Judging by the inscription, it may have been used during sacrifices for harvest.^[1] Although the Da He ding was discovered in the southern Yangtze region, its inscription closely resembles those found in the core Zhongyuan region of the Shang dynasty.^[3]

The ding is rectangular, with four legs, a common shape during the late Shang.^[4] It is 38.5 centimetres (15.2 in) high, and its opening measures 29.8 centimetres (11.7 in) by 23.7 centimetres (9.3 in), which is slightly larger than its bottom.^[1][2]

The most unique feature of the vessel is that each of its four sides are decorated with a dominant human face in high-relief, which is not found in any other ancient Chinese bronzeware.^[1][2] Around the faces are small symbolic decorations of horns and claws, indicating a half-human, half-animal nature of the figures. There are many speculations regarding the identity of the figures, including ancient mythological figures such as Taotie, Zhurong, Chiyou, and the four-faced Yellow Emperor. They may also represent Nuo masks or local ancestral deities.^[2]

Discovery

The Da He ding was unearthed in 1959 at Tanheli (now an archaeological park) in Huangcai Town, Ningxiang County, Hunan Province. A peasant digging in his field accidentally discovered the vessel and sold it as scrap metal. This was during the Great Leap Forward, when backyard furnaces were numerous in China.^[2] It was sorted and sent to a scrap copper warehouse in Changsha, the capital of Hunan. An employee from the Hunan Museum who was posted at the warehouse to rescue cultural relics, spotted a broken piece from the vessel. He searched the warehouse for the remaining parts, eventually locating more than ten pieces, only missing one leg and the bottom. The pieces were reassembled by Zhang Xinru (张欣如), a bronze repair expert at the Hunan Museum. The missing leg was also found two years later and put back on the vessel.^[2]

Gallery

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  Da He ding
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  From another angle
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  Da He ding
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  Closeup view of the human face

References

1. "商大禾人面纹方鼎——禁止出国（境）展览文物" (in Chinese). Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. 2014-12-05. Retrieved 2018-02-23.
2. "大禾人面纹方鼎" (in Chinese). Hunan Museum. Retrieved 2018-02-23.
3. Wen Fong, ed. (1980). The Great Bronze Age of China: An Exhibition from the People's Republic of China. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 375. ISBN 978-0-87099-226-1.
4. Chen Ya (31 August 2013). 艺术欣赏 (in Chinese). 中国财政经济出版社. pp. 188–9. ISBN 978-7-5095-4688-8.