The Si Mu Wu Ding during school days was called the Hou Mu Wu Ding
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The Houmuwu Ding (originally named Simuwu Ding) is also known as the Houmuwu Large Square Ding or Houmuwu Square Ding. The original artifact was unearthed in Anyang, Henan, in March 1939; it was created by King Zugeng or King Zujia of the Shang dynasty as an offering to their mother Wu. It is a representative work of the bronze culture from the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and is currently housed in the **Museum of China. The Houmuwu Ding is named after the three characters “Houmuwu” cast on its inner wall. It has a rectangular shape, with a mouth length of 112 centimeters, a mouth width of 79.2 centimeters, walls that are 6 centimeters thick, and a total height including the handles of 133 centimeters. Its weight is 832.84 kilograms. The body of the ding is adorned with thunder pattern motifs as its base, while coiled dragons and taotie patterns are carved in relief around it, reflecting the extremely high level of craftsmanship and artistic skill in Chinese bronze casting. The Houmu Wu Ding was first unearthed by local people; due to its large size, it was buried again to prevent the Japanese from taking it. It was unearthed again in June 1946 and is housed at the Nanjing Central Museum. In 1959, the bronze ding was transferred from Nanjing to Beijing and has since been housed in the newly built Museum of Chinese History (now the ** Museum of China). After research and verification, the inscription on the inner wall of the ding, “Houmu Wu,” is the temple name of Fu Jin, one of King Wu Ding of the Shang dynasty’s consorts. The Houmuwu Ding was cast using the clay mold method. To produce it during the late Shang Dynasty, at least 1,000 kilograms of raw materials were required, and its creation demanded the close cooperation of around two to three hundred craftsmen. Tests have shown that the ding contains 84.77% copper, 11.64% tin, and 2.79% lead, which is roughly consistent with the copper-tin ratio recorded in ancient texts regarding the production of such vessels. The Houmu Wu Ding is the largest and heaviest bronze ritual vessel ever unearthed in the world, and it is known as the \"treasure that safeguards the nation.\" It is now a **Grade 1 cultural relic, and was included in the list of cultural relics prohibited from being exhibited abroad in 2002.
Just like the nine planets that were taught back then, their number was reduced to eight; Pluto was classified as a dwarf planet
According to the China Cultural Relics Website, the Si Mu Wu Ding is the largest and heaviest bronze ritual vessel known from ancient China. Inscriptions are engraved on the inner wall of its belly; it was traditionally believed that these inscriptions indicated that the vessel was created for sacrifices to Si Mu Wu. In the 1970s, the academic community proposed new interpretations of the inscriptions on the Si Mu Wu Ding, interpreting “Si” as “Hou”. Because the script style of the Shang Dynasty was relatively flexible, it could be written in regular form or reversed form. “\"Hou\" here refers to the identity of the tomb owner; it is appropriate to interpret it as \"empress\" in this context.
It is now a **Grade 1 cultural relic, and was included in the list of cultural relics prohibited from being exhibited abroad in 2002. Invaluable!
The treasure that safeguards the nation – how could it leave the country?
Didn’t the simplified character for “later” exist during the Shang Dynasty?
This name change has a bit of a stepmother vibe to it. . . . . .