History >Cultural Relics and Archaeology
Houmuwu Tripod
Houmuwu Tripod, whose full name as "Houmuwu Rectangular Tripod" was the biggest and heaviest bronze object ever unearthed in the world, enjoying a good reputation as "the treasure of the whole country". It's Chinese "Level 1" articraft, was unearthed in An’yang, Henan province in March 1939. It was made by Zu Geng or Zu Jia, the king of Shang Dynasty for his mother Wu. It is representative of bronze culture in Shang and Zhou Dynasty and it is kept in the National Museum of China.
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The Biggest Bronze Ware in China – the Simuwu Great Tripod

The bronze wares were prevalent during the Shang and Zhou Dynasties of ancient China, which ranges from the 16A.D.to the 221B.C. well, it must be made clear to calligraphers who take great interest in the Chinese Bronze Culture and who’d like to learn Chinese in China that the bronze wares were only reachable for the imperial families as important sacrificial vessels, resembling the authority and power, and the Tripods made during that period are regarded to be the national treasure. The Simuwu Great Tripod is a typical representative of the bronze wares of the Shang Dynasty, which is the biggest bronze ware ever evacuated in China, the Simuwu Great Tripod reaches 1.33 meters high, and weighs about eight hundred and seventy five kilograms, to study Chinese in China, the famous Simuwu Great Tripod is a general knowledge to be understood. Readers who take great interest in the Chinese Bronze Culture and who’d like to study Mandarin in China, after taking a close look at the Simuwu Great Tripod, would find that the abdominal wall of the tripod is as thick as a wall, and the wide and thick ears are decorated with patterns of a tiger’s biting of a human being, there were thunder motifs covering the main body of the tripod, and the four horns are decorated with the beast face veins. What will also glut the historians who take great interest in the Chinese Bronze Culture and who’d like to learn Chinese in China’s eyes is the epigraphs casted on the abdominal wall, which reads “simuwu”, the whole art piece will provide the viewers with a strong sense of martial grandeur. Readers who want to study Chinese in China can be quite interested about the evacuation of the Simuwu Great Tripod, well; it was discovered in the farm fields in the Anyang town, Henan province during the March, 1939. It is also interesting to be discovered by the metallurgists who take great interest in the Chinese Bronze Culture and who’d love to study Mandarin in China that the evacuation of the Simuwu Great Tripod was during the Anti-Japanese War, in order to avoid plundering from the Japanese troops, the local people reburied it under earth. However, when it came to evacuation during the June, 1946, one of its ears had been lost, and as can be predicted by archeologists who take great interest in the Chinese Bronze Culture and would like to learn Chinese in China the Simuwu Great Tripod was transported to the Chinese Historical Museum of Beijing which was completed in 1959 for collection. As to the function of the Simuwu Great Tripod, readers who’d love to study Chinese in China can infer from its inscriptions that the bronze ware was constructed by the Shang Emperor in sacrificial for his mother. The Simuwu Great Tripod had manifested the bronze casting techniques of the Shang Dynasty, and as can be inferred from its vestiges of casting by those historians and archeologists who take great interest in the Chinese Bronze Culture and would like to take a field trip to study Mandarin in China, the Simuwu Great Tripod must have had been casted with twenty moulds simultaneously. The Simuwu Great Tripod not only manifested the grand scale of the ancient bronze-casting sites, but also had demonstrated for historians and archeologists, who take great interest in the Chinese Bronze Culture and would like to take a field trip to learn Chinese in China that the planning and organizing operations and levels of production management had reached a high level. The accomplishments of the Simuwu Great Tripod are manifold, since for the metallurgists, the advanced casting techniques of ancient China are sparkling, and for the artists the essences painting languages summarized from the motifs are useful and suggestive, it can be seen by scholars who’s love to study Chinese in China that the value of the Simuwu Great Tripod are indeed deep-going. What’s more, for readers who would like to study Mandarin in China, the historians could discover crucial tangible evidences for important historical data, and the calligraphers would put stress on the artistic values in the written language of the Shang Dynasty. Indeed, even for different people of different fields and professions, the Chinese Bronze wares resemble employable encyclopedias for constant investigation.

chinese bronze-Simuwu Ding

March 19, 1939 unearthed in the suburb of Anyang, Henan Province, within the body due to tripod cast of "Simuwu" named after the words, is the Shang Dynasty bronze masterpiece, now in the possession of China National Museum of History.Currently, the National Bo Ding text of this brand name is "Ding E stepmother."The tripod shape majestic, 832.84 kg. 133 cm high, 110 centimeters long mouth, mouth wide and 79 cm, is by far the largest and most important unearthed bronze.Ding rectangular body, a thick rim, straight side profile, revealing the momentum can not be shaken,Stepmother E utmost ears, belly side, quadruped hollow, in addition to the body tripod is no decoration on all sides of the rectangular central plain, the other decorations around the Jieyou,Ding stepmother E ROYAL weighing equipment should be its shape, decoration, crafts have reached a very high level. Is the peak period of the Shang Dynasty bronze culture masterpiece March 19, 1939 unearthed in the suburb of Anyang, Henan Province, within the body due to tripod cast of "Simuwu" named after the words, is the Shang Dynasty bronze masterpiece, now in the possession of China National Museum of History.Currently, the National Bo Ding text of this brand name is "Ding E stepmother."The tripod shape majestic, 832.84 kg. 133 cm high, 110 centimeters long mouth, mouth wide and 79 cm, is by far the largest and most important unearthed bronze.Ding rectangular body, a thick rim, straight side profile, revealing the momentum can not be shaken,Stepmother E utmost ears, belly side, quadruped hollow, in addition to the body tripod is no decoration on all sides of the rectangular central plain, the other decorations around the Jieyou,Ding stepmother E ROYAL weighing equipment should be its shape, decoration, crafts have reached a very high level. Is the peak period of the Shang Dynasty bronze culture masterpiece

Yin Ruins at Anyang

Site of the capital city of the late Shang Dynasty Location: Anyang, Henan Province Period: 1250-1050 BC Excavated: from 1928 to the present. Significance: The excavations of Yin Ruins have provided rich and crucial materials for the study of the history of the late Shang Dynasty. Introduction Yin Ruins is the capital city's ruins of the late Shang Dynasty, which controlled China from 1300 BC to 1046 BC. The total area is about 24 square kilometers. Yin Ruins is the key cultural relics unit under the government's protection. Yin Ruins enjoys a high reputation because of its unique styled and large-scale palace construction and its grandest mausoleums. After 60 years of archaeological excavations, starting in the 1920s, the ruins of palaces, temples, workshops, tombs and sacrificial pits have been found in this site. The existence of the site was verified by inscriptions on bones and tortoise shells (the oracle bones) unearthed in nearby Xiaotun Village in 1899. Over 150,000 oracle inscriptions, including over 5,000 different characters have been excavated in the Ruins. These characters are the oldest ever found in China. Unearthed relics also include a large number of oracle bone inscriptions, delicate bronze ware, jade and ivory articles, production tools and articles for daily use. The most famous among them is the Simuwu Tripod, the largest piece of bronze ware relic of that time ever found in the world, weighing 875 kg. It shows the high level of craftsmanship and economic and cultural development of the late Shang Dynasty. The late Shang Dynasty, which made Yin Ruins as its capital, was China's first dynasty with written historic record and proved by oracle. Its significant value in history, science, art and culture is well known and has profound influences.

Knowledge Graph
Examples

1 The lip edge of Simuwu Ding is very thick, and its outline is square and straight, appearing an unshakable vigor.

2 A ton of metal material and a huge smelter are needed to cast such grand bronze ware. Simuwu Ding completely shows the production scale and technical level of bronze casting industry in the Shang Dynasty, and it is the representative work of the bronze culture in its heyday in the Shang Dynasty and is also an extremely precious national treasure of China.

3 Simuwu Ding, excavated in Anyang Yin Ruins in Henan Province, is the heaviest ancient bronze ware in the world by now, which is named for the three Chinese characters "Si Mu Wu" carved on the belly of the vessel.